Freedom in Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Huckleberry Finn – Freedom Freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with champagne...Oh no! It's a...long distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting." -Albert Camus. The dictionary defines freedom as the condition of being free from restraints. Freedom is not just a word one can say without meaning. It is a privilege, a privilege not everyone is granted. Freedom gives the liberty to choose what should is done and how. Freedom is the capacity to exercise choice and free will. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the narrator, Huck, seeks freedom from society. Huck, a thirteen year-old boy, lives with Widow Douglass and her sister Miss Watson. He lives with them because before this he had no home, only a drunken father, whom he rarely sees. Both of the ladies attempt to civilize Huck by sending him to school and teaching him good manners. "Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said it was a mean practice and wasn't clean, and I must try to not do it any more" In this passage from chapter one you can see that Huck enjoyed doing what he pleased when he choose. "I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit." This passage is from chapter four of the book spoken by Huck. In it one can see that although Huck begins to like the civilized ways he still has a craving for his old ways, which seem u ncivilized to all. Freedom is not only having a choice but also having no restraints. The characters of the Duke and the Daphne, who were really two criminals running away, have an advantage of no restraints being given. In chapter 19 of the book, the two men introduce themselves to Huck and Jim. When they do this, they do not introduce themselves with their true identity. Because there were no restrictions, they could not only befriend Jim and Huck but also trick them. "He told them he was a pirate-been a pirate for thirty years out in the Indian Ocean-and his crew was thinned out considerable last spring in a fight, and he was home now to take out some fresh men, and thanks goodness he'd been robbed last night.