In every persons life at one point they will have to make a choice based on their moral beliefs. These decisions can show what a person believes in right from the start. In Mark Twains’ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the main character Huck, makes two very important moral decisions. The first being how he treats Jim when he first meets him at Jackson’s Island and the second is to tear up the letter to Miss Watson out of his love for Jim. When Huck first runs away from Pap he goes to Jackson’s Island and thinks that he is the only person there.
He soon finds out that this is not true, and that “Miss Watsons Jim”41 is taking refuge there as well. Many people would hate to be alone on an island with a “nigger”43, but Huck is instead happy to have someone to converse with. At first Jim thinks he sees Hucks ghost and is petrified. Huck eases Jims feelings by changing the subject and saying “It’s good daylight, le’s get breakfast”41, showing that Huck is not only real but he does not mind that Jim is black. Jim feels that Huck might tell on him for running away, but he then decides that it will be okay to tell him why he ran away from Miss Watson.
Jim keeps asking Huck if he is going to tell anyone about his running away, and Huck replies “People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum but that don’t make no difference I aint gonna tell”43. Hucks response truly shows that his ignorance has no bearing over his moral kindness. When taken into consideration good morality is much more important in the long run than being the most intelligent person. After journeying with Jim for quite some time Huck begins to feel bad about harboring a runaway slave.
He decides to write a letter to Miss Watson explaining the whole story, because Jim had been sold and he does not know where he is. Huck was indeed confused about what he should do so he dropped he dropped to his knees and began to pray. He felt by helping Jim he was committing a sin, but he later realized “you can’t pray a lie”205. Huck saying this shows that he feels what he has done for Jim is not wrong; instead what others had done to Jim is wrong. Still not sure of what to do about the whole situation Huck writes the letter to Miss Watson, thinking he will be “cleaned of sin”206 and not feel so bad about what he is doing.
After writing this letter of confession to Miss Watson, Huck starts to reminisce about the times he had with Jim. As he is thinking he comes across the times Jim would be “standing my watch on top of his’n, stead of calling me so I could go on sleeping”206. Huck begins to realize that he would not be able to “strike no places to harden me against him”206, showing that he realizes that Jim has done nothing but good for him. Huck looks at what he is doing and feels ashamed. He takes one final look at the letter before saying “all right then, I’ll go to hell”206 and then rips up the letter of confession.
The fact that Huck looked back at his times with Jim before deciding to tear up the letter shows that the decision was obviously made conscientiously through his morals. Hucks morality has a major effect on the way he treats Jim at Jackson’s Island and in his decision to tear up the confession letter to Miss Watson. The manner that these decisions are made shows that Huck does indeed have a good set of morals, which he uses to make his decisions. A lack of these Morals could give one of the greatest adventure novels ever written a completely different ending.
