When Huck first befriended Jim, he was still in this ignorant and immoral state. He, like most others at this time, was a believer and supporter of the institution of slavery, but he did agree to help Jim escape because he himself would benefit from it. He still saw Jim as a slave though, and therefore as someone inferior to him. As his friendship with Jim deepened because of their time spent together on the raft, Huck's view of Jim began to change. This change first became apparent when Huck tricked Jim into believing that he only dreamed about them getting separated in the fog. When Jim learned that Huck tricked him, Huck felt awful about hurting Jim's feelings, and after that, he "didn't do [Jim] no more mean tricks, and [he] wouldn't done that one if [he'd] a knowed it would make [Jim] feel that way" (148). Huck was clearly beginning to truly care about Jim as a person.…
When he is separated from Jim, he is concerned for Jim to some degree. He meets the Grangerfords’ and they allow him to stay with them once they realize that he is not a Sheperdson (p.189). The Grangerfords are in a family battle with the Sheperdson’s. When Huck questions the reason for the feud, no one can give him a true answer as to why they are fighting. At this point, Huck Finn realizes that a lot of what happens is strictly influenced by people around you and he does not desire to be a part of this (p.197-198). Huck Finn finds Jim with the help of one of the Grangerford’s slaves, and Huck is overjoyed to know that Jim is alive and well (p. 198-199). This action shows how Huck has changed. Huck Finn cares about something bedsides what other people think. In today’s society people depend on the opinion of other people. If people could put that worry aside, just as Huck Finn does in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, and focus on what matters most in life, people would have a lot fewer problems. The key point that shows the extent of the transition Huck Finn has made throughout the story is when Huck writes a letter to Tom Sawyer telling Miss Watson where to find Jim at, and then he chooses to tear the letter up and not send it to her (p. 261-262). This shows that Huck has developed a sense of respect for Jim. Huck is not concerned…
To begin with, among the many characteristics of Jim, his compassionate nature shows throughout the book. When Huck and Jim come across the floating boathouse, Jim finds a dead man inside. He advises Huck not to look as he says, "It's a dead man... dead two er three days... come in Huck, but doan' look at his face." At the end of the book the reader finds out that the dead man turns out as Huck's father. Further on down the river, Huck and Jim engage in a deep conversation. Jim speaks of the family he feels he has left behind. Jim tries hard to save up all his money in hopes of buying back his wife and children when he becomes a free man. He expresses that he feels terrible for leaving behind his family and misses them very much. As a result, Huck feels responsible and guilty for ruining Jim's freedom. Huck decides that he wants to reveal the truth, that Jim really isn't a free man. His conscience tells him not to and instead he finds himself helping Jim rather than giving him up. Jim feels so thankful to Huck when he says ". . .it's all on account of Huck, I's a free man, ... you's the best friend Jim's ever had..." Even further along, Huck becomes separated from Jim and living at the Grangerford's. Huck doesn't know if he'll ever see Jim again. He also doesn't realize Jim has found a hiding spot not very far away. He asks one of the Grangferford's slaves…
And at its attendance, Huck 's one last dim vestige of pride of status, his sense of his position as a white man, wholly vanishes (Trilling.1950, p.35-38)." "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I wasn 't sorry for it afterwards either (Twain, p.95)." in this one act, Huck has become a heroic character. "When, in the urging of affection, Huck discards the moral code he has always taken for granted and resolves to help Jim in his escape from slavery. The intensity of his struggle over the act suggests how deeply he is involved in the society, which he rejects (Trilling.1950,…
Unable to commit himself to condemning Jim, Huck angrily rips up the letter and exclaims, “‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’” (Twain 331). As Huck remembers all the kindness that Jim treated him with―laughing and singing with him, taking his night watches, always acting with care towards him―a veil is lifted off his eyes. Huck realizes that Jim is a man who loves, breathes, and lives just like any other human being on the planet. As he evaluates society’s perception, Huck understands that to try and free Jim, a slave, is to doom oneself.…
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young boy named Huckleberry Finn runs away from his life and travels down the Mississippi River with his friend Jim, a runaway slave. The story follows Huck 's moral growth and maturity throughout his many adventures and experiences. The major turning point of the book is when Huck realizes that Jim cares about him, and that he cares about Jim in return. As a child, Huck is taught that Jim isn 't a person because of his skin color and that he does not deserve respect, but Huck discovers that Jim is a person and deserves more respect than most people Huckleberry met on his journeys. He comes to this decision because Jim cares for him and treats Huck better than his own father. Huck says “All right, then, I 'll go to hell.” when he decides to go against the racist teachings of his childhood and help Jim get his freedom (Twain 216-217). The book was written to show what life was like in the 1840s and successfully revealed the way people viewed each other and people of other races. In the beginning of the story, Huck treats Jim poorly because he is taught that…
Twain shows Jim’s experiences of suffering for Huck in this novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to demonstrate Jim’s humanity even as a slave. During this time period, African Americans were regarded as property in accordance with text in the Old Testament. In this novel, the equality was only apparent on the Mississippi river. The river represents equality wherein Huck and Jim treat each other as equals. It is not until they reach land that they are bound by societal norms that limit their interactions. Even then, Jim and Huck still have a caring relationship, with Twain’s use of the novel as his medium showing his contempt for society.…
The novel is written in a way to not only document the evils of slavery and the existence of racism in the South, Twain also shows that the use of what we consider to be inappropriate language today is a true representation of language considered to be appropriate during the period of slavery. Lastly, the book is a symbol of humanity as a deep, unlikely relationship forms between a white boy and a slave. Huck protects Jim and helps him to escape, while Jim will risk his own freedom for Huck. In the end, freeing Jim from slavery helps Huck to free himself from the hatred of slavery in the…
In chapter 8 on page 41, Huck and Jim seem to grow a bond, a bond that society wouldn’t accept, when Huck later finds out that Jim ran away and were wondering in the woods they seem to develop a close friendship. Huck could have told someone that Jim ran away but instead Huck accepted Jim and took part in an adventure along with Jim.…
To Huck, for a majority of the novel, Jim was seen as Mrs. Watson’s property and Jim was incapable of emotions and it would be fine if he was sold away from his family. It was not until the last half of the novel did Huck see humanity in Jim. Huck recalled that Jim “was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n. It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I was asleep, and saying, "Po' little '! po' little Johnny! it's mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!" He was a mighty good nigger, Jim was” (Twain 152). Twain hoped that his would provide seeds for an equality movement between African-American and the white Southerners. Twain wanted peace after years of fighting, so by adding human qualities to Jim and creating a strong relationship between Huck and Jim, the peace would possibly come through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.…
Most of the development of their relationship to each other comes in the beginning of the book. During the second half of the book, the character of Jim takes somewhat of a back seat to the rest of the story. Jim is either left behind on the raft, or confined to a cell for most of the chapters after Chapter 19. Despite his infrequent appearances, it is in the last half of the book that the bond of trust is solidified in Huck’s heart. When Huck decides that he will free Jim and declares, "All right, then, I’ll go to hell," (pg. 206) he bases that decision on events that have brought the two closer during the trip, such as the foggy night and the time Huck saved Jim by saying he had smallpox. These are probably two of the key events in the story as it relates to the relationship between Huck and Jim. It is the first event, the foggy night, which brings about a major change in Huck. He risks his life trying to navigate the river in the fog in order to be reunited with Jim. When the raft first drifts off, Huck could have stayed on the shore and been safe, but he does not even think of not following Jim because he knows Jim would be caught if Huck was not with him because they were in the south and slavery was still going on and people would take Jim and put him back into slavery and undo what Huck was trying to do. When he…
During The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck was forced to deal with his morals and how he should not help Jim escape to freedom. Huck actually ended up stealing Jim from a farmer to get him to freedom. While Huck is spending so much time with Jim, his opinion of him changed. When Huck and Jim were on their way to Cairo, Huck was in a canoe and got separated from Jim on the raft. Jim had fallen asleep and when he woke up Huck tricked him into believing the whole thing was a dream and they had never been apart. Huck then realizes that what he did was a little harsh and feels the need to apologize. “...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.” (Twain 87). Huck feels sorry for playing tricks on Jim and he starts to realize that Jim being black doesn’t mean he deserves to be treated poorly. By putting this in the book, Mark Twain was foreshadowing the friendship to…
Twain presents man versus self conflicts in the novel. Huck constantly faces internal conflicts, especially when it comes to Jim. While looking for Cairo, Twain illustrates Huck’s dilemma. As they float down the river, Jim expresses his excitement and says “he would go to saving up money...he would buy his wife…and then they would both work to buy the two children” (75). The way Jim talks horrifies Huck; Being raised in a society that taught people that slaves were property, Huck realizes just what he has done by helping Jim to freedom. Twain uses this scene to emphasize how much Jim’s race affects Huck. Although Twain lays out the story as an adventure, there are much deeper concepts brewing beneath – especially the clash between Jim and Huck. Twain captures this when Huck thinks, “I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him” (75). In the next part of the scene, Huck takes their canoe to shore and faces the decision of whether to turn Jim in or not when he runs into two white men inquiring about his raft. Just minutes before it would have been an easy decision for Huck, but when he comes across the men he begins second-guessing himself. Twain embodies Huck’s internal conflict in this scene. The reader’s see Huck’s thoughts when he says:…
While all this is happening, while Huck is playing these tricks on Jim, we have to remember Huck is still a kid. He’s only around 13 years old, and that’s what kids do. They don’t think before they do things, and they like to play pranks and tricks on people. Huck was just trying to have fun with Jim, not be mean to him and be racist to him. In the novel Huck and Jim have a good relationship, they become friends and Huck starts seeing him as a person rather than a slave. They form a bond, a friendship.…
Huck was raised in a society where slaves were not treated like actual human beings, and throughout the story, Huck starts to see that Jim actually has…