Journeys: Huckleberry Finn

What is the Nature of the Physical Journey
While the reasons for undertaking physical journeys are varied, journeys by nature are embarked upon with the desire to be changed for the better as the traveller is confronted with different obstacles and challenges.   Mark Twain’s novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the and the movie Stand by Me explores the nature and prominent aspects of Huck’s physical journey, danger challenges and decision making. Through the use of the orphaned protagonist Huckleberry Finn Twain illustrates how his physical journeys can also embody spiritual and emotional development.
While the physical journeys, by nature throw up many dangerous situations and challenges, it is the emotional challenges that allow the traveller Huck to mature and develop a stronger sense of identity and morale. The journey is used as a symbol of transformation for the narrator Huck as he learns to see Jim as not just a possession but an equal human. It is through the characters the King and Duke and the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons whom they encounter on their flight to freedom which provides Huck and us the audience with insight into flawed humanity allowing the novelist Mark Twain to critic American society, their racist views, their greed and their ignorance. Twain uses satire in the Grangerford episode to reveal and mock society flaws. Huck is naive and amazed by the prosperity of the Granger fords and their “genteel” lifestyle but the audience can recognise their life as a brutal battle. The feud between two rich ‘civilized’ families satirise the hypocrisy of American society where rich families would attend church and then fight to death over a feud for reasons ‘noone could remember’. Huck so was disgusted by their brutality “It made me so sick I most fell out of the tree”. The characters King and Duke are satiric of society and after Huck witnessing some of King and Duke’s shams Huck remarks “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race....