In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain developed one of his most unique characters. The novel begins in a small town called St. Petersburg where Huck is taken care of by Miss Watson and the Widow Douglass. Miss Watson and Widow Douglass try to "sivilize" Huck, but Huck feels constrained by civilization. When Huck escapes to Jackson Island, he discovers Jim, the widow"s runaway slave. Although early in the novel Huck plays cruel tricks on Jim and treats him as an inferior, he eventually matures and gradually accepts responsibility for his actions. .
To begin with, Huck shows his first signs of maturity when he apologizes for the cruel trick he played on Jim in the fog. When Jim and Huck get separated in the thick heavy fog, Huck decides to take a nap and wait off the fog, but arises to find that it is nighttime. Huck eventually locates the raft and wakes Jim up. Jim is extremely happy to see that Huck is safe. Huck tries to fool Jim by saying that he was dreaming. Jim is fooled at first, but soon realizes that Huck is playing him for a fool. ".En all you wuz thinkin" "bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes "em ashamed," Jim remarks in a harsh tone. Tremendous guilt is felt by Huck from his actions. Unlike before in the novel with the snake incident, Huck apologizes for his actions. Huck's apology shows that he is becoming conscious of the consequences of his actions. Huck's owning up to his mistake shows true maturity in him as well. To sum up, Huck apology shows that he is starting to mature as a true man.
Furthermore, Huck's maturity is shown through his ability to start telling the truth instead of lying all the time. Early in the novel Huck is comfortable with lying. As a reversal of the entire novel, Huck comes to a decision to tell the truth to Mary Jane about the plans of the Duke and the King.
