“All right, then, I'll go to hell.”
― The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
― The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck Finn is not a reliable narrator in the slightest bit. He has many holes in his story, and his morals are still developing. Yet, when we hear about attempts people have made to try and civilize him, they have failed. He believes that no prayer will be answered from him due to all of his past actions. You can take away that in the south, many morals are skewed in society. It seems to be very different from northern morals. So when he is faced with a decision to save Jim or to run away, he saves Jim because they are friends and he would not want to let him down. This makes Huck believe he will go to Hell. When you help anybody in dire need, it is praised in society today. As the reader, you learn about the morals Huck has forced upon him in society. He teaches an important lesson about not conforming to social norms and breaking away from popular beliefs to do what is right in human nature.
Huck knows that he did the right thing when Jim thanks him and he feels good about saving his friend, he ignores to social norms around him and does the action he believes is correct. You need to break out of social norms to make a change. At first, people will not accept that you did this action, but as time goes by, it will become the new social norm. The first step into making a change is by going against what others believe, and Huck makes this change in his "adventure" with Jim. Although he may believe it was wrong at first, it was the beginning of something bigger to come.
