The hypocrisy of late nineteenth-century American society is shown in countless ways, page after page, in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Just like Huck, Twain himself saw the flaws and ignorance in human beings: In my school days I had no aversion to slavery. I didn't know there was anything wrong with that. No one questioned it in front of me; the local newspapers said nothing to the contrary; the local pulpit taught us that God approved of it, that it was a holy thing, and that the doubter needed only to look at the Bible if he wanted to calm down - and then the texts were read aloud to us to make sure of the matter. ; if the slaves themselves had an aversion to slavery they were wise and said nothing. In Hannibal we rarely saw a slave mistreated; on the farm, never. (Autobiography of Mark Twain) As Twain matured and moved beyond his “schoolboy days,” he became a true advocate for equal rights for African Americans. He funded Warner T. McGuinn's graduate education at Yale Law School. McGuinn, who later became a prestigious African-American lawyer, mentored Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Twain also donated to Tuskegee University, the NAACP, and spoke at many African American churches. In the novel and in his own life Mark Twain shows the wrongs committed by society solely due to ignorance and prejudice. Huck, taken into custody by the widow Douglas, very quickly rejects the social norms of upper-class American society. “He put me in those new clothes again, and I couldn't do anything but sweat and sweat and feel all cramped.” (Twain 1) Huck never fully understands the need for clothes that aren't comfortable, in fact most of the time he spent with Jim on the river they didn't wear clothes... middle of paper... anted know; so I knocked on the door and decided that I wouldn't forget that I was a girl. (41) Most people would have disapproved of a boy dressing as a girl during this time. Huck's lack of respect for social morals shows how he doesn't care about being accepted because he doesn't want to be a part of a society he doesn't agree with. His time with the Widow Douglas, his father, his encounter with Grangerford, and the two swindlers all lead to Huck's final decision to leave civilized society for the West. “But I think I'll have to leave for the Territory before the others, because Aunt Sally will adopt me and debase me and I can't stand it. I've been there before." (220) Huck will live his life as he wishes, despite what society dictates. He is and always will be a survivor. Works Cited The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain