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The value of friendship in huck finn
Huck and jim friendship
How does huck change as a character in the adventures of huckleberry finn
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Huck Finn went through the seemingly impossible circumstances throughout the book which made him change in many ways! In Mark Twain's story The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Huck slowly starts showing how much he cares about others as the book progresses. He began trying to do what was right unlike his past. He started connecting and creating friendships with people whereas before he didn't care about that kind of thing. Although Huck isn't perfect he really started showing how much he cares for others and began trying to choose the right, instead of the wrong, Huck started connecting and creating friendships with people whereas before he didn't care about that kind of thing. Huck slowly started showing how much he cares about others as the book progresses. “I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn. He often done that.” (chapter 23 paragraph 30) "All right, then, I'll go to hell" (chapter 31 paragraph 34)This is the scene where Huck decides not to send the letter turning in Jim. This does not directly show his love and care for others but this is a point when he realizes people care about him. Because of moments like these Huck began really caring for other people. Huck slowly began showing how much he cares …show more content…
I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him. My conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says to it, "Let up on me—it ain't too late yet—I'll paddle ashore at the first light and tell." I felt easy and happy and light as a feather right off. All my troubles was gone. (chapter 16 paragraph 9) Huck begins trying to actually find out right from wrong. He is feeling his conscience for the first time in probably forever. He is trying to do the “right” thing. He realises what he thought was right was in all reality wrong and he fixed it by saving Jim and never giving up. Huck began trying to do what was right unlike his past life
He gets into all sorts of conflicts that force him to battle and work his way out of them, and in turn, they propel his moral position’s evolvement. It is especially hard on Huck when it comes time to resolving moral dilemmas. He is always stuck between making his own moral decisions, be it conventional or not, or allowing influencers, his father, the widow, and society, to make the decisions for him. He can never let go of the guilt associated with taking the unconventional path and rejecting what society upholds because that is all he has ever been taught in his life. That is why it is hard to apologize to Jim at first, but given time Huck is able to muster the courage to do so because that is the right thing to do even when society says so otherwise. The same goes for helping a slave, such as Jim, escape to a free state where he can find the opportunity to reunite with his family. Ultimately, he violates the demands of society to do what is right and not contribute to the enslavement of another human being. And it is not until the end of the novel that Huck no longer views his decisions as moral failings, but instead as moral triumph because he stayed true to himself and not once did he allow society to dictate his
...ing out for Huck like a father would. "I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come" (Twain ). In this line Huck states that though he does not have a plan just yet, the first thing that he will do once he has one, is to carry it out and free Jim. This shows his loyalty to Jim as he will always come back to him which demonstrates how much he cares for him and their strong bond.
Upon arriving at Cairo, Huck must decide if he should go along with society and turn Jim in as a runaway slave, or keep his promise to his friend, and see him through to freedom. Huck feels guilty not turning Jim in when he hears him talking about hiring an abolitionist to steal his family. He does not think it is right to help take away slaves from people that he doesn 't even know. To turn Jim in for these reasons would be the influence of society on Huck. Huck 's decision on this matter marks another major step in Huck 's moral progression, because he decides not to turn in Jim on his own. This is the first time he makes a decision all on his own based on his own morality. They stop at Grangerford’s Farm, in Tennessee, after the raft is temporality destroyed. With Huck busy with the Grangerford family, Jim was able to rebuild the raft. Huck just met the Grangerfords, but fits right in immediately. He later feels that someone should take the time to write poetry about Emmeline Grangerford, recently deceased, since she always took the time to write about other people who died. He even tries to write the poetry himself, but it doesn 't turn out right. Then he also sees people shooting at each other makes him sick to his stomach. He sees it as an act against humanity and he simply cannot relate or understand how humans can treat each other in such an uncivil
Mark Twain throughout the book showed Huckleberry Finns personal growth on how he started from the bottom as a lonely, racist, immature kid who knew nothing to where he is now, by finally breaking away from society’s values he was taught in the beginning. He has alienated himself from the from that society and revealed how in fact these values were hypocritical. He realized that he can choose his own morals and that the one he chooses is the correct one.
When the middle of the novel comes around Huck begins to distinguish what is right and wrong in life and begins to mature and do the right thing. He shows this when he chooses not to partake in the scam that the King and the Duke are playing on the Wilks family. Instead he takes the money back from the King and Duke to hide it because he believes it is only fair to the family. "I'm letting him rob her of her money...I feel so ornery and low...I got to steal that money somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they wont suspicion I done it" (Twain 133) This shows that Huck is starting to see the line between games and real life.
In chapter 16, Huck goes through a moral conflict of whether he should turn Jim in or not. “I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me (89).'; Right off from the beginning, Huck wanted to turn Jim in because it was against society’s rules to help a slave escape and Huck knew it. But when Jim said that “Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now (89),'; made helped Huck to grasp the concept that there is a friendship in the making. Even though Huck didn’t turn Jim in, he is till troubled by his conscience when the slave catchers were leaving because he knows it is wrong to help a slave. Still Huck cannot bring himself forward to tell on Jim, thus showing that his innate sense of right exceeds that of society.
In lieu of his escape, Jim emphasized his feelings of becoming a free man. Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom (p. 238). Huck came to the realization that Jim was escaping for a far different reason than he, and began to see this “nigger’s” freedom as his own fault; he was an accomplice. Huck’s conscience became plagued by the fact that Jim was escaping the custody of his rightful owner, and he was doing nothing to stop this. In Huck’s eyes, Jim was essentially the property of poor old Ms. Watson, who didn’t do anything less than teach Jim his manners and his books. Altogether, Huck felt that he was doing wrong by concealing this, and felt miserable to say the least.
He started to feel guilty for keeping Jim hidden all that time and even attempted to write Mrs. Watson. He wrote a letter to her telling of Jim’s location but ripped it up immediately after. Huck came to a conclusion when he says, “I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all” (Twain 204). He knew that what he was doing was not considered right in that situation but he felt okay with the choices that he had made. At this point, the reader can see how Huck is conflicted and acknowledges that his lies could have been immoral. In the end of his meltdown, he decided that it was all for the best and he wanted to continue to protect Jim at all
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...
As a result of his immaturity, Huck causes issues with the people who care about him. For example, Huck and Jim become separated from each other, and Huck tries to convince Jim that he dreams the situation. However, Jim realizes that Huck is messing with him, which saddens Jim. Huck then apologizes to Jim, because he realizes how much that his prank hurt him: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to and humble myself to a nigger-but I done it and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards…”(Twain 94). This is a turning point for Huck, because he starts to realize that Jim is not just property, but a human with real emotions. It also shows that Huck can relate more to Jim than he can to the other characters in the book, because he struggles to feel empathy for others. This proves how Huck starts to mature, because he understands that he hurt Jim, which ultimately leads him to apologize to Jim. Brownell also expresses similar ways Huck changes for the better because of Jim. For example, Brownell expresses in his essay, “But it is this incident [when Huck lies to] Jim which,
After his abusive father becomes too much to handle, Huck “[makes] up [his] mind [he] would fix up some way to leave there” (35). By leaving, Huck is leaving behind all that he knows, but he finally understands that what his father had put him through was not right, and that nobody should be treated in such a manner. It is through Huck’s experience with abuse that he begins to empathize with Jim, as he understands what it feels like to be wronged. It is this empathy that Huck also has after he plays the cruel trick on Jim. He owns up to his mistake, but still maintains much of his internalized racism, saying, “It was 15 minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a n*****” (97). In many ways, Huck’s reaction to his trick on Jim characterizes much of his evolution, as when he does something mature, he devalues it by inserting his own prejudices into
In the beginning, Huck does not really understand what a true friend is, and then he goes on a voyage with Jim, a runaway slave. For a while, Huck has thoughts regarding whether or not he should turn Jim in to the government and have him sent back to Miss Watson. However, he constantly remembers how kind Jim has been to him. When Huck says that he will not tell anyone that he has found Jim, makes Jim want to look after and help Huck. In the quote, "I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn to steer. He did that pretty often." (Twain 239) Huck talks about how Jim would let him continue to sleep and take his turns during the night. However, this is not the only thing Jim does for Huck. When a house floats by them and they see clothes inside, along with a lifeless body, Jim goes inside to check the inside of the house. When Jim looks at the body, he realizes that it was Huck's father, and quickly covers the body. Jim covers the body because he wants to protect Huck and does not want him to see his father like that. Through Jim's actions, Huck learns one of the most precious life lessons: true friendship. Huck finds out that true friends will do almost anything to protect each other. The connection between Huck ...
Huck and Jim's friendship undergoes many twists and turns along with the trip the two take down the Mississippi River. With each adventure their friendship grew stronger and deeper from their encounter with the Duke and the King to the riverboat scene the friendship is built one building block at a time. Throughout the novel Jim makes references to the kindness that Huck shows him, but Huck seems oblivious to their new found friendship. "Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman"...(pg. 89) When Jim made this statement Huck realized just how much this friendship meant to Jim.
At the beginning of the novel Huck is immature, with a conscience molded by the teachings of the society he lives in. Inevitably due to the values of Southern culture, Huck initially treats Jim as someone lesser than him and once he is away from society long enough starts to reflect on his actions. As he continues down the river with Jim he is put in situations with characters such as the duke and the king whose cruelness cause him to evaluate his views of right and wrong and give him the opportunity to listen to his conscience and let his innate goodness show through. After the duke and the king sell Jim Huck is forced to confront his morals once and for all and, having greatly matured throughout the course of his journey, chooses to not tell Miss Watson about the location of Jim as he is finally able to listen to his own conscience and block out what society deems is right and wrong. When Huck departs from society and is no longer influenced by its ethics, he learns that he must follow the moral intuitions of his heart, and in the end makes the right decisions because of
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is about a young boy named Huck that goes through a lot of experiences throughout his adventure on the Mississippi river. Huck's experiences change his morality and personality by the end of the book. Towards the end of the book Huck finds himself sympathizing for his slave friend Jim from spending this time with him in the river, even if it wasn't correct thing to do considering society norms.