Often throughout a person's life, negative and positive influences are instilled in their mind through friends and family. In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character grows up under the guidance of three different adult views of how a boy should behave. Huck, the main character, learns useful and harmful life lessons from Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, Jim, and Dad. To begin with, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are two wealthy sisters who adopt Huck. The two sisters want to teach Huck the importance of religion, good manners and behavior. After staying in the house for a while, Huck realizes that "it [is] hard to live in the house all the time" because the Widow Douglas wants to "debase him" (Twain, 1). When dinner is ready, the widow calls Huck to the table, but before she begins to eat the widow needs to “put her head down and grumble a little about the food” (1). Huck knew there was nothing wrong with the food, but since the widow was religious she was trying to instill in Huck the need to bless his food and thank God for it. The widow is trying to make religion a part of Huck's life, which seems to have a negative impact on his life considering the many times Twain describes religious people as naive. Miss Watson, the more energetic of the two sisters, is adamant in getting Huck to behave. To help Huck develop into a person who "go[es] to the good place" also known as heaven, Miss Watson constantly tells him things to do to help him behave such as "don't put your feet up there" and "stand straight"(2 ) In addition to adopting a religion and behaving well, Huck's appearance had to be clean and respectable Even if the new clothes made Huck sweat,...... middle of paper... who ever "maintained his promise to old Jim" (80). Another quality of character that Huck learns from Jim is that African Americans are also people who can feel about their family the same way Caucasians feel about theirs. Huck often hears Jim complaining at night because he is homesick and his family This is when Huck realizes that just because Jim is African American does not mean that they are not capable of feeling the same as Caucasians because it has a positive effect on Huck now Huck is humble, trustworthy, and is not influenced by society regarding African Americans. Ultimately, Huck's personality is shaped by three adults with different driving styles. Overall Miss Watson, Widow Douglas, and Jim inserted beneficial character traits to help shape Huck Finn as a person, while Dad just added unnecessary nonsense like not going to school.