Consistently throughout the story, Huck is able to have to make decisions and actions in the moral positive, but a caveat or two prevents it from being morally complete. The first time Huck rescues Jim from being caught, Huck internally argues the right decision. The first time that Huck decides to return the stolen money to the the Phelps daughters, he tries to save his own back by keeping his cover clear until he sees one of the Phelps daughters cry. Huck decides to use any means necessary using the rescue of Jim to justify those means. He has proven himself a strong protagonist, particularly through his own making, but Why is it that Huck ends up making the right moral decision that are just a few wrongdoings from being morally whole? Twain may perhaps suggest that the road to determining your moral scope is an awkward one, particularly when you have to do it for yourself. The pendulum like qualities of Huck, constantly swinging but headed in the right path, stands symbolic to the many of the moral dialogues that America has had in its dawn, much of which have a strong presence throughout the narrative, particularly that of slavery. In this regard, Huck’s influencable nature represents the fragility of autodidactic moral direction. There are indisputable universal moral truths that are apparent to those that have not habituated to perpetuating morally repugnant behavior, like societally marginalized Huck. But when there are no institutions to explicitly spell these truths out, one is left to figure these out for oneself. Huck’s moral evolution is a trial and error process and a few eggs have been broken in order to make his moral omelette complete.
Andy, Thomas, and Ryan
