Why a thirteen year old?

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain uses a thirteen year old boy as the main character. The reason that Mark Twain uses a thirteen year old boy is because he wanted a character that could develop morally and a character that did not have a lot of education or experience in the world. Huck Finn turns out to be the most unbiased and open-minded character in the book. He is a character that does not have a sense of what is right and wrong and acts out of moral conviction. His famous quote "All right, then, I'll GO to hell" shows that he makes his own decisions and that he is doing what he feels is morally right. He does not care about religion and is willing to make his own judgments. I think that the use of a thirteen year old boy as the main character was a good idea because it allows a deep development in the character and allows progressiveness in the character.
posted by Alberto A.