The book Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, has many themes that appear throughout the text. One such theme is that people must live outside of society to be truly free. If one lives outside of society, then they do not have to follow all of its laws and try to please everyone. They would not be held back by the fact that if they do something wrong, they would be punished for doing it. This theme relates to Huck Finn in a major way. When Huck is with the widow and is learning how to be civilized, he is always feeling uncomfortable.
He doesn’t like it much and wishes to go back to his normal life out in the wilderness. However, when he thinks about not doing something that the widow is trying to make him do, he remembers where he is, in society. If he doesn’t do these things he will be an outsider and society will not accept him as much. As he is on the river, he lays back and relaxes all the time. Whenever he goes back into society, he finds that he can not live within its limits so he always denies who he really is and makes up some false identity all the time.
When he finally runs from society at the end, one last time, it was clear that he believed that society was too much for him. Also that they would try to make him civilized again, which he didn’t want, so he goes off alone to finally be truly free of his troubles and restraints. This is also seen in the character Jim. While Jim is with Miss Watson, he is a slave. She isn’t the one who made him that way, it was society. She was good to him and never did him any harm, but the fact is that no matter how good she was to him, he still was only a slave.
When Jim runs away, he finally sees that there was a way to be truly free and that was to not live within society. When Jim is in the woods on the island, he just starts to realize what it is to be free and what it is like to live on his own. After he meets Huck in the woods he also realizes what it is like to have a friend. Society kept him from having both of these, freedom and friends. It wouldn’t let him have friends because if anyone were to make friends with him that person would be condemned by society.
As they are traveling down river, Jim doesn’t know that he was really freed in the will of Miss Watson. This was a good thing, it gave Jim the idea what it was like to be truly free without any one saying he was, or society saying that he was still a slave. Finally, the duke and the king are a different kind of example. The duke and king are criminals, which meant that if they lived within society they would be dealt with by law. As they are on the river, they have not to worry about society catching them.
They were free men on the river, but whenever they would drag Huck and Jim on land to villages, they always get into trouble. They can also be considered to be society on the river. Before they came aboard Jim and Huck always lay around talking and having a good time, but when they came, they messed up there good time. At the end, these two get what’s coming to them. this showed that when society finally caught up with them they had to get their punishment since it affected all of society.
In conclusion, Huck and Jim were totally free of any influence only when they were on the river, but when they went ashore thats when trouble occurred. Mark Twain implies one issue throughout this story: if you live with in societies limits, you must follow its rules and its ways or else you will not be accepted. If you live out side of it, then you shall be truly free of any rules, customs, or influence that may guide you into trouble.