Internal Conflicts of Huckleberry Finn

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Mark Twain, the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, said: “Huck finn is a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.” In this quote Mark Twain explains what role his main character, Huckleberry Finn, plays in his book. Mark uses the character of Huckleberry Finn to teach an important lesson, involving Huck’s internal conflicts; he attempts to imply that sometimes a decision that appears morally right, can be the wrong decision to make. Huck’s deformed conscience is conjured by his childhood, a childhood filled with racism. As Mark explains as the sound heart of Huck, he means Huck’s internal and personal judgments that come from Huck’s experiences with Jim throughout the book. In the book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s conscience and sound heart are constantly at battle; making it extremely difficult for Huck to make decisions, and to determine what is right and wrong. What is the definition of conscience? “The awareness of moral or ethical aspects of one’s conduct together with an urge to prefer right over wrong; a moral judgment”. Your conscience is uncontrollably shaped by your surroundings: society, family, friends, schooling and so much more. Huck grew up around the idea that you should never be afraid of a black person, due to the so called “fact” that they were below you; you had all the power over them. “I warn’t afraid of him telling the people where I was.”pg.(42) This quote is from the moment in the book where Huck first meets Jim on the island. Huck emphasizes on the word him to show that Huck believes that he is above Jim because of Jim’s placement in the world that Huck grew up in. This judgment that Huck makes, comes from his conscience, his moral judgment. Huck was raised in a racist society that believed that black people weren’t human, and weren’t worthy of equal
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