Morality is a Journey, Not a Destination

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Children have no control over the morality systems into which they are born and raised. Children blindly trust the fundamental beliefs which are instilled in their hearts and minds by parents, siblings, teachers, friends, and various sources of entertainment and media. Notably absent from this list is church, as I believe most children no longer attend church or live in a faithful household.

Mark Twain, author of Huckleberry Finn, was born into the politics of the Antebellum South. Notably, in June 1861, 25-year-old Clemens joined the Marion Rangers, a pro-Confederate militia. He would serve only two weeks before abandoning his post. He would spend the rest of his life defending his decision to quit and staunchly proclaiming he had achieved “liberation from Confederate nationality” (Schmitz). “He [began] voting for Democratic candidates, bravely, he thought, confronting the insult, that he was a traitor, a deserter, legitimately dishonorable, unstable, that he was, au profonde, an unregenerate Southerner” (Schmitz). Twain clearly understood from his own experiences that morality is a journey and the morality of the world cannot be changed instantaneously, but Twain seems to be arguing in Huckleberry Finn that society should simply change instantaneously.

Just as Twain struggled with the morality system which he was born into, so does Huck struggle with the morality system he has been born into. A recurring theme in Huckleberry Finn is that Huck’s actions are dictated by a moral code with which he clearly disagrees, yet he continues to make decisions that are compliant with the Confederate morals but contradict his own morals. Huck often solves moral dilemmas with immoral actions, claiming that immoral actions are justified and needed to address the original problem. For example, stealing the six-thousand dollars from the King and the Duke as a solution to the King and the Duke stealing the money from Peter Wilk’s family (341). The moral climax of the book is Huck’s proclamation, “All right, the, I’ll go to hell,” but I would argue that this is not a moral climax in Huck’s life, because the statement demonstrates that Huck believes that a person cannot be both a Christian and an abolitionist – a view that is obviously false. In my opinion, the most interesting caveat of the book comes in Chapter 17 during Huck’s tenancy with the Grangerfords; Huck says he spends a considerable amount of time reading The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, which is a theological fiction and Christian allegory (278). This seemingly insignificant admission by Huck proves my point that Huck clearly understands Christian morality. Throughout the book, Huck chooses to ignore morality because ignoring morality is easier than dealing with problems.

Twain’s frustration with the immoral world is rational and justified, but the principal of societal evolution that Twain overlooked is that morality changes and develops over time, just as toddlers advance towards their teenage years and then into adulthood. Slavery as an example, it is often the younger generation that demands a change of morals in society; however, Twain has also overlooked the principal of moral regression. A current example of moral regression would be the rise of social media and its role in replacing faith with vanity and a hyper-focus on the individual. Twain’s belief that the world can simply flip a switch and become moral is flawed, because all children must test the moral systems into which they are born and walk their own path of morality. I believe that Twain would agree with me that Christians should apply orthodox scripture to modern issues to find moral solutions. The problem is that being born into a Christian household is not enough to hold the line of morality; a person must actively work at studying scripture and improving themselves in order to develop a Christian morality over time. I think that most people are not willing to soul search or improve themselves in a moral way, and this results in scripture having a diminished role in society.

In the vein of morality as a journey rather than as a destination, I am reminded of Romans 12:2 which states, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Holy Bible 682). Like Huck and Twain, a person must walk the path of morality. It is a journey that requires a great deal of time, experience, hardship, and self-reflection. In our contemporary society, conversely to the youthful Huck fighting against the long-established institution of slavery, I believe it is the older generations who have the responsibility of course correcting the wavering morality of America’s young adults.

Works Cited

Hammersmith, Kyle. “Mark Twain and Huck Finn.” ENGL34: American Realism and Naturalism. Spring 2023. Liberty University. https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/42...

Holy Bible. New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers. 2015.

Schmitz, Neil. Mark Twain in the Twenty-First Century. American Literary History, Spring, 2004, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 117-126. Oxford University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3568011

Twain, Mark. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Atlantic Editions. 2018



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