The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: An American classic novel filled with
astonishing adventures and unforgettable characters that not only make the novel stupendous, but also illustrate numerous of themes. This novel, written by Mark Twain, illustrates one particular theme: a desire for freedom. The dictionary defines freedom as “the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.” Though, the word freedom may seem like just a word, but it is more so a privilege that not everyone receives. The main characters Huckleberry Finn, a mischievous boy, and Jim, a runaway slave both have an aspiration for freedom in their lives. Through their journey together they obtain that freedom in order to escape particular hardships in society, and those hardships that they are trying to escape from, differ from each other in some way.
Huck clearly shows that his chase for freedom is to escape from the civilized world
that confines him. Huck makes his point of wanting freedom very clear when he shows his outlook on living with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. Huck states, “The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out. I got into my old rags, and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.” (Twain 1). This quote shows that Huck really hates being restricted and having rules to follow. He hates the fact that he has to be told to do things. Widow Douglas’ attempt at civilizing him makes Huck ferocious. For him, as an adventurous kid, being in a house with women who in his mind boss him around the entire time, makes him feel like living in a house with them just serves as a jail in his way of life. He wants to be free to do what he wants and when he wants to do it. He wants to have the freedom of selecting what he wishes to do. Not only does Widow Douglas try to civilize him, but Pap Finn tries to confine Huck as well. Unfortunately for Huck, he ends up being taken away by his father who was a drunkard and was never around throughout his childhood. Huck feared Pap and now he had to live with him in a cramped, lonesome cabin. In the novel Huck states, “Once he locked me in and was gone three days. It was dreadful lonesome. I judged he had got drowned and I wasn’t ever going to get out any more. I was scared. I made up my mind I would fix up some way to leave there. I had tried to get out of that cabin many a time, but I couldn’t find no way.” (Twain 18). Huck truly expresses what he is feeling inside about wanting to escape the confined place that he is in. Although Pap may not have bossed Huck around as much as Widow Douglas did, but Huck was not able to go anywhere. He was locked in both day and night. The fact