Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn describes the journey of a boy named Huck and a runaway slave, Jim, traveling down the Mississippi River in the hope of freedom . While Jim tries to free his family and escape slavery, Huck wants to break away from his old life. With the many experiences throughout the novel, on land and water, Huck finds himself determined to escape what he now calls "civilization." Huck first sees human corruption in his father, the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, as well as in the supposed Duke and Dauphin. This is Twain's way of showing his loss of hope in society and the cruelty of humanity. Huck doesn't want to be "civilized" because he doesn't want to be part of such a cruel people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Coming from an abusive home, Huck sees the cruelties of humanity early on. His father being a violent and abusive drunk, Huck no longer considers him essential to his family life. “Pap, we hadn’t seen him for over a year, and that was comfortable for me; I didn't want to see him anymore. He always swung at me when he was sober and could get his hands on me; although I went into the woods most of the time when he was there. (Ch. 3) Huck was afraid of him and saw the evil in him. When Huck decided to escape, he was running away from his father and the constant abuse. Huck didn't want to be part of a society that allowed someone as horrible as his father to have custody of him. Even while traveling outside his own town, Huck saw the cruelty of society elsewhere, among well-respected families. Upon meeting the Grangerfords, Huck discovered their lifelong feud with the Shepherdsons. As Huck discovered more about this feud, he realized that it was unnecessary and inhumane. "Well," said Buck, "a quarrel goes like this: a man argues with another man and kills him; then that other man's brother kills HIM; then the other brothers, on both sides, fight each other against the others; then the COUSINS intervene - and gradually everyone is killed, and there is no more quarrel. But it is rather slow and takes a long time (Ch.18). both classified as respected upper-class families; they were considered "civilized." Although Huck didn't understand why men would mindlessly kill each other over a problem that happened many, many years ago. the world saw this as normal This "scaled" society made no sense to Huck, because he witnessed the senseless violence when no one else did. Huck's thoughts on the callousness of the. humanity only intensified when he met the "Duke" and the "Dauphin". After meeting the two crooks, the Duke and the Dauphin, Huck knew that they were fakes. Throughout the novel, the two men constantly scammed, deceived, and lied to people for money. When one town learned from another town that the Duke and Dauphin had already scammed, they decided to tar and feather the two crooks. Even though Huck had witnessed all of their lies and deception, he couldn't help but feel bad for them. “Well, it made me sick to see that; and I felt sorry for these poor pitiful rascals, it seemed to me that I could never feel any harshness against them again in the world. It was a terrible thing to see. Human beings CAN be terribly cruel to each other. (Ch. 33) Although Huck felt bad for the Duke and the Dauphin, he knew that they would soon be arrested and punished for everything they had done. At this point in the novel, Twain.