Mark Twain examines the relationship between moral codes and their effect on society through the characters he develops in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain constructs a unique moral code for each individual character based on that character's expectations and treatment by society and his or her personal experience. In this novel, morality primarily revolves around conformity or defiance, which have the ability to blindly support or subtly undermine any social institution respectively. Young Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, the novel's central characters, personify these moral opposites: one as a troubled social outcast, the other as a typical white boy with an affinity for fun and games. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Huck struggles with conflicts between his own conscience and society's moral expectations throughout the novel, particularly regarding Jim and slavery. He knows he is breaking the law by helping Jim escape: "Conscience says to me, 'What did poor Miss Watson do to you, that you could see her nigger pop right before your eyes and never say a single word? What did she Done?" to do to you, poor old woman, that you can treat her so cruelly?'" (100). Huck does not realize that his sensitivity towards freedom is what makes him want to help Jim, since it is more developed than that of the average white boy of the time. Huck's direct exposure to abuse, fear, and violent imprisonment at the hands of his alcoholic father "Pap" forces him to unconsciously identify with the slave horrors of imprisonment, loneliness, and violence he doesn't understand the underlying fact that he wants to help Jim because he knows the pain of oppression: all he perceives is his own cruel undermining of the stable set of morals that his society provides is certainly not one basis for stable moral development, and the morality he developed independently in his vile life with Pap is in almost constant contrast to that of the antebellum Southern United States, for example, the fundamental idea that blacks are pieces of property subhuman and unworthy. Huck tries in vain to find a reason to treat Jim as such: But for some reason I can't find any point that can harden me against him, but only the other kind. I saw him keeping watch over his, instead of calling me, so he could continue sleeping; and see him how happy he was when I come back out of the fog; ...and [he] always called me darling, and pampered me, and did everything he could think of for me, ...and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he ever had. got it now... (227-228) Through his actions, Jim proves that he is not just a human being, but a benevolent and loving human being who has been more of a father to Huck than Pap ever was. Why should "scoundrels" like the Duke, the King and Pap - all violent and detestable - be allowed more freedom and respect than the loving Jim? Such questions shake Huck's conscience early in the novel, but eventually settle into a rebellious, even subversive, ideal of equality and freedom based on merit rather than ethnicity; an ideal that, if widespread, has the potential to shatter the economic and social structure that Huck's native South has known for decades. The character of Tom Sawyer, although less developed in this novel than that of Huck, presents an entirely different moral code formed by virtually incomparable life experiences. Like Huck, Tom has no mother, but instead of having a dangerous one."(253),.