Mason RichardsonMrs. FranksEnglish AP IIIApril 1, 2014The Downfalls of "Civilization"Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn challenges what it means to be civilized by being morally good with only self-guidance and nature to rely on. Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835, and spent much of his young life near the Mississippi River just as Huck did. Twain's father died when he was 12, and Huck's father also died when he was young. Twain expressed Huck's sense of adventure and fortune through his travels to the Holy Land and his interests in South American treasures. Twain served for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but was persuaded to leave by his brother, setting him on the path to becoming an author. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Twain points out that the traditional definition of being civilized does not apply to Huck by shaping Huck's morals through survival and nature. In Lord of the Flies the shipwrecked children are similar to Huck Finn, while once deprived of civilization they began to do what they believed was right, implying that the common idea of ​​civilization is only "superficial" ("An overview of the Lord of flies”). Jack followed his instinct to hunt and survive without order or reason as soon as he was freed from society's influence. Ralph relied on order and plans to handle matters such as keeping the signal fire alive and doing what needed to be done on a daily basis. All the boys except Ralph and Piggy joined Jack because they believed that Jack was more powerful than Ralph and that his power would keep them safe. Jack had an internal conflict, after Jack's group of boys killed Piggy, about whether or not to join... half the paper... the novel, and protect him from the white slave society. The flaws of civilization are a much more reasonable theme for the novel than slavery, as it affects not just America and one race, but the world as a whole. Society plants the seeds of corruption in the population by shaping people through false ideas and programs. The real meaning of being civilized is not good manners or rules, but doing what you think is right through instinct instead of “equating good manners with morality”. ("The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain"). Overall, in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain implies that Huck is not the average person who follows the false ideas of civilized society, but a nature-enlightened individual who rebels against those false programs by escaping its influence and creating own moral decisions through self-guidance and nature.