The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn narrates the attempts of two characters to emancipate themselves: Huck tries to free himself from “the constraint of civilization” and Jim, a runaway slave, tries to escape from slavery. The two characters are united in their shared attempts for escape. Through narrating their journey to freedom, Mark Twain exposes the moral hypocrisy of Reconstruction America. While the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments aim to achieve racial equality, Twain demonstrates that moral confusion is entrenched in Reconstruction America.  

Documenting Jim’s attempt to emancipate himself from slavery through Huck’s perspective, Twain pierces through the hypocrisy of Reconstruction America. Despite the many changes, both congressional and state-wide made to ensure the protection of rights for Black Americans, racial injustice continued to permeate every facet of the Southern society depicted in Twain’s novel. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation technically freed all slaves in the Confederacy. The subsequent Reconstruction Amendment extended the definition of citizenship to all those born and/or naturalized in America aimed to ensure that the basic rights of all Americans are being protected. Furthermore, the Freedman Bureau aimed to facilitate the integration of Black Americans into society. However, the journey Jim takes to disengage from slavery reveals the hypocrisy of the changes that were taking place in Reconstruction America. Despite these changes, slavery continued to inform society. Twain shows that slavery was not simply a status, a label; it is a mindset, an attitude entrenched in society. This mindset consistently subdues Jim’s attempt for the equality that he deserves. As Huck notes, “Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free.” Having ever experienced freedom, excitement builds as Jim edges near freedom. As he later openly states, “Yes—en I’s rich now come to look at it. I owns myself, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’ want no mo’.” Having spent the bulk of his life being owned by others, Jim equates freedom and ownership with wealth. His belief in turn reflects the hypocrisy or Reconstruction ideals. If there truly is to be racial equality, then Jim would not feel that his temporary freedom is unusual and almost unprecedented.

Another attempt that Twain makes to pierce through the hypocrisy of the Reconstruction period is by portraying the ideals Huck was taught, Twain's Twain argues that slavery harms White slave-owners as much as it harms slaves. Initially, Huck feels constrained by the teachings that have been levied on him on what is considered just by Widow Douglass and Miss Watson. Widow Douglass teaches Huck to “help other people, and do everything [he] could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about [himself].” Similarly, Ms. Watson tells Huck to be civilized and receive an education. Ms. Watson also leads by example, adopting Huck when he does not have a home. Both Widow Douglass and Miss Watson seem to be kind and pious, with a strong sense of moral obligation to be just to those around them. However, these seemingly good White people are harmed by the institution of slavery as revealed in their askew moral compass. Their definition of “civilized” includes accepting the institution of slavery, that Black people are inherently inferior to White people and are incapable of managing liberty. Both teach Huck to accept and even advocate for slavery. This mentality shows the harmful effects that slavery levy on the slave-owners – in trying to be kind and just, they demonstrate an immoral mindset. 

Huck’s inner emancipation from the pro-slavery teachings of her surroundings, in turn, embodies an individual’s attempt to defy unjust institutionalized conventions. Huck initially fears breaking away from the conventions he was taught. His fear is perhaps best encapsulated in a moment of introspection: “I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun I will. People would call me a low down Ablitionist, and despise me for keeping mum—but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t agoing to tell, and I ain’t agoing back there anyways.” By deciding to “go to hell,” Huck successfully frees himself from the entrenched Southern mentality that racial equality is inherently unjust. 

Ultimately, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is more than a narrative of an adventure taken by a thirteen-year-old. Against assumptions associated with adventure tales, namely, immature expeditions took by children, protagonists in the novel demonstrate sophisticated thinking and present thought-provoking ideas. Although he is only on the cusp of adolescence, Huck’s introspection on slavery and equality provokes reflections on contemporary institutions of racism and inequality.