Origin of Attitudes in Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, shows the reader the world of America in the early 1800s through the eyes of an innocent and street smart young boy named Huckleberry Finn. Finn's relationships are many, and his attitudes towards the various classes (white or black, male or female) give clues to the reader of Huck's tumultuous upbringing. Based on textual evidence, the most relevant and poignant discoveries of Huck Finn's perspective of the world come from his relationships with the various women in the story, most notably the widow Douglas and Miss Watson, and one man: Pap.

In the story, Huck's relationship with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson is abbreviated, but much can be culled from their spelling and Bible study sessions that Huck must sit through early on. From these short moments it is clear that Huck is more than a little annoyed by the ladies' views, but the fact that he tolerates them at all says volumes about his attitudes toward women. This scene offers little in the way of showing Huck's enjoyment of his forced civilization, but that he didn't use his wily and slick talk to immediately get out of the "tiresome and lonesome" pecking of Miss Watson-that he actually weathered the storm-shows a tendency in Huck to respect (even if not enjoy) the views of women.

Evidence at the beginning of the story further suggests that Huck may have indeed stayed with the widow Douglas and Miss Watson despite their constant crooning, weeping, civilizing, and other actions alien to the wild Huck if his father had not come and taken him to live in a cabin across the river from Hannibal.

At first I hated school, but by-and-by I got so I could stand it . . .the longer I went to school the easier it got to be. I was sort of used to the widow's ways, too, and they warn't so raspy on me. Living in a house, and sleeping in a bed, pulled on me pretty tight, mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods, sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit. (Twain, 171)