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The Six Stages of
Moral Development
& Huck Finn
The Heinz Scenario, Kohlberg’s Stages
of Moral Development, and Huck Finn
1.
2.
3.
You are going to walk through a hypothetical case
study to discuss and learn about the types of
moral choices we make daily.
Take notes on your handouts during the case
study to track your moral development.
We will apply what we learn to Huck’s choices in
the novel. Understanding Huck’s moral
development in the novel (especially when
considering his last choice) will help you
understand Mark Twain’s purpose for writing the
novel.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of
Moral Development
Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development is a theory that moral reasoning, the basis
for ethical behavior, has six developmental stages, each
more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its
predecessor. For his studies, Kohlberg relied on stories
such as the Heinz Dilemma, and was interested in how
individuals would justify their actions if placed in
similar moral dilemmas. He analyzed the
Form of moral reasoning displayed, rather
than its conclusion.
The Heinz Dilemma
Imagine you are on a committee of highly
respected psychoanalysts. As a group your
moral insight will help decide the fate of a
controversial case.
*
Question: Is Heinz a criminal or a hero?
Instructions
1.
2.
3.
Write down your response for each scenario on your
handout.
The ambiguity of each scenario will lead to several
different opinions within the class. Discuss and
defend your opinions as to what decisions should be
made before moving to the next scenario.
It is important that you stick to the allotted amount
of time. After you get through each scenario you
will determine which stage of moral thinking and
development your choices were in. After, we will
apply what we learn to Huckleberry Finn.
The Heinz Dilemma: Scenario 1
Heinz’s wife is near death; her only hope is a recentlydiscovered drug. The drug costs $20,000 to make, but the
pharmacist who manufactures it sells it for $200,000. Heinz
was rejected by his medical insurance company so he went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money. After exhausting
every legal means, he could only raise $20,000. Heinz
appealed to the pharmacist to take what he had. When he
was rejected again, he offered to pay installments. Still, the
pharmacist refused. In desperation, Heinz considers stealing
the drug.
Should Heinz break into the doctor’s laboratory
to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?
The Heinz Dilemma: Scenario 2
Heinz broke into the laboratory and stole the drug.
The next day, the newspaper reported the break-in
and theft. Brown, a police officer and a good friend of
Heinz remembered seeing Heinz last evening and
thought he was behaving suspiciously. Later that night,
he saw Heinz running away from the laboratory.
Should Brown report what he saw?
Why or why not?
The Heinz Dilemma: Scenario 3
Officer Brown reported what he saw. Heinz was
arrested and brought to court. If convicted, he faces
up to fifteen years in jail. Heinz was found guilty by a
jury and awaits the judge’s sentence.
Should the judge sentence Heinz to prison?
Why or why not?
Understanding the Six Stages of
Moral Development
Take notes on the six stages of
moral development. You need to write
enough to understand and eventually
apply your knowledge of the
difference between each stage.
Remember, what you think Heinz should do is not as
important as how you justify your thinking, or the form
of your response. The stages we will discuss come from
how we think about moral problems. As we get into
discussions and debates with others, we find our views
questioned and challenged and are therefore motivated
to come up with new, more comprehensive positions. New
stages reflect these broader viewpoints as we grow in our
moral development (Kohlberg et al., 1975).
How many of you changed your minds or
considered other points of view when
during one of the scenarios?
Stage 1: Obedience
Punishment-Obedience Orientation
The physical consequences of an action
determine its goodness or badness regardless
of the human meaning or value of these
consequences.
Good behavior is motivated by
avoiding punishment
Possible Stage 1 Response
to The Heinz Dilemma
Avoiding Punishment
Heinz should not
steal the drug
because he might
be caught and sent
to jail.
Stage 2: Self-Interest
Instrumental Relativist Orientation
The right action is “That which satisfies one's own
needs and occasionally the needs of others."
The ideas of fairness, reciprocity and equal sharing
shape this stage. Reciprocity is a matter of “you
scratch my back and I'll scratch yours,” not of loyalty,
gratitude or justice.
The concern is "What's in it for me?”
Possible Stage 2 Responses to
the Heinz Dilemma
Back Scratching or Fairness
It is right for Heinz to steal the drug because
it can cure his wife. This will make him happier,
even if he must go to prison.
…
The pharmacist invested a lot of money and
many years of his life to develop the cure so
it's not fair to him that Heinz stole the drug.
Stage 3: Conformity
Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation
Good behavior is that which pleases or helps
others and is approved by them. There is
much conformity to stereotypical images of
what is majority or 'natural' behavior.
”What will my
friends think?”
”Am I doing the
right thing?”
”WW_D?”
Possible Stage 3 Responses to
the Heinz Dilemma
1) Yes, Heinz should steal the drug. He probably will go to
jail for a short time for stealing but people will applaud
him for saving a life.
2) Officer Brown should report that he saw Heinz
behaving suspiciously and running away from the
laboratory because the police department would be
pleased with his service and loyalty.
3) Officer Brown should not report what he saw because
he’s not the kind of guy who would “rat” on a friend.
4) The judge should not sentence Heinz to jail for stealing
the drug because he meant well ... he only stole it to
cure his wife and most of the jury agrees.
Stage 4: Law and Order*
Right behavior consists in doing one's duty, showing
respect for authority and maintaining the given social
order for its own sake.
The concern now goes beyond one's immediate group
(s) to larger society and the maintenance of law and
order. One's obligation to the law overrides
obligations of loyalty to family, friends and other
groups. To put it simply, no one or group is above the
law. Actions have consequences.
Kohlberg found that the majority of the population does not
make moral decisions beyond this level.
Possible Stage 4 Responses to
the Heinz Dilemma
1) As her husband, Heinz has a duty to save
his wife's life so he should steal the drug. But
it's wrong to steal, so Heinz should be
prepared to accept the penalty for breaking
the law.
2) The judge should sentence Heinz
to jail. Stealing is against the law!
He should not make any exceptions
even though Heinz‘s wife is dying.
Stage 5: Human Rights
Social Contract Orientation
Right action is based on standards which have
been critically examined and agreed upon by
the whole society.
Social utility or public interest determines
what is best for everyone. Rules are needed
to maintain social order; however, as Ralph
Waldo Emerson has stated, “Good men must
not obey the laws too well.”
Possible Stage 5 Responses to
the Heinz Dilemma
Human Rights
Making Exceptions
Heinz should steal the drug because everyone has the
right to life regardless of the law against stealing.
Should Heinz be caught and prosecuted for stealing
then the law needs to be reinterpreted because a
person's life is at stake.
The pharmacist’s decision is despicable but his right
to fair compensation (for his discovery) must be
maintained. Therefore, Heinz should not steal the
drug. Even if his wife is sick, it does not make his
actions right.
Stage 6: Universal Human Ethics
"Right is defined by the decision of conscience
in accord with fundamental ethical principles
appealing to logical comprehensiveness,
universality and consistency.”
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”
Possible Stage 6 Responses to
the Heinz Dilemma
Heinz should steal the drug to save his wife because
preserving human life is a higher moral obligation
than preserving property.
Heinz should not steal the medicine because others
may need to drug just as badly, and their lives are
equally significant.
Understanding the Six Stages of
Moral Development
What Stage Do YOU Fall In?
Huck Finn Moral Development Project
1.
2.
3.
4.
In small groups (5 max) select one of the following chapters:
15, 16, 26, 31, 33, 40, 42, or another approved by me.
Write down choices Huck makes in the chapter and select
specific passages that show these choices.
Next, explain what stage of moral development you think his
choice falls under and why.
You will present your findings to the class next week in
Socratic style by summarizing/performing specific passages
that show moral development. Then, ask high-level questions
of your peers about their thoughts on Huck’s moral
development before offering your own opinions.
Chapter
15
Chapter
16
Chapter
26
Chapter
31
Chapter
33
Chapter
40
Chapter
42
Moral Development & Huck Finn
Chapter &
Page #
Summary of
Huck’s
Decisions
Stage of Moral
Development
Explanation
Moral Development: Chap 8
"Well, dey's reasons. But you wouldn' tell on me ef I uz to tell you, would
you, Huck?”
"Blamed if I would, Jim.”
"Well, I b'lieve you, Huck. I -- run off.”
"Jim!”
"But mind, you said you wouldn' tell -- you know you said you wouldn' tell,
Huck.”
"Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it. Honest injun, I will.
People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping
mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't a-going to tell, and I
ain't a-going back there, anyways. So, now, le's know all about it."
What stage is this? Discuss
Huck’s Moral Development: Chap
15

It was fifteen minutes before I could work
myself up to go and humble myself to a
nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry
for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him
no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done
that one if I'd a knowed it would make him
feel that way.
What stage is this? Discuss
Moral Development: Chap 16 P.
93

“I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blame,
because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner; but
it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every time, "But
you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could
a paddled ashore and told somebody." That was so -- I
couldn't get around that noway. That was where it
pinched. Conscience says to me, "What had poor Miss
Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off
right under your eyes and never say one single word?
(read to end of paragraph in book)
What stage is this? Discuss
Huck’s Moral Development: Chap
24


“Watching the two men blubber on and
lament their dear, beloved dead
"brother," Huck comments that, "it
was enough to make a body ashamed of
the human race.“
What stage is this? Discuss
Huck’s Moral Development: Chap
26


“I says to myself, this is another one that
I'm letting him rob her of her money. And
when she got through they all jest laid
theirselves out to make me feel at home and
know I was amongst friends. I felt so ornery
and low down and mean that I says to
myself, my mind's made up; I'll hive that
money for them or bust.”
What stage is this? Discuss
Huck’s Moral Development: Chap
40

"Well, then, if you re bound to go, I'll tell you the way to
do when you get to the village. Shut the door and
blindfold the doctor tight and fast, and make him swear
to be silent as the grave, and put a purse full of gold in
his hand, and then take and lead him all around the back
alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him
here in the canoe, in a roundabout way amongst the
islands, and search him and take his chalk away from him,
and don't give it back to him till you get him back to the
village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it
again. It's the way they all do."
So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the
woods when he see the doctor coming till he was gone again.
What stage is this? Discuss
Huck’s Moral Development: Chap
42

"No, I ain't out of my head; I know all what I'm talking about. We
did set him free -- me and Tom. We laid out to do it, and we done
it. And we done it elegant, too." He'd got a start, and she never
checked him up, just set and stared and stared, and let him clip
along, and I see it warn't no use for me to put in. "Why, Aunty, it
cost us a power of work -- weeks of it -- hours and hours, every
night, whilst you was all asleep. And we had to steal candles, and
the sheet, and the shirt, and your dress, and spoons, and tin
plates, and case-knives, and the warming-pan, and the grindstone,
and flour, and just no end of things, and you can't think what work
it was to make the saws, and pens, and inscriptions, and one thing
or another, and you can't think half the fun it was. And we had to
make up the pictures of coffins and things, and nonnamous letters
from the robbers, and get up and down the lightning-rod, and dig
the hole into the cabin, and made the rope ladder and send it in
cooked up in a pie, and send in spoons and things to work with in
your apron pocket -- "
What stage is this? Discuss
Huck’s Moral Development: Chap
43

“Tom's most well now, and got his bullet around his neck
on a watch-guard for a watch, and is always seeing what
time it is, and so there ain't nothing more to write about,
and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd a knowed what
a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it,
and ain't a-going to no more. But I reckon I got to light
out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt
Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't
stand it. I been there before.”
Considering all Huck has been through, this maybe one of his
most important decisions. Knowing what you know about Mark
Twain, and his satirical jests at religion and institutions of
slavery, what point is Twain making through Huck at the end?
What level of morality would this be?
Huck’s Moral Development Journal
Response

Now consider some of Huck’s behavior and choices from
the beginning of the text. List some of his pranks and
decisions in your journal. Next answer the questions
from the writing prompt at the bottom of the screen.
Huck and Tom
give the money
1
toChapter
the judge.
Huck says that
stealing a chicken
is really borrowing
Chapter
as long
as you13
plan
to give it back.
Tom’s Sawyer’s
gang does not
Chapter
steal on 2
Sunday.
Huck fakes his
death, and
Chapter
7
hides
from the
town.
Huck lies when
swearing in
Chapter
because
it 18
is a
dictionary and not
a bible.
Huck
impersonates Tom
Chapter
32
Sawyer
at Aunt
Salley’s.
Huck tricks Jim
with the snake.
Chapter 10
He will not
admit fault.
Huck and Tom
prolong Jim’s
capture for their
Chapter 34
entertainment.
They then
steal/free him.
While considering how Huck develops as a character throughout the text,
do Huck’s moral decisions become more complex by the end despite the
examples above? Does Huck become less of a trouble maker? Omitting
the examples above, when do you think Twain uses Huck to make a moral
statement to the reader?