As people grow, they go through experiences and make choices that build their moral character over time. These experiences shape a person's qualities and expresses who they are as an individual. They have many people to teach them the rights and wrongs of society and civilization, but in the end they must figure out who they are and what they believe in on their own. Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck is put into numerous situations where he must look within himself and use his own judgment to make decisions that will affect the morals of which Huck will carry with him throughout his life.
Huck Finn begins to develop morally when after running away, he finds Jim on the same island on which he is staying. Huck is inquiring why Jim is on the island and Jim claims that "I - I run off" (Twain 37). Huck has promised Jim that he would not tell anyone of what has happened. A scared Jim reminds him, "But mind, you said you wouldn't tell - you know you said you wouldn't tell, Huck" (Twain 37). Huck then reassures Jim by stating, "Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I"ll stick to it. Honest injun I will. People would call me a low Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum - but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell, and I ain't a going back there anyways. So now, le's know all about it" (37). Huck begins to learn the importance of keeping a promise. He realizes that the things he says affect others. Even as a child, Huck's words are meaningful, they have some kind of a purpose. In this regard, what Huck says is a kind of comfort to Jim. Huck, being able to recognize this concept demonstrates that he is beginning to morally develop.
Huck learns the value of morality once again when deciphering whether or not to tell someone that Jim is a runaway slave. He pretends that his father is sick and asks two men to go and help him while in his mind he is deciding whether or not he should tell them about Jim.
