Journey to Independence in Huckleberry FinnIn the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck, struggles to develop his own set of beliefs and values ​​despite having much power powerful social structure of its environment. The people he meets and the situations he experiences while traveling along the Mississippi River help him become an independent thinker in the very conformist society of 19th century Missouri. Huck is a free spirit who finds socially acceptable actions restrictive and unbearable. This is demonstrated after Huck and his best friend Tom Sawyer find a large amount of money. Widow Douglas adopts Huck. With the Widow Douglas, Huck feels as if society's values ​​and norms are being shoved down his throat. "The widow Douglas took me for her son, and allowed me to be degraded; but it was hard to live always at home, considering how sadly regular and dignified the widow was in all her ways; and so when I could not. No longer resisting, I left gone I got back into my old rags and my sugar barrel, and I was free and satisfied. (Twain 3) At the beginning of the adventure along the river, Huck and Tom must quickly adapt to life on a raft that Tom prove themselves capable of this task. "My bed was a straw mint, better than Jim's, which was a paper mint; there's always corn on the cob lying around in a husk, and it stings and hurts you" (Twain 123) Enterprising Huck has made beds for both him and Jim on the raft. He no longer has the bed at Widow Douglas's house nor his barrel of sugar, but he still survived with what he had. At the beginning of the journey, the reader can see the affection Huck has for humanity. And he begged me to save their… half of paper..., but he didn't seem fascinated by it. He agreed to move forward with his gang. By the end of the novel Huck has matured and is able to make independent decisions, even when they clash with others. “I knew he was white inside, and I thought he would say what he said, so everything was fine now, and I told Tom I was a… going to a doctor.” (Twain 264) This passage shows Huckleberry Finn's newfound wisdom. Huck's departure to go to the doctor against Tom's wishes is the first time Huck asserts himself in doing what he believes is right. Huckleberry Finn's travels along the Mississippi brought events and people into his life that clarified his beliefs and values. Huck has always lived an independent lifestyle learning to make decisions for himself and assert his own beliefs, he could now be considered an independent thinking individual in a conformist society.