Blog #5: Huck and Peer Pressure

I think Huck is a very weird character. He demonstrates incredible independence for a boy his age, even within just the first few chapters. He doesn’t want to be educated or learn religion or any other thing that the grownups want him to do with the exception that he does follow some rules, for example studying the bible, because he understands how important it is to those who have been good to him. This is extremely mature. He knows enough to not trust his father, which proves to be a great instinct. He is resourceful and smart. He has good morals despite what society has set as the “norm” and even how some of them judge his actions. For example, he feels bad that it is against the rules to travel with Jim and to help him escape, but he does it anyways because he sees Jim as a person! He loves adventure like any young man and enjoys their journey, but he does not ever forget how serious what he and Jim are doing is considered by the world. He knows how much trouble they could both get into and has exceptional foresight for a young man.
Despite all of these things, he is susceptible to peer-pressure from an unreliable, unpredictable friend. I understand that Twain is going for building the depths of his characters by crossing stories and books, relying on their history together and such; but by the end of Huck’s book he is no longer the same boy he was at the beginning of Tom’s book. In my opinion this is the fatal flaw that ruins the book. Tom should not be able to control Huck anymore into doing all of that nonsense to rescue Jim; Huck has grown up and changed and I truly do not believe he would have done all of that. The character of Huck grows so much but then Twain ruins him in the last plot cycle so much that his choice to go off alone at the end is almost not believable to me at that point. Someone who could be controlled in that way would not decide to just go off independently and explore the world. Further, since one of Twain’s themes in the book is the hypocrisy of society, it is almost counter-supportive to portray Huck with this weakness.
The book is hard to get through and significantly too long, but I could tolerate all of that if I could understand or even simply support the path the Huck takes from the start to the finish of the novel. I strongly dislike Tom and I am very disappointed that Twain’s portrayal of Huck is so undermined by Tom’s appearance in the end of this novel.
Becca