Huck Finn Essay
Uploaded by Gibran on Nov 05, 2002
Life, despite all of its intricacies, can make human beings long for the simplest things. There are pleasures in life that seem so simple yet people spend their entire lives searching for these pleasures. Perhaps the greatest pleasure of all is finding out who one really is. The discovery of where a person belongs in the world can bring great joy, but to attain that joy a journey must be completed. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story about that journey.
For Huck Finn, the journey itself is a quest for freedom and at the same time a search for identity. Huck is seeking to be free from the pious demands of society while at the same time trying to find his place in the world. Huck is attempting a search in life that every human, at one point, will attempt. These searches can only be successful if there is a journey that is successfully completed. Meaning, on that journey there must be growth on an emotional and mental level. One’s perspective of the world around him should change if the journey is rightly carried out.
In order for one to complete a journey, a course must be plotted and a navigator must be existent. The navigator in Huck’s journey is, of course, the river. It is only inevitable that the river be Huck’s guiding light simply because of what the river stands for. The river is that great symbol in Huck’s world, which represents everything pure that Huck is trying to keep intact. The river represents nature; it represents, to Huck, what should be sought after. It has not been molded or conformed by the rigors and restrains of civilization. Rather, it has withstood the test of time and is the ultimate symbol of what Huck is pursuing, which would be freedom and a true identity or knowledge of who Huck is. Therefore, Huck uses the river to complete his quest because he is familiar with the river. He has lived on it all his life and when you’re lost you try to find your way by using things you’re familiar with. Things that you can put some sort of trust in. Huck trusts that the river will help him find his freedom. Why would he use it if he didn’t trust that the river would be useful? Also, it is already known that Huck is a practical boy...