The young protagonist, Huck, of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn undergoes a "moral makeover" upon having to make crucial decisions throughout his journey for a new life. Huck emerges into the novel with a substandard set of morals to that of the average law-abiding citizen in society at that time. The cause of this is having lived with a drunken and abusive father, and enduring an absence of any direction during that time. It is at this point where Huck is first seen without any concept of morality. Fortunately, Huck is later assisted by the guidance of Jim, a runaway slave who joins him on his journey and helps Huck gain his own sense of morality. Throughout Huck's adventures, he is put into numerous situations where he must look within himself and use his own judgment to make fundamental decisions that will affect the morals which Huck will carry with him for the rest of his life. .
Preceding the start of the novel, Miss Watson and the widow have been granted custody of Huck, an "unsivilized" boy who encompasses no set of morals as his own. That is to say, he conforms to that of the people around him. Huck looks up to a boy named Tom Sawyer who has decided he is going to start a gang. In order for one to become a member, they must consent to the murdering of their families if they break the rules of the gang. It was at this time that one of the boys realized that Huck did not have a real family. .
"They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they said every boy must have a family or something to kill, or else it wouldn't be fair and square for the others. Well, nobody could think of anything to do- everybody was stumped, and set still. I was most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss Watson-they could kill her."(Twain, 9).
At this moment, Huck is at the peak of his immorality. One with morals in today's society would not willingly sacrifice the life of someone else as a precondition to be part of a gang.
