Huck's Religion

Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn many characters express their own brands of faith. Whether it is the Grangerfords’ typical church going Christianity, Jim’s wild superstitious beliefs, Tom Sawyers loving belief in himself, or even Pap’s faith in the bottle, everyone finds a way to show their own unique style of religion. Huck Finn though he does not appear to know it, is one of the most religious characters in the novel devoting himself to the Mississippi river rather than a man like deity.
Religious people often turn to their faith in times of trouble, praying in order to focus their thoughts and bring themselves closer to the answers they seek along with an illumination of which path they should take. Huck uses his deity in much the same way. When he decides to flee from Pap he escapes onto the river, which offers him shelter as well as a way to avoid being tracked, while also leading him to the answers he needs in the form of Jackson’s Island and more importantly Jim. Many times during the rest of the novel Huck and Jim make forays onto land only to return to the river when the realization is made that life off the river is far too complicated, much like a man coming back to God and the sought after innocence of faith after realizing he has been going astray.
To have faith in anything takes trust and nothing trusts quite like innocence. Huck shows great cunning beyond his years when backed into the many corners he finds himself trapped in, but out on the river Huck shows his faith through his innocence. Huck and Jim spend most of their time out on open water in the nude, which seems to disturb some at first. Upon closer inspection however it becomes apparent that this is just another part of Huck’s religion. The river in some ways plays the role of a sort of Garden of Eden, allowing Huck to worship and be completely free at the same time in a state of total innocence though at the same time never forgetting to keep an eye out for the river’s...