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Huck Finn: Do People Become Who They Are Raised To Be?

 

Pap raises Huck to believe that people should have their own way over his own, which isn't right. Huck continues to live this way as the book progresses, as with the King and the Duke.
             As Huck travels with the King and the Duke, the effects of Pap's upbringing are seen through Huck's actions and thoughts. Huck runs into a pair of men who are running from the law, one claims that he is a duke and the other that he is a king, who demand that they be treated as royalty, to which Huck says, "So Jim and me set to majestying him, and doing this and that and t"other for him, and standing up till he told us we might set down. This done him heaps of good, and so he got cheerful and comfortable," (142). Huck does what he thinks is best for everyone by letting them have and do what they want. Huck does what the King and Duke say because there is less fighting, everybody is happy, and it's easier to live and get along that way. The same day that Huck meets the King and the Duke, he comes to a realization and states that, "It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't kings nor dukes . . . If they wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections," (142). Huck knows that the Kina and Duke are phonies, but serves on them anyway. He believes that there will be less trouble amongst everyone on the raft. Huck and Jim notice that a storm is on the way and once the storm hit the raft, "The king told us to both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke crawled into the wigwam and turned in for the night," (144). Again Huck does as he's told without any resistance. Huck risked his health and safety for that of the King and Duke. The King and the Duke try to manipulate Huck into believing they are royalty, but Huck does not believe them, yet Huck treats them as they wish because of the way he is raised.
             Towards the end of the novel, Huck begins to overcome the idea that you are who you are because of how you are raised.


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