Yakub Saputra

History 17
Professor Carlton
7 May 2014
In Search for Alternative
Living in society with its thousand ideologies and social expectations, causes certain
independent individual to examine the truth of all those ideologies in its own antiquity. Some
independent minds are just not created to conform, thus defying in order examining become the
only way they find realistic for them to continue life. This is no difference with character
Huckleberry Finn who seems to be in a constant opposition with societys expectation. But is it
true that a boy who simply does not share the same value as society is a bad boy? Or he just tries
to learn to live life his own way? Character Huckleberry Finn implies a rebellion self who merely
wants to examine the value system he had been taught into.
In The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn is imposed to many ideas ranging from
the fictional-minded Tom Sawyer, the superstitious Jim, to the civilized devoted Christian
Widow Douglas. He is forced to emulate all these different mind-sets into his own set of
thinking. However, he seems not taking immediate reception towards those inputs; he tests every
single one of them. Lack of genuine parental affection causes him to doubt every ideology
imposed to him. According to American Psychology Association, infants [that successfully]
attach to their parents and caregivers, they learn to trust that the outside world is a welcoming
place (Infancy and Childhood, 2014). Huck has always known that he does not belong to the
house of widow Douglas and all he heard about his father was that he used to lay drunk with the
hogs in the tanyard, but he haint been seen in these parts for a year or more. Since he never
enjoyed a child-like trust to any parental figure, Huck can never rely on any beliefs other than
one he could prove to be right.
His love of nature is also evidence, that he likes better to slide out and sleep in the
woods sometimes rather than sleeping on comfort bed. It is unclear, however, whether his love
of nature actually comes from his hatred of civilizations hypocrisy, thus preferring to be in the
wilderness to avoid contact with civilized people. Or if the love of nature that is the root reason
why he prefers not to be civilized. Regardless, it is clear that he is simply not a kind of person
who enjoys settlement, deep in his psyche. Nevertheless, it is rather absurd to conclude that he is
a bad boy, because the two things are simply uncorrelated.
Despite his constant opposition towards social value, his rebelling thought is often not for
the sake of being rebellious in itself, but rather for the sake of finding a better alternative than the
one imposed to him. One good example is in the first chapter of the novel, where Miss Watson
introduces him to the concept of a good place. Huck reaction is genuine and rather innocent
and didnt mean no harm. All [he] wanted was to go somewheres; a change, warnt
particular. He himself is still on the discovery of what he really desires, in term of life
philosophy as well as of the place he actually prefers to be.
Bibliography
Infancy and Childhood. (2014, May). Retrieved from American Psychology Association:
http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/parents-caregivers.aspx?item=2#
Twain, M. (1885). The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn.