"The word "civilization" to my mind is coupled with death. When I use the word, I see civilization as a crippling, thwarting thing, a stultifying thing. For me it was always so. I don't believe in the golden ages, you see. civilization is the arteriosclerosis of culture."(Miller, Henry).
There is a grotesque conflict between civilization and many of the people supposedly civilized in its ways. The conflict between civilization and individuals is a theme often shown threw Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck was not raised in accordance with civilization. He constantly is conflicted with what civilization is supposed to entail. The people he meets and encounters throughout his journey are the fabric with which he questions society. His first corrupt view of civilization comes from his pap and how he is given custody of Huck. Then he meets the Grangerford family which allows him to see ignorance at its finest. Finally his encounter of the King and Duke ice Huck's idea that civilization is a very uncivilized affair.
Hucks earliest doubt of civilization comes from his pap. Throughout Huck's childhood, his father drifted in and out of Huck's life as he pleased. He was the only father figure Huck had, and he failed terribly at it. Pap was Huck's first sight of civilization and to him it meant what civilization entailed and what it was supposed to be. All Huck had to base his idea's of civilization on was the way his own father was allowed to treat him. This great society in America did nothing to stop Pap from taking custody of Huck and stealing almost all Huck had. It's no wonder Huck had to constantly question civilization. Huck tells of his fathers uncivilized behaviour "He got to going away so much, too, and locking me in. Once he locked me in and was gone three days."(Twain, 193) If Huck is to base his knowledge of civilization on a thieving man who obviously cares nothing for his own son, locking him away, how can Huck ever believe in civilization? This is eventually why Huck runs away from home.
