Huckleberry Finn Character Analysis

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, comes from a pivotal moment in American history. The Civil War has ended, but the country is still facing a great divide. The title character, Huck Finn, is an adolescent in southern America left to face this issue head on. Huck is on a journey to free himself from civilization, yet he continues to find himself stuck between moral and social obligations. While on his quest for freedom and individuality, Huck does the unthinkable and forms a relationship with a runaway slave instead of turning him in. Since Huck wants to make the moral choice to help Jim, he must endure an internal struggle against the social conventions.
The episode in which Huck and Jim face an extreme case of fog challenges society’s views. The fog tears the two apart to a point where they can no longer see each other. “Goodness gracious, is dat you , Huck? En you ain’ dead-- you ain’ drownded-- you’s back again? It’s too

good for true, honey, it’s too good for true” (Twain 204). This line illustrates Jim feeling overcome with emotion when he finally sees Huck again. However, to mess with Jim, Huck tries to play it out as a dream. Although it is meant to be an innocent joke, Huck’s response upon reuniting infuriates Jim.
“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 and kiss’ yo’ foot I’s so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin’ bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed” (206).
The response Jim has towards Huck’s joke, transforms Huck’s perspective of Jim.

He no longer views Jim as someone he can easily walk all over, and he feels ashamed of himself. “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back. It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger” (206). Here, Huck is expressing that he no longer views Jim as a piece of property, but as a human being with emotions. Viewing slaves as uneducated and not having any morals or values is typical in Huck’s society. However, Huck realizes that this conception may be invalid. “But I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way” (206). This line provides evidence that Huck is aware he has turned against his society. He feels sympathy for a slave. Huck coming to this realization shows the contrast between his morals and what is socially acceptable in

society.
After this moment of change, Huck is struggling because he cares about Jim and wants to set him free, yet he feels the social obligation to turn him in. Huck is debating whether or not he should return Jim back to his rightful owner, Miss Watson. “Conscience says to me, ‘What had poor Miss Watson done to yo, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean?”(207). This is interesting because Huck originally runs away from Miss Watson because she had been trying to comply to the social norms of society. Despite this, Huck still feels it is necessary to return her runaway slave. This illustrates the complexity of the issue Huck is up against. Huck thinks the right thing to do is to turn Jim in, but he is doing the wrong thing, saving Jim. He does not intentionally want to do the wrong thing, however, he is torn after developing a connection with Jim.
Huck feels that his society will look down upon him for setting a slave free. Therefore, he is surprised when his friend Tom Sawyer agrees to help him set Jim free. However, he is unaware that Tom is not setting Jim free for the same moral reasons he is. Tom knows the whole time that Jim was already free, but he wants to have an adventure. For Huck, setting Jim free is not a game, it is a serious matter. Huck ignores their differences, and decides to go along with Tom’s game because he is desperate to set Jim free. However, everything becomes clear when he discovers the truth. “Tom Sawyer had gone and took all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn’t ever understand, before, until that minute and that talk, how he could help a body set a nigger free, with his bringing-up” (325). Huck now knows the real reasoning behind why Tom wants to set Jim free. It makes sense to Huck because he could not understand how someone raised the way Tom has been raised, conditioned to oppress blacks, could ever want to set a runaway slave free.
As a result of his moral decision to free Jim, Huck overcome an internal battle against his social responsibilities. It is ironic that Huck continues to struggle with obligations set forth by society, because that it is exactly what he is escaping. Nevertheless, this goes to show how intricate the issue of making moral choices regardless of social convention is during this time period.