The major conflict in the novel is,

The major conflict in the novel is, therefore, entirely within Huck's own psyche. As Twain put it, Huck's "deformed conscience" is at odds with his "sound heart" (Trachtenberg 50). The real struggle is between what Huck has been trained to think and what he learns from his own experience and his friendship with Jim. Throughout the story, Huck seems to take important steps toward freeing himself from that deformed, socially programmed conscience. During the course of the journey, Huck is exposed to the dark side of "civilized," white, southern society. He encounters a rogues' gallery of characters that give him more than his fill of violence, mendacity, cruelty, pretentiousness and every other vice known to man. Even the "quality" folk are petty, vengeful and racist. This drives Huck to rely more and more on his own judgment (which is sounder than that of anyone else, except for Jim), rather than society's values. The most powerful agent for moral change in Huck, however, is his developing friendship with Jim. In chapter 15, he "humbles" himself to apologize to Jim after having played a trick on him that hurt his feelings. Huck hides and protects Jim from the boatload of men hunting for runaway slaves in chapter 16. Chapter 23 finds Jim grieving for the wife and children he left behind, and Huck comes to the realization that blacks must love their families as much as whites. The true crisis point in Huck's moral development occurs in chapter 31, after two con artists have turned Jim in as a runaway for forty dollars. Huck genuinely agonizes over what to do - it is his moment of moral reckoning. On the one hand, he considers his culture's view that slavery is a right approved by God. Helping a slave to escape is not only illegal, it is a sin. In effect, he would be stealing Miss Watson's property, worth eight hundred dollars. On the other hand, he struggles with Jim's humanity and realizes that Jim is more than just a "nigger," he is a friend. Huck's final decision is one of the most plangent ironies in all of literature: