Huck Finn's Coming of Age Essay

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After striking off down the river, he has many encounters with various townspeople that cause him to question whether or not this is a society he truly wants a place in. Two of the most memorable characters he meets are the King and the Duke, who do nothing but swindle the people they meet and attempt to control Huck. They even sell Jim, and Huck determines to leave them. This is one of many instances that Huck leaves the adults in his life, and though these two are not exactly responsible adults, this still shows his growing independence.

One of the most poignant events in the novel that truly illustrates Huck's wisdom as an adult comes during his final encounter with the Duke and the King. Some of the townspeople that the pair has swindled have achieved their revenge by tarring and feathering the two, then riding them out of town on a rail. Despite all of the things that the two have done to Huck and to others, Huck's sympathy still extends to them, and he reflects on how "Human beings can be awful cruel to one another" (Twain, 306). Huck realizes that even bad people have a certain human dignity that should not be impinged upon by society.

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This shows that Huck has moved past the selfishness and sense of "an eye for an eye" that typifies childhood, and into the more carefully considered and measured concepts and sympathies that arrive, sometimes, with adulthood.

At the end of the novel Huckleberry Finn decides to "light out for the Territory ahead of the rest," rather than stay behind in civilization (Twain, 388). Huck has grown up, but society hasn't, and he sees no place for a real man in such a world.

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