I think you would be hard pressed to name only one theme
in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is much too big
and interwoven with stories and substories and plots and characters to narrow its scope
to only one theme.
One theme of the book could certainly be
the joy of freedom - the ability to live according to one's own choice of time schedule,
in the location of one's choosing, free to move on if circumstances require. Huck's and
Jim's adventures exemplify the challenges and the rewards of such a
lifestyle.
Another theme to be considered would be the
relationship between races portrayed through Huck's eyes. Huck sees and describes a
variety of attitudes toward "niggers" in the people around him, and his own attitude
evolves as he gains insights into Jim's life that he hadn't considered
previously.
Once I said to myself it would be a thousand
times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd got to
be a slave,...but somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him,
but only the other kind....then says to myself: 'All right, then, I'll go to hell'...for
a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of
slavery
This relates to a
third possible theme, the issue of conscience and how it affects one's attitudes and
actions. Huck's conscience forced him to change his ways and act against what society in
that place and time considered the right course of action.
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