How Did Huck Finn Influence Society

Huckleberry Finn was a young boy who was not blessed with the best life and roles models. He was twelve with no parents and lived with Miss Watson who’s a Christian but was owned slaves. Huck was raised in the South where they treated African Americans as property and would do anything they wanted with them. So right off the bat Huck’s biggest influence was society. When others get away with things then you think also that you can do the same. During the beginning of the novel Huck looked at Jim as property but by the end of the novel he found him to be a true friend. The pranks Huck pulled on Jim reflects Huck’s feeling towards Jim; He sees Jim as unequal to him. "I killed him, and curled him up on the foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural,

The frauds asked to be called King and Duke. Huck could look right through them and he knew they were not nobility. But Huck did not say anything to Jim about the two guys faking their identity. “If they wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn’t no objections, ‘long as it would keep peace in the family; and it warn’t no use to tell Jim, so I didn’t tell him” (207). Huck cared about Jim and did not want to make a scene and call the two frauds out. He knew it would not help anything and it would hurt the chances of Jim getting to freedom. So in this section it shows that he is putting Jim before his actions. Huck is really thinking about what is best for everyone and their future. The two frauds treated Huck and Jim very poorly. They committed many crimes during the trip in three different villages. In the last town they sold Jim to Silas Phelps for forty dollars. When Huck found out what the frauds done he became very upset. He wrote a letter to Miss Watson to tell her the news and maybe she could get Jim back. After Huck wrote the letter he tore it up and said “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (262). Even though Huck knew he was stealing someone else’s slave, he still thought Jim’s freedom was more important. He missed Jim and he truly saw Jim as a friend. So instead of worrying what others thought of him, he put that all aside and went out to get Jim back. Huck even chose death and hell over leaving

Tom Sawyer then showed up and he agreed to help Huck get Jim back. So a couple of weeks went by and they had a plan set. This was not just any plan, it was an in depth scene from a book type plan. Well it worked and they got away barely. While they were running away a crowd of farmers were chasing them. One farmer shot Tom in the back of the leg. So when Tom, Huck and Jim got to the river they noticed what had happened. Jim and Huck agreed they were not going to leave until a doctor looked a Tom’s leg. “ I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did say– so it was all right now, and I told Tom I was agoing for a doctor” (299). In this moment Huck saw Jim as equal. He realized Jim was a good soul and that he really cared for others. Also I think at this moment he also realized the real meaning of the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be