The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published twenty years after the Civil War and ten years after Reconstruction. However, it takes place 1834 (or perhaps 1844, according to Huck). In what ways does Huck function as a metaphor for the adolescent America? Solution There is the nostalgic belief that America was built by a rugged individualism and people that took the \"road less travelled\" to forge their own future. Huck , for sure showcases this mythos. He goes against \"civilized\" Southern culture that, at that time, included institutionalized slavery and bondage. Huck made his way down the Mississippi River with an escaped slave. Huck developed his own social and moral code that often went against Southern society. He set a great examople for the adloscent America as he gave them hope that one needs to be tough as when the going gets tough , the tough gets going. One is the master of ones own fate.