Huck Finn - Life on the raft vs land Essay -- essays research papers

In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck lives in two different settings. One of the settings is on land with the widow and with his father and the other is on the river with Jim. There are many differences of living on land as opposed to living on the Mississippi River. On land, Huck has more rules to live by and he has to watch himself so as not to upset the widow or his father. On the river, Huck didn't have to worry about anything except people finding Jim. He also had to worry about the king and the duke for a while. Even thought there are many differences of the two living styles, there are also some similarities. Life on land was filled with many difficulties. There were many rules that Huck had to follow set by both the widow and his father. The widow’s main goal was to â€Å"civilize† Huck into a member of society. She expected Huck to go to school, wear clean clothes, sleep in his bed, and go to church. She just wanted him to be like a normal child of his age. Even though Huck bends the rules a bit and tries to sneak a smoke here and there, he eventually grows to like living under the widow’s protection. He proves this point when he says, "Living in a house, and sleeping in a bed, pulled on me pretty tight, mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods, sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a littl...