The conflict in Twain's The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn between society and non-civilization is portrayed throughout the novel. Huck faces many characters that represent different parts of a society during the late 1800s. Twain's opinion of society is valid for that time period because of the cover up of the evils of slavery, the unfairness of laws and the necessities to fit into a society.
An outcast, Huck distrusts the morals and precepts of the society that labels him a pariah/outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. This view of society, and his growing relationship with Jim, leads Huck to question many of the teachings that he has received in school. He chooses to "go to hell" rather than go along with what he's been taught. .
"It was a close place. I took.up [the letter I'd written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right then, I'll go to hell" and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming" (Chapter XXXI).
Huck bases these decisions on his experiences, his own sense of logic, and what his developing conscience tells him. .
On the raft, away from civilization, Huck represents a kind of natural man. Through deep introspection, he comes to his own conclusions, unaffected by the accepted and hypocritical Southern culture. Huck learns to read a skill that later serves him well. Huck learns to "read" and understand the world around him, distinguishing good, bad, right, wrong, menace, friend etc. .
"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out.
