The Role of the River of Mark Twain's.
Kids grow up with the influence of their parents and society, which shape their personalities. Some kids grow up in a world of racism, while others grow up in a society filled with drugs and crime. Every once and a while a kid will be able to grow up without such things and make his own choices.
The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorn Clemens) has an excellent example of kids growing up without society's interference. Hucks escape on the Mississippi allows him to develop without the influence of society. "Huck and Jim, a boy and a man, are, as social outsiders, attuned to nature and become a team that transcends race and cultural difference." (Johnson 16).
Before Huck escapes to the river there are two people who greatly influence his life. The first is his pap who is the town drunkard, who is physically and verbally abusive, and doesn't want Huck to grow up to be better than him. Second, is the Widow Douglass who adopts Huck, She tries to get Huck going the right .
way or the way society is, she sends him to school, she sends him to church and she tries to get him to wear proper clothing. Huck's pap comes back to town and takes him away from the widow to an old shed down by the river. He abuses Huck both physically and mentally, then one day while pap is gone Huck escapes to Jackson Island.
When Huck escapes his pap he is alone, he is free from society, when "he leaves town his view of Jim. Does not differ significantly from the views of those around him," (Johnson 12) he no longer has the influence of other people in his life, and he can now make his own decisions. The only influence left upon Huck is " the legendary river that becomes a neo-character," (Curnutt 2) this leaves him to justify his own decision making. Well this is put to the test first when Huck is on Jacksons Island, and he discovers the runaway nigger Jim, well if Huck had been back home with either Pap or Miss.