The Adventures of Huck Finn - Themes - morals

Question 1

Childish V Mature

Answer 1

Tom = Childish

• Selfish
• morals taught to him by society
• plays ‘games’ which are shaped by romantic traditions of the old world.

Jim = Mature
- acts on self determined morals

Huck = Stuck in the middle
- decisions he makes in the novel progress

Question 2

Ambiguous ending - what does this say about Huck?

"she's going to ------- me and ---------- me and I can't ------- it."
// Claudia ------- - -----------: "slave holding society is made up of ------- and --------- - pretending to believe in ---------------, gentleness and Christian --------- while --------, cheating and imprisoning one another.

Answer 2

adopt / sivilize / stand
Goes back on the river - back into flux of identity
- wants to live without pretence in the natural, unsettled territory in the west, where outcasts live thus renouncing civilisation.
- now is weary of his old life = he can craft a better version of himself than society can.
actors / pretenders / brotherhood / charity / killing .
Claudia Durst-Johnson thinks this Huck’s renouncing of civilisation can be explained.

Question 3

““All —— then, I’ll go to —-”—and —- it up. It was ——thoughts and —— words, but they was —-.”

Answer 3

Right / hell / tore / awful / awful / said

• moral climax of the novel - experiences and morals learnt on the river.
• represents a true break with the world around him
• Is not driven by society’s hypocritical and cruel principles and doesn’t want to end up going to everyone else’s heaven with people like that.
• Huck is burdened with society’s view.
• step to becoming his own person - the novel shows a flux of identities in his growing up to be his own person