Huck knows....

In Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he creates two character that embody the society we live in today. These two characters are Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer acts as a foil to Huck during parts in the book. Tom has no real moral center while Huck questions everything. He questions whether racism is moral or right, he doesn't take religion at face value and questions it. Tom on the other hand doesn't question things and plays by the rules in his books. Huck Finn is someone who we as a society should strive to be like rather than Tom Sawyer. However, we are moving towards a society where we think like Tom.

Huck is a critical thinker who questions everything that society tells him is okay and normal. He questions whether Jim is a real person who should be treated with respect or just a slave. While he originally believes that Jim is property and should be returned to his owner, after spending time with him, he comes to realize that he is his friend and should be free. Huck represents the America where we scrutinize all ideas until we come to a good conclusion based on facts and basic moral values. Unfortunately we are moving away from this kind of America. We are moving towards a time where we don't question things that might be bad, we just accept them without question.

Tom on the other hand represents the sheep-like aspect of our culture. He follows what society says without question. Although he may be a leader he follows what he reads in books almost to the letter. He never question whether it moral to be a pirate and kill others because he read it in adventure books. He just knows that is what adventure and this is what he should do. We are moving towards a society more like how Tom is, we are becoming more divided as a country and not questioning our own beliefs enough. We as a society need to think more critically on both sides of the aisle. All ideas need to be challenged no matter how right they may seem, racism at the time seemed totally okay, but thanks to critical thinking we changed how we think of slavery and racism.