Excuse me Mr. Twain, cheating is against the student handbook
Posted by htsdatatrn in UncategorizedThroughout the entire course of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I admired Huck Finn’s moral growth. He seemed to be just an innocent kid on raft, a product of a twisted society. I truly believed that he would overcome what society wants him to be and think of Jim as a true human being. I had great ideas that his heart would win out…and boy was I wrong! I feel like Twain cheated all his readers by giving such a lackluster ending that contradicted everything he worked for in writing this novel.
I believe that Twain used this ending because he did not know what else to do, and it is clearly evident to the readers. If Huck Finn and Jim ended up staying together after Jim was free, the novel would not be accepted After all, the book was controversial enough to begin with. I believe he wrote the ending to appease his readers of the time by saying how the moral growth was just an illusion and society is absolute. In today’s standards, the ending is sort of a let down because he was trying to pacify his readers in the 1880s. Honestly, Twain expected his book to be read, and he had to have an ending that would allow it to be continually read. I find the end to be a disappointment because I live in the 21st century, a time without the issue of slavery. I wanted Huck Finn to remove himself from his deformed conscience that said slavery was right, but Twain feared (I suppose) the reaction he would receive if Huck Finn truly left the grasp of society.
Huck Finn is the product of a twisted society, and I was so hoping that he would be able defeat his conscience. When he says “I’ll go to hell” (214), I thought that he made a true change. And then my bubble was burst by the ending! Huck Finn was changed until Tom Sawyer came back and reintroduced him into society. Huck Finn follows Tom because he is educated. Apparently in that society education make you better than everyone else. If someone made a chart that showed who had a higher standard in society, Tom would be on top, then Huck Finn and finally, Jim. In terms of morality, the list is the exact opposite. Tom does not care at all about helping Jim because it is all one great adventure to him. He knows Jim is already free, but still wants to have his adventure. Huck Finn has a hint of moral integrity, but Tom’s influence takes it away. Jim has the best moral sense, due to the fact he has lived through the horrors that society inflicted upon him. When he hits his daughter, he feels terrible for being so cruel, and says “Lord God Amighty fogive po’ ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive hisself as long’s he love” (156). Jim feels the most sorrow for his wrong actions, and readers think that he probably taught Huck Finn something about his heart and mind. The ending is a disappointment because Huck Finn does not learn from Jim as I hoped he would.
The biggest disappointment is possibly that Huck Finn never does change his opinion of blacks, because he says he “knowed he [is] white inside” (276). Society has taught that whites are superior. Because Jim is black and good, he must obviously be white inside. I feel cheated because Twain never lets Huck Finn change his mind or see another side of the story. I have to wonder about the entire trip on the river after that statement. It feels like all the bonding Jim and Huck Finn went through was for nothing. They were under the delusion that Jim was in slavery, so everything they went through was also under a false cover. It seems that Huck Finn is being nice to Jim to rebel against society, but as soon helping Jim is not defying society, it is alright for Huck Finn to abandon his feelings for Jim. It all goes back to doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. I just expected more of Huck Finn than what Twain gave him.
The ending of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn left me feeling cheated because Huck Finn is just going to go off west and have another adventure. His trip down the river was merely an adventure, and he does not take away much from his time with Jim. Twain gave up by having Jim being free the entire time, so the adventure amounts to nothing. When I look at it in hindsight, Huck only changes because he does not want to be lonely. I feel cheated because the change is not true and it feels like Twain contradicts all he created through the novel with this ending.
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Agreed! It may have just been the optimist in me hoping that one of our English books might actually have a happy ending, but I had such high hopes for Huck! Like Mrs. Thomson said, through Huck, Jim was changing people’s thoughts about blacks one person at a time; he and Huck had formed a powerful friendship and had both learned a lot from each other (well, more so Huck learning from Jim, but you get the idea). And then, of course, all moral character and moral judgment was dashed against the rocks by Tom.
However, I’m not quite sure I agree with what you said about the ending. Yes, it IS odd and I can’t really say exactly why he ended it the way he did, but I doubt he just slapped an ending onto such a large story. Maybe part of his point was to tell of the way society hypnotises us into believing things that aren’t necessarily true.
OR maybe it ends the way it does to show how very, very difficult it is to “go against” society’s beliefs. Society will not tolerate a white kid who likes black people.