Sharing The Same Fate in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

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Is it possible for two people who have never interacted with each other throughout their lives to share the same fate? In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is a young boy who decides to run away from his abusive father, accompanied by an escaped slave who believes that he will be sold and separated from his family. Huck has no choice but to take on an adventurous journey, which allows his relationship with the slave, Jim, to blossom while testing their mental and physical skills. In correlation, in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda Brent is a respected slave who is “passed down” to an abusive owner and faces harsh treatment. This leaves her no choice but to run away from the pain she endures. Her only wish is to be free with her children in a place where danger is improbable. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and in Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, determination, selflessness, and patience were expressed, and reflect the qualities needed to motivate someone to commit to a decision which is rejected by the rest of the community.
An attribute that truly reflects both Huckleberry and Linda is determination. This is evident when the adventurous Huck is determined to find Jim, an escaped slave who has been unexpectedly sold and taken to Uncle Phelps’ farm. Since Jim is the only true friend Huck has, Huck is willing to go through all odds to save his friend. As Huck is hastily trying to create a plan to save Jim, he declares, “Then I set to thinking over how to get at it and turned over some considerable many ways in my mind…and took the canoe and cleared for shore. I landed below where I judged was Phelps’ place…” (Twain 214,5). Not thinking of the consequences he would face if ...

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... shared no relationship, the characters have very similar personalities. The qualities the authors have given to the characters go against what was considered conventional, which in turn set a precedent for others who wished to follow their paths.

Works Cited

Bartlet, Katheryn R. “Harriet Jacobs: A Life.” Library Journal. 129.2 2004: 102 ProQuest. Web.
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Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Stimpson, Catherine R. “I Aim At Being Useful.” Liberal Education. 97.3-4 2011: 22-27 ProQuest. Web 29 April 2014.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. United States of America: Tom Doherty,
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