Essay | The Maturing of Huckleberry Finn

In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck did a great deal of growing up. In the beginning, an impudent, yet, typical southern boy, Huck is now well on his way to adolescence, even maturity.

As the book opens, and the adventures first unfold, Huck lived mainly in the shadows of his father and Tom Sawyer. Throughout the whole book, Huck tried to escape his father, just as almost everything he did, he thought of how Tom would have done better. In subtle hints, Mark Twain reminds both Huckleberry Finn and us "this is what Pap would've done." Huck never had a chance to clear his mind of his father after running away. Jim, in some way, replaced this fatherly figure Huck needed, but the scar was too deep to heal quickly. It was almost as if Huck was turning back from...
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