Huck Finn Post #1

Throughout the first ten chapters of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck's personality is immediately shown through the text. Huckleberry Finn was not raised in a way most normal children are. With no mother or father and the fact that he has to live with a widow and her sister, he can seem like a rebellious boy in certain situations. He is not as uncontrollable and ignorant as it he is made out to be; certain people in his life influence him, such as his best friend Tom Sawyer. Huck has almost no responsibilities and that allows him to be a person who acts based on what he observes. The widow tries to educate Huck and to somehow make him more respectable. "Then I set down...tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead" (Twain 13). Although Huck is surrounded by people he always feels lonesome and never excepted. When he is with his father, he is forced to act la certain way, be illiterate, and just take whatever his father criticizes or beats him down with. He is forced to live his life in many different lifestyles and that is shown through his personality and by people are trying to shape him into a different person, but for the most part, all he wants is to feel some sort of acceptance.

In the beginning of the novel, Huck tries to act like a tough, stubborn, and difficult boy. Him and Tom Sawyer try to succeed on their life of crime that was mentioned in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. As the story continues, it is shown that Huck is actually an innocent and emotional person who doesn't know what he is trying to succeed in. "All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular" (12). Huck puts on the impression that he knows what he is doing and that he knows what he wants in his life, but in reality his ideas and dreams are just figments that other people have put in his head then actual wants of his own. His determination to leave the people who are trying to change him, Huck fakes his own death and leaves for Jackson's Island. This represents his cleverness and intelligence. After leaving a life of desperation and being on his own, all of these traits form a freedom loving, intelligent, and strong kid who cherishes freedom more then life itself. "...the island. I was boss of it; it all belonged to me, so to say, and I wanted to know all about it..." (46). Huckleberry Finn is an amazing literary character that seems to establish a new view on himself every chapter.