In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the main character Huck has a hard time making decisions. He faces a lot of different circumstances throughout the book where he has to decide if he wants to do the right or the wrong thing. After several experiences Huck gradually develops his own sense of morality throughout his adventure. He learns a lot about himself. Huck starts to realize when he does something wrong but he doesn’t fully take responsibility for what he has done. He tries to please everybody by thinking of a way to justify what he did wrong. In the end Huck learns to do what he thinks is right even if society doesn’t accept what he chooses to do.

Huck plays a trick on Jim by putting a dead snake where Jim had to sleep. Jim was bitten really badly by the snake so he feels bad about it afterwards. “I warn’t going to let Jim find out it was my fault, not if I could help it” (40). Huck feels bad about playing a trick on Jim. He doesn’t want Jim to find out that he was the reason for him getting bit by the snake. It shows that that he is starting to realize when he has done something wrong. He begins to admit to himself that what he did was not right. But he still isn’t able to take full responsibility for his actions. Huck and Jim were separated in the fog. And Huck tried to act as if they weren’t, but Jim knew the truth and he called Huck out on it and told him that it was very mean of him to play a trick like that on him. “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go humble myself to a nigger- but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way” (65). Huck owning up to his mistake shows that he wants to do the right thing. By him not feeling sorry after apologizing suggests that he’s beginning to feel that Jim is his only real friend. As Huck gets to know Jim better, he realizes that he should look out for him and not playing cruel tricks on him.

Huck tries to please everybody. He knows what he is doing is wrong but he tries to justify it, in the long run he goes with his gut instincts and it shows his loyalty and compassion for his friends. Huck thinks to himself, “What had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say a single word? What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean? Why, she tried to learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to be good to you every way she knowed how. That’s what she done”. (66) Huck is still a child so he is very naïve. He tries to make everybody happy. So he often goes back and forth trying to decide who is more important. Before he makes a decision he thinks about how it’s going to affect someone else. He wants to help his new fried Jim become a free man but he also thinks about what everyone else in his town will think about him helping a runaway slave. But ultimately it was Huck’s decision and as his sense of morality develops even more he starts to realize what he should do. “I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead. I fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was fidgeting up and down past me”. (66) He is still like an innocent child, so when he has done something wrong or is about to do something that is not right he feels bad about it. The fact that he feels that way shows that he is really growing and trying to become a better person ad do what’s right to him. Huck didn’t do that before, he just followed behind someone else. As Huck learns to listen to his conscience, he starts to realize that it’s up to him to do what’s best for him and Jim. And he does what feels right to him.

Huck has to choose between doing what he believes is right and doing what is accepted by society. “When, then, says I, what’s the use for learning to do right, when its troublesome to do right and aint no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (69) By this time Huck is starting to question what’s really the right thing to do and what’s really the wrong thing to do. He now sees that he can’t please everybody and still do what people consider is right. While traveling down the river to freedom Huck has to make a lot of difficult decisions. And as time goes on he gets better and better at making tough decisions. The final decision that Huck has to make is whether or not he should try to steal Jim from slavery. “All right, I’ll just go to hell.” (162) the big difference with this decision is he does what he thinks is right. He doesn’t second guess himself. He doesn’t care about what other people are going to say about it. He knows what kind of place hell is, and he still decides to rescue Jim because he is his friend and he knows that Jim doesn’t deserve to be a slave. We as readers know that Huck has finally learned that everything that society accepts isn’t necessarily all ways the right thing for everybody to do.

From the beginning to the end of the book Huck learns a lot about what type of person that he wants be. He faced a lot of problems because he chose to do something that other people disagreed with. He doesn’t regret anything that he ever did while on his adventure. Huck is like most kids in society today and the kids and teenagers that read this book can relate to some of the problems that Huck was going through. This book makes you put yourself in Huck’s shoes and makes you think what you would do in certain situations that Huck came across. Huck grows a lot throughout the book and his sense of morality grows as well.