Ninetieth Century Morals vs. Huck’s Conscience



     Sometimes making a stand for what is right, especially when it is

totally against the customary beliefs of society, can never be an easy

accomplishment.





     In the novel, The Adventures Huckleberry Finn by, Mark Twain, the

main character Huck, encounters many situations involving a question of

morality. Considering the traditional protocol of his society, Huck must

choose between his conscience or public ethics. In many cases Huck goes

with his conscience, which always proves to be proper selection. Ironically,

what Huck believes in, unapproved of in the ninetieth century, is the basis of

accepted beliefs in our modern world. Huck lives with the guilt that all his

choices could be considered immoral based on his society; yet, really his

beliefs could be just in comparison to man’s conscience. Three of the major

instances in the novel when Huck’s beliefs contrast those of the ninetieth

century are when he questions the outcome of Jim, when he tries to

comprehend the concept of the feud, and when he must decide whether to

save the men on the Sir Walter Scott.



     Although Huck’s choices concerning Jim’s life can be thought to be

the moral and proper choices, Huck is pounded by his society’s teachings the

Black men are property. When Huck first escapes from Pap and sets up

camp on Jackson Island, he finds Jim has also found refuge there from the

widow and Mrs. Watson. Huck is stunned at first when Jim tells him he

escaped, because Huck knows that Mrs. Watson owns Jim, which makes him

her rightful property. “People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and

despise me for keeping mum,”(Twain 43) Huck knows that if he helped Jim

that would make him an abolitionist, which could not be accepted role in the

ninetieth century. Huck decides that he would help Jim escape, as he would

never return to the town so it wouldn’t matter if he took Jim with him. After

a long raft-ride, Huck and Jim are finally about to reach Cairo, which on their

arrival would make Jim free. With the smell of freedom, Jim rambles on

about how he would buy his wife and then steal his children. This sets off a

spark in Huck, igniting his conscience and making him very uneasy. Huck

couldn’t believe that Jim would steal property from a man that hadn’t done

him any harm. Huck then begins feeling guilty about helping Jim escape

from Miss Watson, since she had never done anything to him and didn’t

deserve for Jim to be stolen from her. At his departure for the town, on a

mission to turn Jim in, Jim leaves Huck with these words.

     “ Pooty soon I’ll be a shout’n’ for joy, en I’ll say ,

      it’s all on accounts o’ Huck; I’s a free man, en I

     couldn’t ever ben free ef it hadn’t it ben for Huck;

     Huck done it. Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s

      de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’

      ole Jim’s got now”. (Twain 86-87)

     Hearing these words, Huck realizes how much Jim’s friendship means

to him and decides not to turn in Jim. Finally, the last test of Huck’s

conscience comes when he finds out that the “king” and the “duke” have sold

Jim. Huck starts thinking about how wrong he had been to help Jim escape,

and decides he should write a letter to Miss Watson. He then changes his

mind, seeing that Jim would be worse off as a runaway slave because he

would be treated horribly, and Huck himself would always be known for

helping the runaway nigger. Then he changes his mind again, wanting to

accept the consequences of his actions, and wanting to confess his sins

because he new Providence was watching him the whole time. Huck, after

writing the letter to Miss Watson, suddenly realizes how good Jim had treated

him this whole time, rips up the letter. He makes a final to choice to rescue

Jim. In this last bout with his conscience, Huck finds out after a long and

tedious period of pointless toil, that Miss Watson had died and freed Jim,

thus making his attempt to save Jim unnecessary, as he was already free.



     The next confusion between Huck’s conscience and Ninetieth century

society came when Huck found himself at the Grangerford’s household,

amidst a long-going feud between them and a rival household, the

Shepherdson’s. The initial first-hand experience Huck encountered with the

feud occurred when he was accompanying Buck Grangerford through the

woods. When Buck engaged in a gun duel with Harney Shepherdson, Huck

was confused and later chatted with Buck about the incidence. Huck had

trouble understanding why Buck wanted to kill Harney, if Harney had never

done anything to him.

     “Did you want to kill him, Buck?” “Well, I bet I did.”

     “What did he do      to you?” “Him? He never done nothing

      to me.” “Well then, what did      you want to kill him for?”

     “Why, nothing-it’s on account of the feud.” (Twain 104)

     This question brought on a troubling conversation about the feud, a

practice that was common in the Ninetieth century. Buck didn’t understand

how Huck had never heard of a feud before, and Huck couldn’t understand

why such a practice was so common. He asks Buck what started the feud,

and Buck doesn’t know. After hearing this answer, Huck steps into an even

deeper hole of confusion, now wondering how these people could be killing

each other for over thirty years, but not even know who or what started the

quarrel. “Has this one been going on long, Buck?” “Well I should reckon! It

started thirty year ago…” “What was the trouble about Buck?-land?” “I

reckon maybe – I don’t know.” “Well who done the shooting? Was it a

Grangerford or a Shepherdson?” “Laws, how do I know? It was so long

ago.”(Twain 105) This confusion on Huck's part shows the ironic reason the

boy’s conscience possesses. He became the only person out of many

intelligent and successful individuals that can see how insensible and

passionless this common custom really is. What a waste that this young

man’s conscience hadn’t shined on more souls during this time, and it is even

more a shame that American society endured such a long period of irrational

killing and feuding.



     The last dilemma Huck goes through involving his conscience and

society, partially due to Huck’s undying curiosity, happened at the crashed

steamboat. After persuading Jim to accompany him onto the Sir Walter Scott,

a crashed steamboat, they encounter a struggle occurring between two men,

who had tied up another man. The two men were planning on leaving the

other man to die, by leaving him on the shipwrecked boat. Jim and Huck

decided to leave the boat at once, not enjoying the company of murderers.

On their way to the raft the two discover the heartbreaking news that the raft

was gone, and they would have to find other means of retreat. Rummaging

through the steamboat, Jim and Huck find the escape boat and barely get

away. As they are rowing off, Huck begins to think about the situation they

left the men in. In contrast to the customs of his society, Huck believed that

even murderers didn’t deserve to be in such a fix, stranded on a crashed

steamboat. “I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be

in such a fix.” Huck empathized for the men, imagining if he was a

murderer, and knowing that he would not want to be killed on a stranded

steamboat. So Huck decides to make up some wild yarn and tells it to a

ferryman, who instantly sails to the wreck in hope of receiving a hefty

reward. After warning the ferryman, Huck felt very comfortable with

himself. He knew that few other people in that society would have done

what he did. “But take it all around, I was feeling ruther comfortable on

accounts of taking all this trouble for that gang, for not many people would

‘a’ done it.” (Twain 73) Huck also wished that the widow could have known

about this deed, because she would have been very proud of him.

Rapscallions and dead-beats are the kinds that the widow and most good

people take the most interest in, according to Huck, and for this reason too

Huck was proud of himself for trying to save the gang. This attempt on

Huck’s part to save the gang shows how his conscience was not influenced

by the opinions of his surrounding world. He believed that no man deserves

to die no matter what crime they commit, and I believe this opinion is one of

truth and intelligence, and one that should be entrusted in every person’s soul

no matter if they are living in the Ninetieth century or today.



     This combination of the three instances shows the dramatic difference

between Huck’s conscience and the standard customs of the Ninetieth

century. Huck showed great maturity and integrity in standing up for what

he believed was the right choice. Although he believed his choices were

immoral or unethical, we now know that it was quite the opposite, as the

moral standards of this time were in essence the unethical choices and

Huck’s were the proper choices. Huck could see the importance of

friendship over possessions, and risked his life saving a run-away slave

because of the uncomfortable emptiness he would experience had he turned

in Jim. This portrayal of childhood knowledge can be examined in today’s

society also. People grow to be prejudiced against certain types of people,

just as Huck was as he was growing up. Luckily, Huck overcame this inborn

prejudice by examining what really counts in life, and this is a lesson that

everyone, from previous societies to today, needs to listen to.