Character Comparison Between Jim And Huck

Pictures play a major role in influencing the way Mark Twain's writings were read, and the novelist was aware of this fact: He objected to Huck's image after Edward Kemble, a professional illustrator of “negro drawings”, who presented the first few illustrations he had done of the main character. Twain complained that Huck's mouth was "a trifle more Irishy than necessary," and it is only in the first several chapters that Huck looks like that. Twain never objected to the pictorial representations of Jim, however, which never change their expressive value. This seems to be disturbing because Jim as a character changes considerably in the course of the novel - from a superstitious figure to a person with a full-bodied presence - and if any character

In the belief of superstitious parts of life, Jim comes upon believing that Huck is a ghost and fears him. The drawing of Jim and The Ghost (54) demonstrates Jim again, shaded dark to an extreme in order to show the contrast of skin color between him and Huck. As a typical slave stereotype, he is in a position where he begs for mercy before a white, young being that stands higher socially and racially in society. Even though Jim is older and larger in the image, it does not change any aspect of him being lesser than Huck. Jim’s emotions are exaggerated in every possible way throughout the novel yet is kept subservient to whoever was his “owner” of that time. Be it through subservience, obedience, or respecting the “White power” of that period, Jim was the perfect slave - if there could be such a thing. The clear idea of white hierarchy is proof that Jim becoming free or more human is impossible to reach. Although Twain had vivid comprehension into the reality of slavery, Kemble’s illustrations do not depict Jim realistically but instead dehumanize him as a character due to the color of his skin and because he is a