There are many themes occur in The Adventure of Huckleberry such as racism, freedom and coming of age. But I think the one that is most relevant to the story is intellectual vs. moral education. In the first parts of the story the town’s people who are better off, so people like Miss Watson and the judge, seem to make it their goal to civilize people. Huck was largely affected by their goal of civilizing people and I think this really confused Huck because some of his teachings during the beginning of the book conflicts with his morals, which I think was gained through his experiences. This conflict occurs mostly in situations relating to slavery and racism. One example is the teachings of slavery and the idea that blacks are not people; these ideas arouse conflict with his morals later in story in the part of Jim wanting to be free and rescuing Jim.
I think the reason that Huck decides to go west and not go back to a society is that the society’s morals had so many conflicts with Huck’s morals that made him apprehensive of society. I think the part that really taught this lesson was Huck adventure with the Granger’s family. It seems what their society has to teach is to revenge at all costs. “‘Did you want to kill him, Buck?’ (Huck) ‘Well, I bet I did.’(Buck) ‘What did he do to you’ ‘Him? He never done nothing to me.’(151)” which resulted badly and in this experience Huck lost his friend. So this lesson really made Huck afraid which can be seen when he leaves the town in a hurry. Another experience that also shows this conflict with Huck is his journey with the fake king and duke.
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