From the beginning of the novel, Twain makes it clear that Huck is a boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. His father is a drunk and a ruffian who is gone for months on end. Huck himself is dirty and homeless. Although the Widow Douglas attempts to help Huck, he resists her attempts and maintains his independent ways. The community has failed to protect him from his father, and though the Widow finally gives Huck some of the schooling and religious training that he had missed, he has not been indoctrinated with social values in the same way a middle-class boy like Tom Sawyer has been. Huck’s distance from mainstream society makes him skeptical of the world around him and the ideas it passes on to him. Huck’s instinctual distrust and his experiences as he travels down the river force him to question the things society has taught him. According to the law, Jim is Miss Watson’s property, but according to Huck’s sense of logic and fairness, it seems “right” to help Jim. Huck’s natural intelligence and his willingness to think through a situation on its own merits lead him to some conclusions that are correct in their context but that would shock white society. For example, Huck discovers, when he and Jim meet a group of slave-hunters, that telling a lie is sometimes the right course of action.

Because Huck is a child, the world seems new to him. Everything he encounters is an occasion for thought. Because of his background, however, he does more than just apply the rules that he has been taught—he creates his own rules. Yet Huck is not some kind of independent moral genius. He must still struggle with some of the preconceptions about blacks that society has ingrained in him, and at the end of the novel, he shows himself all too willing to follow Tom Sawyer’s lead. But even these failures are part of what makes Huck appealing and sympathetic. He is only a boy, after all, and therefore fallible. Imperfect as he is, Huck represents what anyone is capable of becoming: a thinking, feeling human being rather than a mere cog in the machine of society.

Adapt the speech you delivered in lesson 2 to an audience of professionals, teachers, and parents. the audience expects a more formal delivery. your listeners also expect you to use media such as images and audio to make your speech more convincing and easier to understand. your assignment should include the following elements: -at least four sources to back up your ideas -media elements to illustrate your ideas -changes to both the style and content of the speech to make it more appropriate to the audience -citations that follow mla guidelines as you revise your presentation, research and cite at least four sources. at least two of these sources must provide supporting evidence, such as charts and graphs or quotes from newspapers or other credible sources. the other two sources can provide material to grab the audience's attention — for example, photos that your audience visualize what you're talking about or music that sets the mood. you can also create original images, but these will not count as sources. here are some types of media that you may use to either show evidence or move the audience: quotes tables, charts, and graphs images video audio (including music) mix up the types of media you use so that no medium is used more than twice. take care that all your sources contribute to your speech in an obvious way. they should either back up what you're saying or make your ideas easier for your audience to understand logically or emotionally. avoid visual aids that are off topic or confusing. ask yourself these questions as you revise: am i still fulfilling the requirements of the speech i gave in lesson 2? is my speech still about a theme in franklin roosevelt's four freedoms speech? do i connect that theme to my own life and to a current issue? are my sources credible and relevant? will they convince an audience of parents, teachers, and professionals? do my media elements enhance my speech? do they set the mood, explain something difficult, or offer convincing proof? do i avoid media elements that are more distracting than ? did i cite my sources according to mla guidelines? did i check my works-cited page against sample works-cited pages to make sure it's correct?