My 3rd quarter Novel was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It’s the story of a teenager who hates civilized society and tries to escape it. After faking his death, he has numerous escapades with his friend Jim, who was Huck’s guardians’s slave, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. During the trip down Huck has many questions about morality and whether or not some of the different things he’s done are considered good. He is pressured by societal norms often throughout the story, and even considers turning Jim in because society has told him that its wrong for slaves to runaway. Societal norms have a big pull and influence on Huck during his trip with Jim.

The source I found is called “Under the Influence: How the Group Changes What We Think.” This source was written by Shirley S. Wang, who studies and writes on mental health and psychological issues, and was formerly a psychology professor. In the article Wang writes about how a community can change and influence how people think. She explains that people follow societal norms in order to fit in or identify themselves with the group, so as to not be outsider. She states that societal standards/norms are often changed or started when a more prominent or important figure supports a certain thing or idea. However Wang also explains that norms cause people to tend not to think for themselves. People often blindly accept norms/standards just because they want to be accepted and included as part of the group. Norms prevent outside thinking and influence people into changing their own views or ideas on a subject. Instead of people coming up with their own ideas they just accept what everyone else is saying because they don’t want to be an outsider. People who don’t follow norms are often ostracized. They are unaccepted and looked down upon. Norms create expectations that force people to act a certain way, or be ostracized for not doin so. Many norms can be immoral and just plain wrong. Today people can be ostracized for not supporting abortion. The picture represents poeple’s struggle over whether or not what society says is morally correct. Just like how Huck struggles over the morality of society’s standards in the novel.

Relation to the novel: The norms in Huckleberry Finn, like stated earlier, force Huck to act a certain way. Mrs. Watson almost expects Huck to act perfectly. He is not allowed to be wild and go have fun adventures with his friends, while some of what he and his friends do are not appropriate, a lot of the stuff they do is just normal things that boys usual do to have fun. Like just playing and running around outside. If Huck didn’t meet all of Mrs. Watson’s standards we was scolded and punished. The picture represents Huck being ostracized for not meeting Mrs. Waton’s standards, just like how people today at ostracized for not following the norms, even if the norms are wrong/immoral. It’s the restriction of society and all of Mrs. Watson’s rules and expectations that make Huck decide to leave. The societal norms that are all around Huck also cause him to believe racial stereotypes. Since everyone around Huck has black people as slaves and don’t treat them are normal human beings, Huck also begins to believe that blacks are beneath him. At one point in the story he even thinks about why he is even hanging out with Jim at all because he believe he shouldn’t associate with blacks. Many of the norms about slaves are just plain wrong and immoral. Hucks continues to question the “rightness” of these norms throughout the novel.