During the pre-civil war era, southern America was prevalent with slavery and racism towards African Americans. As a result, young children would be exposed to the racism and generate hate directed towards the slaves. This ideology heavily influenced the protagonist, Huck, in the novel even though his natural instinct told him that the slave hunters and owners were in the wrong for their intentions towards a slave named Jim. Huck constantly second guesses himself; hence, he is unsure of what to do in most situations until he is put on the spot, then thinking impulsively, he makes the better decision.
Many times in the novel, the setting has a large negative influence on Huck through the law, the way of life, and the opinions of the other characters in the novel. Even though the setting negatively influences Huck heavily, his moral confusion leads him to making choices a normal southern boy would not make. The setting has a large influence on the law in the novel primarily because it permitted the action of slavery within the southern colonies, as well as slave-hunting of blacks whether free or runaways. For example, when Huck learns that Jim ran away from Miss Watson, he feels the immediate need to report
Jim because he knows that it lawfully was wrong for a slave to run away from their owner. If Huck was in the north, he would not have felt this desire to turn in Jim and would have been at peace with himself when traveling with Jim. Additionally, when Huck encountered the slave traders, he was confused and unsure of what to tell them about who he was traveling and he wanted to turn Jim in because it was the so-called “right” thing to do but he impulsively told them that the passengers were his family infected with smallpox.
Through this we can see that Huck is clearly influenced by the law and the repercussions he ould face from not following it. When Huck learns that Jim is trying to earn money and free himself in order to free his family, Huck softens up a little and starts to feel some empathy for Jim because he knows that Jim is a good person at heart; therefore, he does not feel the need to turn Jim in to Miss Watson. In the end, Jim was free the whole time when they were going down the river, and Jim could have worked to free his family earlier if he was not afraid of being sold down the river to another person.
This example of irony in the story is demonstrative to the fact that Huck has a needless internal battle when it should ave never happened in the first place. Secondly, the setting affects Huck through the way of life followed by people in the community because of the style that they displayed while he was among them. For example, Tom Sawyer wanted to be a robber and “ransom people to their deaths” (Twain 3) when he did not understand what he was doing, he had just read about it in books and wanted to follow what the characters did. This style of doing things heavily influences Huck through his actions in later parts of the novel.
When he encounters the robbers, he steals their goods and sinks their ship. He is overcome by style in this scenario, doing xactly what Tom would do. In addition, he did things irrationally and spontaneously, putting Jim in constant danger from the adventures he tries to go on. One night when Huck and Tom were going out, Tom took some candles but left some money which is ironic because if they were going to be robbers, they shouldn’t leave money for the shopkeeper. As a result, Huck is influenced later in the novel when he decides to steal most of the good food from people, but leave the crappy food for all the other people.
The way of life is further affected because slavery is commonplace and it is not seen as wrong by early all people in the south during this time. This affects Huck since he exposed to the way of life in the south and is somewhat desensitized to the cruelty and inhumanity of the institution of slavery. If Huck was exposed to a friendly environment, where he was taught by his father and not left out in the wild to grow up primarily by himself, Huck would have not have had the internal battle that he did, he would have just been like all the other southerners and been accustomed to slavery being good for society.
The last primary thing that the setting affects throughout the novel is the opinions of the characters and people who are angerous to Huck and Jim. For example, Huck’s father thought Huck should not be educated and just learn how to live off the land in the woods. Huck enjoyed this and it helped him to not pick up any racial prejudice that he could have gotten from mainland society. This helps Huck when he leaves Pap’s shed and runs away. He meets Jim and helps him survive in the wild.
Many of the families that Huck meets in the book are feuding or are duped by the duke and the King. In the feud between the Grangerford’s and the Sheapardson’s, Huck experiences firsthand how the two families fight just because they have euded for so long prior to that point. Huck is told by Buck after questioning how the feud started: “Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they don’t know now what the row was about in the first place” (Twain 18).
This feud is so extreme that even in church they are ready to fight if they encounter one another. Huck is so overcome by this experience that he completely forgets about Jim, who he has been separated from for a few days. These instances are requisite of how the characters feel about each other and how they feel that they should interact with each other. Lastly, Miss Watson elieves that Huck should be educated from the Bible and the way of life in the south. When she teaches Huck about Moses he has the opinion: “I ain’t gonna take no stock in dead people” (Twain 2).
Huck demonstrates through this belief that he has the ability to form his own ideas and shape himself the way he wanted the rest of his life. It is clear that Huck’s moral grounding is changed in these instances to deepen the moral confusion that he experiences during his adventure with Jim. It is shown throughout the novel that the setting has has a heavy negative influence with Huck in regards to the law, way of ife, and the opinions of the other characters.
As the protagonist of the novel, Huck Finn is influenced by all of these three factors and is put in positions where he has to make decisions on the spot and potentially change the future for himself and Jim. The rural country setting that this phenomenal journey takes place in, really illustrates to the reader that Huck’s decisions are greatly influenced by experiences and teachings of his life. In the end, the reader has to ask himself/herself the following question: Would Huck’s belief system have been different if he had not grown up in the rural, slave-ridden south?
