Morality-Shmorality

We discussed Huck's "conscience" vs his "Heart". But something else I have been thinking about that has come up a lot is guilt. In the section where Huck is pondering his own moral code, guilt seems to have its place on both sides of the dilemma. He feels guilty for not turning Jim in, because it goes against what society has taught him to be right, and he would have felt "just the same way" even if he had turned him in, because he would have broken a promise to a friend. It feels like the opposition on the side of what is "wrong" is because it isn't really wrong. Huck knows this, but at the same time cannot shake what he has been taught.

When Jim and Huck are trying to decide if "borrowing" food is wrong. They compare Pap's belief that there is no harm in taking things "if you was meaning to pay them back, sometime" (76) to what the widow said about it still being stealing and not something any decent person does. Since they find merit on both sides of the argument, they try to compromise. The way they alleviate their guilt is by choosing a couple things they will not take. However they choose crab apples, which Huck doesn't like, and persimmons, which are not in season. Even though this is not a sacrifice it appeases the guilt and "it was all comfortable now" (76)

I think Huck also feels guilty when he helps the Duke and the King swindle the dead man's family. At one point, after messing up his story, he swears on a dictionary that he hasn't been telling lies, even though he has. This seems to him to be okay since it isn't a bible. He decides that if he tells on them it will be more trouble for him, instead he plans to fix the situation by stealing the money back. He manages to do so but he has to leave it in the coffin and doesn't have a chance to get it back before the funeral. He then feels guilty once more when the slave family is separated and sold. He comforts himself by telling him that they are going to be back in a couple weeks after the fraud is exposed.

I still don't feel like I have a solid understanding of Huck's morality. He seems to operate in this liminal space, in which sometimes what he does is what society values, or what he believes should be right, or just what is best for his survival.