In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he portrays the story of Young Huckleberry and his adventures with a runaway slave named Jim. Against all expectations for what was normal during the time, Huck befriends Jim and develops his relationship with him throughout the course of the novel. It is vital to point out that during the time, slavery is going on in the United States, racism is predominant, white superiority is prevalent, and Huck grew up during this time. There are several instances where the reader can see where their relationship is changing and being tested. Twain uses Huck and Jim's characters to show how friendship can overcome the foulest of human treatment and oppression. In the beginning of the novel, Jim is introduced as one of the widow’s slaves. Huck and his best friend, Tom, are out …show more content…
Huck is a playful person and often pulls pranks on Jim. Huck, in his immaturity, truly takes his prank too far with Jim. In the fog, Huck separated himself with Jim and terrifies Jim knowing that Jim is superstitious. Jim is so distraught over Huck, that when Jim finally see Huck, he states, “Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain’ dead - you ain’ drownded - you’s back agin?” Jim is extremely happy to see Huck alive because he feared that Huck had drowned and died. This shows how Jim views Huck as a friends he cares a great deal for. Huck, Having recognizing his wrongfulness apologizes to Jim. Huck states, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger… I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one id I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way.” Huck feels bad for what he did to Jim. Huck is remorseful to Jim, a slave. Many were apathetic to slave, especially in the south. Having been with Jim and experiencing life with him, Huck begins to form a stronger bond with Jim in which he is concerned with hurting his feelings or
Huck plays this trick on Jim, but doesn’t realize it would hurt him so much. Jim is very hurt, and goes inside the wigwam. Huck has to bring up courage to apologize to Jim because he is black. This is sort of ironic because Jim was just talking about kissing Huck’s feet because he was glad he was back, but then Huck feels so bad for hurting Jim, that he could kiss Jim’s feet, even if he was black. Huck seems to have a moment which will help him along on the path of equality between whites and blacks as well.
In the beginning of the novel, Huck plays many practical jokes on Jim. Huck and Tom begin the novel by waking up Jim when he is sleeping under a tree. They are both very immature boys and think it will be fun to scare Jim. They act like Jim isn’t a human being and don’t seem to be bothered by the fact that he has feelings too. When Huck and Jim get separated by the fog Huck must think Jim is stupid and won’t catch onto his lie. “Aamy heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no’ mo’ what become er me en de raf’.En when I wake up en fine you back agin,all safe en soun’,de tears come,en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo foot.”(109) Huck makes Jim believe the whole fog storm was just a dream and gets him very worried. Huck doesn’t realize that Jim is trying to protect him and be a father figure to him, and that he only wants the best for Huck. Huck also thinks Jim isn’t knowledgeable because he is a black slave. Huck and Jim are arguing and Huck feels Jim cannot say anything intelligent so Huck changes the subject. “I never seen such a nigger .If he got a notion in his head once, there warn’t no getting it out again. He was the most down on S...
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain paints the story of a developing friendship between two entirely different people which at the time society considered unacceptable and taboo. Huckleberry Finn is a white thirteen year old boy and Jim is a middle-aged black runaway slave. They meet by coincidence while they are both hiding out on Jackson’s Island located in the middle of the Mississippi River, Huck is hiding from the townspeople who think he is dead, and Jim has runaway and is hiding from his owner. Throughout their journey together, Huck and Jim’s relationship goes from them being mere acquaintances, then to friends, then to them having a father and son relationship.
Huckleberry Finn’s conscience and morality about regarding Jim as a friend changes throughout the novel as their bond with each other increases. In most parts of the story,Huck has internal conflict about whether or not he should turn Jim in,but Huck keeps thinking about how bad he would feel afterward. In chapter 8,Huck finds that Jim is a runaway. Jim explains to Huck that he overheard Miss.Watson talking about how she was going to sell Jim to a slave trader in New Orleans for $800 which would separate Jim from his family. Plus,he and Jim are traveling together for the same reason;freedom. Huck is escaping his own home life from the Widow Douglas and his abusive father believing that they're keeping him from being who he wants to be.
Jim's character traits are easy to over look because of his seeming ignorance, but in reality Jim possessed some qualities that created a positive influence on Huck. He began by demonstrating to Huck how friends teach friends. His honest compassion also eventually causes Huck to resist the ideas society has placed upon him, and see Jim as an equal-- rather than property that can be owned. Huck knew he was going against society, and of the consequences that he could receive for freeing a slave. "It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame", (269-270). Huck then claims, "All right, then, I'll go to hell…"(272) This shows that Huck was willing to put himself on the line for a slave, because he ceased to view Jim as property and recognized him as a friend. At the beginning of the story Huck would have never done this, but after the many adventures that occur, Jims unconditional love for Huck pierces the shell society placed ar...
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
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.
Huckleberry Finn, a young boy from St. Petersburg’, is able to disregard the typical views of African Americans and see them as the humans they are. When Huck and Jim begin to converse and learn more about each other Huck is constantly surprised by Jim’s knowledge; even
	Huck’s attitude for Jim is racist which is seen when he decides to play a trick on Jim during their voyage. After Huck plays his trick his attitude toward Jim begins to change, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither" (Twain 72). The dialogue throughout the book between Huck and Jim illustrates that Jim is more than property and that he is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future.
Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through much criticism and denunciation has become a well-respected novel. Through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn, Twain illustrates the controversy of racism and slavery during the aftermath of the Civil War. Since Huck is an adolescent, he is vulnerable and greatly influenced by the adults he meets during his coming of age. His expedition down the Mississippi steers him into the lives of a diverse group of inhabitants who have conflicting morals. Though he lacks valid morals, Huck demonstrates the potential of humanity as a pensive, sensitive individual rather than conforming to a repressive society. In these modes, the novel places Jim and Huck on pedestals where their views on morality, learning, and society are compared.
In the novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the two main characters, Huck and Jim, are strongly linked. Their relation is portrayed by various sides, some of them good and some others bad. But the essential interest of that relation is the way that uses the author to describe it. Even if he had often been misunderstood, Twain always implied a message behind the themes developed around Huck and Jim.
The way Huck and Jim encounter each other on the island, draws parallels in their similar backgrounds. Huck is torn between a life of manners and etiquette and a dangerous life a freedom, and while Jim at an impasse because he is being sold into slavery farther away from his home and away from his family. Each choice, for both characters comes with a cost so they both decide to runaway, in an attempt to assert some control over their lives. After spending much time together, the pair establish a connection which at times Huck feels guilty about since it violates everything he was raised to believe. At a certain point, Huck considers turning Jim in by, writing a letter, but after recalling the goods times they shared, Huck exclaims, "All right, then, I 'll go to hell!” (Twain) and quickly tears up the letter. Twain depicts Huck and Jim 's eventually friendship as a source of emotional strife for Huck and Huck constantly has to decide whether to abandon Jim and turn him in or abandon his religious beliefs and stay with Jim. The ripping up of the letter that would have turned Jim in symbolizes the choice Huck 's has selected. For this moment onward, Huck is dedicated to keeping Jim from being sold back into slavery and has no intent on going back on his choice. While there are times, Huck pays attention to the color of Jim 's skin he believes that
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.
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an extremely important work of literature that addresses many world problems such as: poverty, race relations, and our role in society. Although some of these issues are not as prevalent today as they were in the 1880s, the novel still sends an important satirical message to anyone who is willing hear this story. This essay will analyze Huckleberry Finn and its relation to society today; the main issues that are addressed include: Huckleberry’s growth as a moral and upstanding person, race relations between African-Americans and Caucasian-Americans including Huck’s relation to Jim and the issue of slavery, the role of society and an analysis of Huck’s role in society and society’s role in Huckleberry’s personality.