Freedom and Racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain presents the story of a 13-year-old boy who tries to escape the “sivilized” society by running away from all its constraints. On his way to freedom he meets Jim, a runaway black slave who is hiding from the villagers in order to remain alive. As their ways intersect and since both have similar goals, the two remain together in an attempt to find freedom. This is a pregnant theme in the novel and it applies differently on the two characters: they each want to achieve freedom but each type of freedom is different. They search for the same feeling but with completely different thoughts and wishes. My aim for this essay is to analyze Huck and Jim’s manners of perceiving independence and to illustrate by means of quotations some of the most clear and interesting passages regarding their goals. Also, I would like to discuss the theme of racism which is also an important one in the novel’s development. Huck Finn has always done what he wanted to do. Along his life few restraints have been put upon him and now, when he finds himself in Miss Watson’s house, he feels trapped and caged, developing a high disgust for everything regarding manners, ways of acting in the society or rules. These constraints torment Huck but despite his dislike for school, church and good manners he decides to stay at Miss Watson because of a promise his friend Tom Sawyer has made to him: that Huck will enter Tom’s robber gang if he remains “respectable”. After he is kidnapped by his drunken father and escapes from the cabin where Pap took him by faking his own death, Huck finds himself alone and on the run. This moment can be perceived as the first milestone he lays on his way to freedom. Catherine Wimberley in her... ... middle of paper ... ...aste land which can be found in the following quote from chapter 8 “I catched a glimpse of fire away through the trees. I went for it, cautious and slow. By and by I was close enough to have a look, and there laid a man on the ground. It most give me the fantods. He had a blanket around his head, and his head was nearly in the fire. I set there behind a clump of bushes in about six foot of him, and kept my eyes on him steady. It was getting gray daylight now. Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket, and it was Miss Watson’s Jim! I bet I was glad to see him. I says: “Hello, Jim!” and skipped out.” (Twain, Chapter 8, p. 43). In conclusion, the relationship between Huck and Jim outcomes the preconceived ideas typical for the period regarding slavery, and they both attempt to achieve freedom while surviving the life on a raft.

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