Character, Values and Morals in Huckleberry Finn Essay -- Adventures H

Character, Values and Morals in Huckleberry Finn      Ã‚  Ã‚   Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is perhaps one of the most controversial novels the North American Continent has ever produced.   Since its publication more than a hundred years ago controversy has surrounded the book.   The most basic debate surrounding Twain's masterpiece is whether the book's language and the character of Jim are presented in a racist manner.   Many have called for the book to be banned from our nation's schools and libraries.   Mark Twain's novel is about a young boy who was raised in the south before slavery was abolished, a place where racism and bigotry were the fabric of every day life.   The novel is the account of how Huck Finn, who is a product of these times, transcended the morals and values of these times through his relationship with the escaped slave Jim.   Huckleberry Finn is a mixture of satire and adventure story.   It is a novel about growing up in a time and place that still haunts the living, the American past.   It is about a past, and the origins of that past, that still lie heavy on the American conscience.   This paper will examine the character, morals and values of Huckleberry Finn.   It will discuss his relationship to the values of his society and the conflict that is produced between those values and the relationship that grows between him and Jim during their adventure.       The character of Huck Finn has become a kind of an American folk hero.   He is a kid who knows how to live by his wits.   Perhaps he is a younger American version of the wily Odysseus.   He knows how and when to act and impersonate other people and perhaps most important for a boy in his situation, he knows how to lie.   One must never lose sight of the fact that... ...out a boy trying to find his own way in the days of the South before slavery had ended.   Huck Finn finds adventure and friendship with a runaway slave on a raft headed down the Mississippi River.   And like Odysseus on his adventures, Huck learns much about himself and subsequently we learn more about ourselves.   We learn that what an individual often believes to be right is not always in congruence with the official religion of the city or the values and mores of the times.   One must have the courage to stand up for what one believes in even if, as in the mind of Huck, it means suffering eternal damnation.    WORKS   CITED Beaver, H.   Huckleberry Finn.   London:   Allen & Unwin, 1987. Egan, M.   Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn:   Race, Class and Society.   Toronto:   Sussex UP, 1977. Twain, M.   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.   New York:   Signet, 1959. Character, Values and Morals in Huckleberry Finn Essay -- Adventures H Character, Values and Morals in Huckleberry Finn      Ã‚  Ã‚   Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is perhaps one of the most controversial novels the North American Continent has ever produced.   Since its publication more than a hundred years ago controversy has surrounded the book.   The most basic debate surrounding Twain's masterpiece is whether the book's language and the character of Jim are presented in a racist manner.   Many have called for the book to be banned from our nation's schools and libraries.   Mark Twain's novel is about a young boy who was raised in the south before slavery was abolished, a place where racism and bigotry were the fabric of every day life.   The novel is the account of how Huck Finn, who is a product of these times, transcended the morals and values of these times through his relationship with the escaped slave Jim.   Huckleberry Finn is a mixture of satire and adventure story.   It is a novel about growing up in a time and place that still haunts the living, the American past.   It is about a past, and the origins of that past, that still lie heavy on the American conscience.   This paper will examine the character, morals and values of Huckleberry Finn.   It will discuss his relationship to the values of his society and the conflict that is produced between those values and the relationship that grows between him and Jim during their adventure.       The character of Huck Finn has become a kind of an American folk hero.   He is a kid who knows how to live by his wits.   Perhaps he is a younger American version of the wily Odysseus.   He knows how and when to act and impersonate other people and perhaps most important for a boy in his situation, he knows how to lie.   One must never lose sight of the fact that... ...out a boy trying to find his own way in the days of the South before slavery had ended.   Huck Finn finds adventure and friendship with a runaway slave on a raft headed down the Mississippi River.   And like Odysseus on his adventures, Huck learns much about himself and subsequently we learn more about ourselves.   We learn that what an individual often believes to be right is not always in congruence with the official religion of the city or the values and mores of the times.   One must have the courage to stand up for what one believes in even if, as in the mind of Huck, it means suffering eternal damnation.    WORKS   CITED Beaver, H.   Huckleberry Finn.   London:   Allen & Unwin, 1987. Egan, M.   Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn:   Race, Class and Society.   Toronto:   Sussex UP, 1977. Twain, M.   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.   New York:   Signet, 1959.

Peer Pressure Is More Beneficial Than Harmful Essay

Good morning teachers and my fellow students, today my topic of this debate is â€Å"Peer pressure is more beneficial than harmful† and I am in favor of it. Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is â€Å"formally† a member (for example, political party, trade union),or a social clique. A person affected by peer pressure may or may not want to belong to these groups. They may also recognize dissociative groups with which they would not wish to associate, and thus they behave adversely concerning that group’s behaviors. Peer pressure is when â€Å"friends† persuade you to doing something that you do not want to do. But maybe you want to do it, and you just don’t have the courage to do it and your friends talk you into it. Positives Peer pressure is not always bad. It can help you analyze yourself and contemplate on your ways of life. If you are fortunate to get a good peer group, your peers can play a vital role in the shaping of your personality. Their way of looking at life may influence you to change for betterment. Some of your peers are your close friends, who do not pressurize you to do things but rather inspire you to change yourself. Your peer group may actually persuade you to bring about a constructive change in your personality. Peer pressure can lead you to make the right choices in life. If you are fortunate to get a good peer group, your peers can play a vital role in the shaping of your personality. Their way of looking at life may influence you to change for betterment. It helps define who we are and how we feel about subjects in our lives. It is how we chose to react to peer pressure that defines who we are as an individual. Are we a leader or a follower? Both types of people are needed to make the world go around. Responsible behavior. Not all middle schoolers spend weekends getting into trouble. Many spend time doing things with their families, playing sports, babysitting, engaging in hobbies or reading. A typical weekend for your child’s friends will probably become a typical weekend for your child, too. Self-esteem. Many of the things children do because of peer pressure are not harmful. They may all like a certain hairdo or the latest pop band. Being like other kids makes them feel they belong ²and that is a very important feeling to a middle school child. Connection to school. Children don’t always fall in with the  ³wrong crowd. ´ Very often they fall in with the right crowd ‘one that cares about schoolwork, participates in activities, and tries to succeed. Such friends can motivate your child. Good peer pressure is being pushed into something that you didn’t have the courage to do or just didn’t cross your mind to do. However, as you think about it, it seems like a good thing to do. Good peer pressure can also be a situation when your friends convince you not to do something you were going to do because it wasn’t in your best interest. Some people say that good peer pressure is when you get pushed into something that you didn’t want to do and it turned out well. Well, this may be nice, but ask yourself this question: how do you know â€Å"ahead of time† whether what you are doing will turn out good or bad? Can you? Most people can’t, but if you can, your problems may be solved! When the time comes for you to make these big decisions, it is important to think before deciding. Take as long as you need just to think about whether you want to do it, think about whether you should, and finally think about the consequences. These are the important things that must be done before any big decision is made. Also, knowing who is asking you to do something helps you make the decision. If the person is not your friend, you should really consider what they want you to do, but if you know, trust and respect this person then you might seriously consider what they ask. But how do you know? For each person, deciding who is your friend or not, is a difficult decision. It might be of benefit for you to develop some sort of personal grouping system of your friends and depending on what group they fall into will determine how strong an influence you allow them to have in your life.

Assessment The Allegory of the Cave - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1436 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/08/12 Category Philosophy Essay Level High school Topics: Allegory Of The Cave Essay Did you like this example? Written in 380 BC, The Republic became one of Platos most well known works which includes his Socratic dialogue The Allegory of the Cave in which he heavily critiques education and democracy. This assessment will first unravel the historical context of the Republic and the Allegory of the Cave. After providing analysis of the passage, the assessment will continue to explain the documents long term influence on Western Civilization with evidence from various texts. Conclusively, this assessment will provide context, analyze and explain the influence of Platos Allegory of the Cave. Plato was a well established Greek philosopher who was born in Athens, Greece around 427 BC. He was the student of Socrates, another renowned Greek philosopher, and passed down his knowledge to his well-known pupil Aristotle. Socrates established a foundation for Platos thought in both his self-taught and Sophist views that virtually gave the study of philosophy practical use and meaning. However, Socrates left behind no writing of his own and most of what historians have discovered about him come from the works of Plato and Aristotle. He was known for the Socratic method which placed emphasis on thoughtful and detailed questioning rather than simple contemplation about observations. It is clear to historians and philosophers that Socrates passed down specific viewpoints to his pupils, especially about the questioning of justice and why it was the basis for political institutions. He established the philosophical attitude that nothing should be assumed with the goal to seek true unde rstanding. After establishing great new premises and methods for philosophy, Platos devout adherence to Socrates allowed these unprecedented ideas to live on (Backman 149-151). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Assessment The Allegory of the Cave" essay for you Create order Platos success most likely began with the support of his rich family of aristocrats which he had a great appreciation for. Well educated in a multitude of subjects, he taught at his school called the Academy because he was too irritated with ignorant people in democracy to get involved in politics. Plato developed a strong interest in the Ideal Forms as he believed the physical world was a lifeless embodiment of what our complex souls perceived to be meaningful. He saw people as eternal souls temporarily housed in physical bodies concluding that our souls inherently have a deep-seated understanding of the Ideal Forms. Perhaps this is why Plato could offer such a unique metaphor in the Allegory of the Cave; his viewpoint on philosophy was less concrete than Socrates, and thus he was able to provide a more romantic and mystical perspective (Backman 151-154). The Allegory of the Cave is essentially a dialogue between Plato and his brother, Glaucon, in which he ponders a bizarre scenario metaphorically chastising the ignorance of anyone who wasnt a philosopher. He creates an image of prisoners who are chained up in a cave in such a way where they can soley view a shadow-puppet show for their entire lives. Concluding that they would perceive the puppet show to be reality, he asks what would happen if a prisoner were to be set free and see the real world. He goes on to say that if one of these prisoners were set free, they would be traumatized and too afraid to confront what typical humans know to be reality. He further fantasizes that if they were forced to confront reality that he [the prisoner] would find it painful to be so haled along, and would chafe at it, and when he came out into the light, that his eyes would be filled with its beams so that he would not be able to see even one of the things that we call real (Shorey 748). Plato ex plains that initially this person would be unable to perceive the real world as reality, because they would be wired to perceive the puppet show as reality instead. Then there would be need of habituation, he explains, to enable him to see the things higher up. And at first he would most easily discern the shadows And so, finally, I suppose, he would be able to look upon the sun itself and see its true nature (Shorey 748). Here, a metaphor forms in which the prisoner † an uneducated person † would need to drastically acclimate to such higher understandings of reality † philosophical perspective † in order to truly understand what they are seeing. In Platos eyes, democracy was flawed because it allowed ignorant civilians to have power. He believed the ideal government should be ruled by those with sound reason to make decisions for the group † a philosopher. He sought a specific social hierarchy in which workers of society were at the bottom, defenders of society made the middle class, and philosophers possessed all of the power at the top. Ideally, philosophers would agree on societys important decisions with the leadership of a philosopher king. The concept of family would be eradicated and ultimate loyalty would instead rely within the state, essentially in the hands of philosophers. The Allegory of the Cave illustrates his praise of philosophy as he makes the understanding of philosophy an analogy for understanding reality. Plato equated being a philosopher to being freed from a life chained up in a cave because he saw the understanding of philosophy as the only true understanding of reality. He claimed that those wh o didnt have a clear understanding of philosophy allowed the emotions of their fragile soul to make their decisions, not reason and rationality. Platos famous socratic dialogue proves influential in the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo, a later Christian philosopher. In the Account of His Own Conversion, Augustine reveals his confession of being infatuated with the concept of love and allowing his emotions to overwhelm him. He admits it to being an unstable period of life, though he began to study books of eloquence, philosophical texts which would persuade him that emotions were inferior to reason, just as Plato stated (Halsall, Augustine: Account, ch. 4). After reading a particular Greek philosophical text (no doubt influenced by Plato), he stated that In Greek the love of wisdom is called ?philosophy, and it was with this love that the book inflamed me (Halsall, Augustine: Account, ch. 4). Platos initial beliefs influenced Greek philosophy and even spread to philosophers of the Western world such as Augustine, who were influenced by Platos view of reason over sentiment several hundreds of years later. In another account b y Augustine, On the Two CIties, this influence is also prevalent. He defines the two cities as a divide between those men who live according to man, and those men who live according to God (Halsall, Augustine: on the, ch. 1). Augustine praised the men who live according to God and thought little of the men who live according to man because he saw holiness and selflessness vital to a productive society while those who followed their own desires created a corrupt society. This is very similar to Platos perspective on those who think with reason (philosophers) and those who are driven by their desires (ignorant people). Just as Plato believed the most productive society consisted of those who showed loyalty to the State, Augustine believed the best society consisted of those who showed loyalty to God. Plato created a schism between those who act with reason and selflessness and those who act with desire and ignorance. Plato was one of the most influential philosophers of all time as he took Socrates initial views of philosophy and built off of them in such a way that they would provide insight to other philosophers hundreds of years later. His value on rationality over emotional desire specifically had a lasting influence in the development of philosophy throughout history as it is apparent in the works of many philosophers including Saint Augustine of Hippo. The Allegory of the Cave reinforced this notion and illustrated Platos compelling theories in a dramatic manner that made his passion for philosophy and the acquisition of wisdom very apparent. This passion was passed down unto many philosophers and provided a basis for the importance of rationality when considering philosophical ideas. Historically, Socrates, Plato, the Republic and the Allegory of the Cave prove to have had immense influence on philosophical thought and theory. Works Cited Backman, Clifford R. Chapter 5: Classical Greek and the Hellenistic World. The Cultures of the West: A History, by Clifford R. Backman, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 149â€Å"154. Halsall, Paul. Augustine: Account of His Own Conversion. Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University, 1994, sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/aug-conv.asp. Halsall, Paul. Augustine: on the Two Cities. Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University, 1996, sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/aug-city1.asp. Shorey, P, translator. Plato: The Allegory of the Cave. Republic, edited by Hamilton and Cairns. by Plato, Random House, 1963, pp. 747â€Å"752.