Rejecting Civilization (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

In his text "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Mark Twain satirizes the "civilized" nature of American society, including racist remarks. Although most people strongly support discrimination against slaves, Huck often finds himself in contradiction with these conventional standards and beliefs. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses Huck as an example of society misusing youth and Huck showing defiance by rejecting civilization completely. 

Firstly, following years of mistreatment at the hands of his father, Huck begins to doubt humanity's Huck chooses to live with Pap rather than the Widow Douglas, who tried to civilize him by demanding that he be brought up to "eat on a plate" and "comb up" (Twain 31). Because the Widow forbids him from participating in certain activities but Pap approves of them, he believes society's "rules" are wrong. Huck, however, is unable to comprehend civilization's ideals once Pap begins to abuse him again. Huck, however, is unable to comprehend civilization's ideals once Pap begins to abuse him again. He later escapes from Pap and gets his freedom as his first act of resistance. 

Secondly, after forming a close bond with Jim, a slave of Miss Watson, Huck rebels against civilization. Like Huck, Jim runs away to get freedom and reunite with his family. Jim hopes to join Huck’s quest; however, he is torn between doing right or wrong. Despite teaching Jim about religion and Christian ideals, the widow holds slaves and demonstrates religious hypocrisy. Despite his widow's objections to him interacting with people of colour, Huck sees past Jim's skin colour and sees their connection as one worth pursuing, stating that he would rather "go to hell" than turn him in (Twain 215). Ironic practices are at the core of civilization, and Huck shows his morality by recognizing this. By shunning inequality, and not showing fear when disobeying society's conditions, Huck grows psychologically as a character. 

Conclusively, civilization is concerned with complying with society's standards and following a specific way of life, but Huck recognizes that there is no such thing as a flawless culture in humanity. I believe Huck’s choice is good since him rejecting civilization was a result of mistreatment  from his father and other people.