Huck Finn Post 1

Through the first ten chapters of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, much can be noted about Huck. Being brought up in a different way compared to most seems to reflect how he handles certain situations. With the absence of a mother, his father being an irresponsible drunk, and at first having to live with a widow and her sister, he can seem like a rebel in some cases. He is not entirely a troublemaker; it seems as if certain people in his life influence him at certain times, such as his father or Tom Sawyer. Without the pressures of responsibility, Huck allows himself to be a person who acts based on his surroundings. In the widow's house, he is educated and to some degree respectable, but he is very lonely. "Then I set down...tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead" (Twain 13). When he is with his father, he is forced to act like his dad, be illiterate, and subject to being beaten. His different lifestyles demonstrated show that people are trying to shape him into different personalities, but for the most part, all he wants is freedom.

In the first chapters of the novel, Huck seems like a tough, difficult to change boy. His actions with Tom Sawyer show he would like to thrive on a life of crime. As the story progresses, though, it can be revealed that he is mostly innocent and is a type of person who doesn't exactly know what he wants. "All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular" (12). Huck puts on the impression that he has his interests, but they can be lost and unsure of within a short period of time. Determined to leave, his ideas of faking his own death and leaving for Jackson's Island represent his underlying cleverness. After escaping his life of confusion and loneliness and being off on his own, all of these personalities blend together to form a carefree, interesting kid who celebrates the freedom from all pressures. "...the island. I was boss of it; it all belonged to me, so to say, and I wanted to know all about it..." (46). So far, Huck Finn is an arousing character that seems to have already established new traits just over the course of ten chapters.