Alex, 

   I think you have understood most of what Twain meant in the "deformed conscience
   and sound heart" quotation and the opening paragraph contains a good statement of 
   exactly what the deformation was.  But the way you characterize the extent of that
   deformation is less "on point" because I think you are casting too wide a net in 
   describing how far Twain's words extend in that quotation.  First, I think discussing
   the historical context of the Missouri Compromise right at the start is not the
   best introduction to what you are trying to say.  It's too general and while it
   does play a part in the background to Twain's story, Twain isn't only dealing
   with the history.  His concerns are much more personal.  Along the same lines, 
   it's the "deformation" of Huck's conscience by the society he grew up rather 
   than what you say in your sentence: "The deformed conscience he is talking about 
   is the consciences of the people of his time."  In the quotation, I don't think
   Twain is being anywhere near that sweeping and general.  He's talking about 
   Huck's conscience in particular.  You might then argue that he's making a more general
   point by focusing on that particular case.  But I think that would require additional 
   evidence to be really convincing and it would bring in the idea of the satirical
   aims of the novel as a whole, which you don't really address anywhere in the paper. 

   One thing you don't really address explicitly is exactly where the "deformations"
   in Huck's conscience came from.  We could trace part of that to the influence of
   Pap and part to the "sivilization" that the Widow Douglas tried to instill into
   him.  It would have been good to go into that to some extent.    

   On the other hand, your essay does do a good job of tracing how Huck's attitudes 
   about Jim change.  But there is another aspect of the "deformed conscience/sound heart" 
   contrast that you could have examined in more detail.  I'm thinking of a series of 
   passages where Huck talks about how he has to overcome his "conscience" to do something 
   his heart knows is right.  It would have been good, for instance, to look in detail at
   passages like the one on page 66 where Huck is examinining his own motives to try to 
   understand why he feels that what he is doing with Jim is wrong.  You might have 
   used what he said in that conversation with himself to illustrate exactly how the 
   "deformation" arose from Huck's life with the Widow Douglas and how the pangs of 
   conscience he feels are exactly like what we expect from a person having a moral 
   quandary.  The real pain he feels at these moments is what makes them so powerful: 
   He feels genuinely bad for making what we know is the right choice because he thinks 
   it is the wrong choice, based on his upbringing.  It would have been good to show 
   more of exactly how that plays out rather than just describing this in general terms.  
   It's interesting that in fact in almost every (maybe every?) time Huck uses the word 
   "conscience," Twain is showing a new step in this development, so you might have used 
   the occurrences of the word "conscience" to trace that progression in more detail. 

   One final point.  I think the ”I know'd he was white inside” quotation implies that
   while Huck has changed and come to understand Jim in some ways, the process is
   not complete and the traces of his upbringing are still pretty strong in a way.
   It's as if the only way Huck knows to say that he thinks Jim is a good person
   is to say he's "white inside."  This deserves some more comment and analysis!
    
   Your writing is generally forceful and direct, which is good.  There are several
   places that could be improved, though.  For instance in the first full paragraph
   on page 4, you say "He had never had to say sorry to a black person before."  
   This would read more smoothly if you said either " ... had to say he was sorry to 
   ... " or " ... had to say 'sorry' to ... " (treating the "sorry" as a direct 
   quotation).  In the next sentence, too,  "All of his teachings growing up had 
   expressed that black people were not equal to white people ... " does not really 
   work because "his teachings" would mean things that Huck taught to others.  You 
   want "things he was taught," not "teachings."  Also this whole sentence could
   be tightened up like this:  "Everything he was taught while he was growing up told
   him that black people were not equal to white people ... "  There are a few
   other places like this as well where your sentence structures could be varied
   a bit more to liven things up.  

   Content/Evidence -- B+

   Structure/Mechanics -- A-