Huck Finn Post 1

            Thus far in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck has proven himself to be a rebellious, trusting, and fairly humble boy. Here in the beginning of his story, Huck seems to be somewhat simple minded, because of his poor upbringing by his drunkard of a father and little exposure to how people who live a more settled life behave. Although he instinctually resents the efforts of the Widow Douglas to civilize him and give him an education, he is still appreciative of her taking him in and giving him a home. Huck does seem to have a good sense of right and wrong, but his role model unfortunately is his friend Tom Sawyer, a liar and want-to-be thief. This fact occasionally gets Huck into trouble. Huck has shown himself to be somewhat too trusting, even gullible, because he often believes every word that comes out of the mouth of a notorious liar, Tom Sawyer; even things that seem preposterous or make no sense. “He said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians, and they had turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday school. I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was go for the magicians” (Twain 22).

            One thing that plays a big part in Huck’s life is his strong belief in anything superstitious. He allows these beliefs to effect his behavior, and they often can cause him great alarm. “I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadn’t no confidence. You do that when you’ve lost a horseshoe that you’ve found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn’t ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you’ve killed a spider” (Twain 13). Huck could also be described as somewhat selfish during this period of the story. He always seems to keep his own self interest and enjoyment foremost in his endeavors. Because he has experience at living on his own, Huck is more independent than most boys would be at his age and is quite capable of taking care of himself. This seems to give him some measure of confidence in his thinking, occasionally leading him to believe that he usually has the right of things.