Huckleberry Finn: A Free Spirit Essay -- essays research papers

Huckleberry Finn: A Free Spirit Huckleberry Finn is not an escapist, but a free spirit who only wants to live deeply disentangled from the bonds of society. An escapist is someone who flees from his/her responsibilities, while a free spirit is a person who knows no boundaries, and cannot be tamed by society. It may appear at first that Huck is an escapist, for he enjoys not having to go to school when living with his father. He escapes from the cabin and his father’s abuse; however, he escapes from his father’s cabin out of the necessity of survival, not because he didn’t want to accept responsibilities. Even though Huck did enjoy fishing and relaxing in the sun during his stay with Pap, it wasn’t the responsibility that he was escaping, but the rules that society had imposed on him. Huck didn’t mind learning new things and being knowledgeable, but he did not like to get dressed up, to have to go to school, to be well behaved and polite, and to learn good manners. â€Å"I was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing†¦and my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn’t see how I’d ever got to like it so well at the widows where you had to wash and eat regular†¦It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it all around.† (p. 31) Living in the woods is harder work, having to catch food and build fires to stay warm, but Huck doesn’t mind work as long as he can do it how he wants to. Huck is always going against society and cannot liv...