The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, shows how a young boy can grow and mature through time. Huckleberry Finn faces many challenges that he must over come. He is able to learn many lessons while over coming these challenges. The lessons he learns will help him to become a mature young boy. While he grows and develops throughout the novel, he realizes the true meaning to life.

When the novel starts off, Huck is definitely an immature little boy. He doesn't realize the difference between right and wrong. He does not like to listen to what other people have to say. All kids go through a stage where they think they know it all, and Huck seems to be going through that now. Huck thinks it would be funny to put a snake in Jim's bed and see what happens. Little does Huck know that it wouldn't work out as planned. The snake ends up biting Huck. Huck thinks that playing jokes are fun, so one day when it was foggy out, he hides from Jim. Jim gets very nervous and doesn't know what to do. Huck notices what he did was wrong, and apologies to Jim for his childish behavior. Huck realizes that jokes are meant for certain times and certain places. Huck begins to mature a little more as the novel goes on. When he sees the King and the Duke trying to scam the Wilks family, he knows that he should not get involved in helping them out. He goes against the King and the Duke and helps out the Wilks girls. He knows if he doesn't help the girls out they may be in jeopardy. In order to help the girls out, he takes the money from the King and Duke and hides in the the coffin. Huck realizes that the scams the King and Duke are performing are rude and unfair to everyone, so he tries his best to stop them. This is a big step for him in his maturity. When he sees the King and Duke getting tarred and feathered, he felt very bad for them. He knew they had deserved it and there was nothing he could do for them other then feel sorry. He is becoming an amicable and benevolent man. Huck gained the courage to leave behind him all that the King and Duke had done. By this point in the novel, it is clear the Huck has matured into a young man.

Throughout Huck's whole adventure, he has to disguise himself at some points to try to find out some information. In order to find out what people are saying about him and Jim he dresses up as a girl and goes into town. He talks to some girl about how Jim is suspected in Huck's murder. Then she tells him that her husband saw a fire on Jackson Island and thinks the slave is there, so he is going to go find him that night. All of a sudden the women Huck is talking to realizes that she is talking a boy dressed as a girl, but doesn't know it is Huck. Huck comes up with some lame story and she believes it. While Huck is trying to free Jim from the Phelps house, he pretends to be Tom Sawyer. When he meets Aunt Sally, she thinks that he is Tom so he decides to play along. Suddenly