Humans are living things, just like animals. They have a heart, a brain, and functioning body parts I order to. Be able to perform the tasks needed for everyday life. This includes their personality and natural born instincts. Humans rely on their instincts in order to be able to perform efficiently the simplest tasks needed. Their personality is used for inter social skills and communication as well as bonding with other humans. However, just like how there is always a bad apple in a basket full of red ones, human’s personalities are also polar opposite. For example, one day, a man might be walking down the road and smiling at everyone, whereas the next day, they will be glaring at everyone. To everything, there is always a bright side and a bad side. This includes personalities. Commonly, in literature, authors will bring on the bright and bad side of human nature in order for readers to make everyday connections with the characters in the book and understand the themes on a deeper basis. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, the author, uses the bright side of human nature in order to highlight the good in humans and how many souls actually have a caring heart. These examples are also placed very cleverly so readers actually get an understanding, a deep one.
Being kind isn’t always being right. Just because you think that you have been right and done something correctly, it doesn’t mean that you have necessarily done the kindest thing, and vice versa. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are many different acts of kindness going around, committed by different people. One of them is when Huck goes and sees Judith Loftus. In order to disguise his identity and not let people see that he is actually Huck, Huck dresses up, with help from Jim, as a girl and decides to go and see Judith Loftus to get the news around town. Judith, at first, doesn’t recognize Huck, but with a few small mistakes, she does. Huck is trapped, and he doesn’t know it. However, Judith doesn’t give him away and just pretends that she never figured this out. This incident shows that sometimes, people are willing to do things for others when it will not benefit the majority. The entire town is suffering from the disappearance/ staged murder of Huck, and Judith realizes that she has just come face-to-face with Huck. Even so, Judith Loftus decides to hide Huck’s identity, sparing Huck from being found, yet leaving the rest of the town to still worry. Judith acted kindly toward Huck, yet she didn’t exactly do what she was “supposed” to do, which was turn Huck in. In life, there are many forks, and each fork has a different ending. It is alway up to the traveler to choose which path to take. Kindness is the act of service to another that is done completely selflessly.
Everything has its opposite. So does kindness. Nothing is a one way street. Where there is something, elsewhere, there is the opposite. For example, take the North Pole and South Pole. Polar opposite. As Huck and Jim approach Cairo, Huck has another encounter with kindness, and this time, he is the one that performs the act. When going ashore, Huck meets two men, who want to know if the man on his raft is black or white. Huck does not know whether to give Jim away, so decides to say that the man is white. The two men decide to go check, and Huck lets it slip that the man has smallpox. The men blanch, then turn around, give Huck some money, and leave. In this scenario, Huck is not sure how to act, based on the social beliefs that he has learned all his life. He knows that he should be a good friend and not give Jim away, but he had always been taught to turn in slaves when possible. Huck is struggling with indecision to act based on social morals or his own beliefs and what he knows is kinder toward his friend. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck realizes the importance of friendship and doing something kind. Not everything only has one outcome. Many times, the outcome differs greatly based on a single decision.
Not everything is always presented in the best form. Life isn’t always given to you at its peak. You just need to work your way around the bad parts. In the story, during chapter 20, when the king and the duke try to make some money and find a way in which they can travel during the day and not have to be pestered about Jim, the king goes to the forest, where the town’s inhabitants are at a congregation, where the preacher is preaching. The king tricks the congregants into thinking that he is a reformed pirate, and if he is given enough money, he will return to the Indian Ocean to reform other pirates. The townspeople believe him, and give him a total of $87. In this chapter, the king manages to use deception and emotions (the king cries at the end of his speech) to make the townspeople think that he is of good intentions. Even though the inhabitants do not know this, they still support the king openly and raise money for his fake, yet believable cause. This is an act of kindness in which the person does not know the true meaning behind someone’s words, and yet they still do the kind thing out of their hearts and what they know is right. The trickery of the king’s words is not detected by anyone, but the congregants are still supportive and willing to donate to what they think is a good cause. Their act of kindness is not done with full honesty, but done with full hearts. Honesty can really change the way a person interprets the world.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain really incorporates many small acts of kindness with big meaning into the chapters. The bright side of human nature is truly something that can bring much good to the human world, and something that should be appreciated greatly. Throughout the three examples, and much more, the people are all willing to do what is kind just for one person’s benefit, even if it is at the cost of other’s well being, because they know that it will take an effect, rather than risking the kindness for an effect that might never come. Throughout the chapters, Huck also learns to be able to rely on his own opinions and thoughts to be able to react in a dangerous situation. The kindness exploited in the chapters truly shows how on the outside, some people might have a hard shell, but on the inside, they have a soft core. They might display something different on the outside than on the inside. Judith Loftus, though pretending to be oblivious of Huck’s disguise, actually realizes “her” true identity. The villagers at the meeting also help depict how kindness comes from within, from a person’s own heart, not just from the persuasion of others, hence the misleading speech given by the king. Kindness is just a small good deed. It’s a deep act that comes from the heart.
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