Recently, I was obligated to read the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Although the book was entertaining and mundane simultaneously: causing me to fall asleep at some parts and be engaged in others. Overall, I learned a valuable lesson and that is contained in the one word: society.
Mark Twain was trying to make a point through his book by satirizing humankind. Not only did he satirize slavery, but he also did the same to other concepts of society as a whole. The first thing was our herd-like mentality.
The herd-like mentality was blatantly addressed in Mark Twain's idea that was voiced through Colonel Sherburn when the colonel was chastising the community on their way of following even a "half a man."
"You didn't want to come. The average man don't like trouble and danger. You don't like trouble and danger. But if only half a man - like Buck Harkness, there - shouts 'Lynch him! Lynch him!' you're afraid to back down - afraid you'll be found out to be what you are - cowards - and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves onto that half-a-man's coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big things you're going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is - a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness." (pg. 146) - Colonel Sherburn.
This paragraph shows how the society that we have today is very dependent upon each other. Nobody truly has their individuality since they are all focused on the herd, what the mass does, is this alright, and so on. I think this is still the case today in our society as well. Instead of doing things for ourselves, we tend to wait until someone else does it, thus following their footsteps. Since there is either no one doing the work or everyone at the same time, doing the same work, there is no room for progress. I think this is the problem that is prevalent in the school that I attend. Many of us are worried about what the person next to us is doing. 'If that person does something, then I should too.' Or even if the student does not think that, the parent may, just hoping that following the next person's footsteps would be doing them some good. However, that is not the case. We must fall into our specialties if we are to get anywhere in life or be happy in our lives. We must learn how to think for ourselves just as Huck Finn has learned to do in this novel.
Huckleberry Finn is a very impressionable young man in the beginning of this book but he still remains to express his own thoughts despite the fact that he is a child who should listen to his white elders. He is forced to be "sivilized" and follow the footsteps of his pap who believes in many old-fashioned concepts even for the time setting of the book. However, when Huck journeys on the Mississippi River, he learns to think for himself. At the end of the book, Huck knows that he must think for himself and avoids Aunt Sally when she decides that she would keep him in her care to educate and "sivilize" him. The society in this novel gives Huck a very deformed conscience despite the fact that they are set in a society where slavery is considered to be common. In my opinion, Huck still goes down the right path despite the influences of society around him. He learns that friendship and the value of the person is greater than what society says. I think that this is what we must learn to do. People as a whole nowadays should form their own justifications and opinions.
"Stand up for what you think is right, even if you're standing alone." - Anonymous.
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