Morality

“Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, ME. I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay still in one place. It hadn't ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more. I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody." That was so—I couldn't get around that noway. That was where it pinched.” (100) 

      I like this passage because it really gives Huck’s character depth and gives the reader insight on Huck’s morality. At the beginning of this novel Huck is quoted saying “she told me all about the bad place, and i said i wished i was there” (10).  Within the first chapter Huck admits that he wasn’t to go to the bad place (Hell) because it sounds like fun. This shows us that at the beginning of the novel Huck is immature and didn’t put much thought into his decisions. Early in the novel Huck just dose things for the sake of being bad. He would sneak out at night to meet up with Tom where they would come up with rebellious plans. Huck also smokes when he is told not to and plays pranks on Jim. Huck is only 13 and at the beginning of the novel it is clear that he acts and thinks as such.

      This quote is important to the novel because at this point he realizes that his actions have consequences. In this passage Huck is trying to decide what the correct decision is regarding turning in Jim.  The fact that his struggling shows that he doesn't know which choice is the ‘right’ choice, but how could he. Huck is trying to do the thing that is morally right whether its turn Jim in of help him become free. The issue here is how can Huck make a moral decision when he has no moral compass.

         In the first chapter the widow is teaching Huck the tale of Moses and how he led the Jews to freedom. This moral lesion of freeing slaves is coming from the mouth of a slave owner. How is a 13 year old boy supposed to interoperate this lesion when it is so contradicting? Huck wants to see Jim a free man because they have formed such a unique bond but in the passage he still refers to him as running “off from his rightful owner”. This means that Huck still sees Jim as the widow’s property. How can Huck give Jim freedom if he is seen as property and not worthy of freedom? Huck is trying to make a decision based on morality but is mixed up in the difference between what are good and bad morals. 

         Huck also says it “made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free”. Why is he trembly and feverish? Is it because he is uncomfortable with the idea that Jim could actually become a free man? Does Huck ultimately think that freeing Jim is a morally good decision of a bad one because he is going against what ‘Sivilazation’ says is okay? Huck isn’t being a trouble maker or acting without thought of consequences anymore.He is trying to do the correct thing but does that leave him in a better place than before since he doesn’t have a moral compass to base his choices off? 

Sources

 https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2291/1806225034_3692692a61.jpg

https://www.google.com/search?q=morality&rlz=1C1TSND_enUS439US453&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=IVx9U_2RPIu9oQTX2YK4BA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=SgijVn7OKqG8MM%253A%3B-1Nm-3LsHGPyJM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fkidswithoutgod.com%252Fteens%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2013%252F02%252Fmorality1.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fkidswithoutgod.com%252Fteens%252Flearn%252Fhumanist-morality%252F%3B420%3B387

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House, 1996. Print.