Hearing a wide variety of beautiful birds and seeing the glistening sunlight reflections over a river is an everyday occurrence in nature. It is the place people go to ease strong feelings by prevailing the beauty of the untamed woods. The woods at which a multitude of creatures and occasional people use for protection from opposing thoughts or actions. Obtaining protection from nature is one of man’s best ways of securing their safety from the unwilling. With the tremendous amount of foliage, the woods are able to conceal any person like the spots on a fawn. The idea of nature is a common idea in the book, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Huckleberry Finn, the main character is able to manipulate through nature to procure his own thoughts …show more content…
The main character Huck Finn liked being in nature more than being civilized. Huck mentions, “It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study” (36). Being in nature, Huck perceives he has greater amounts of freedom to do the things he likes and he is free from Widow Douglas’ incentive to make become educated and civilized. Huck being in nature for the majority of his adventure enabled him to express his true personality. Huck is interested in living day by day and not having to worry about preparing for a school assignment the next day. Huck slowly becomes his own self and less reliant on others the longer he is in the wilderness. This is not inconvenient to Huck since he functions better under his own control. During the time he was on Jackson’s Island with Jim, he enjoyed listening to the birds and watching them pass by. Jim told him the ways the birds passed by meant a storm was incoming and later on a storm did indeed strike. Huck would not of been able to relish these moments with Jim if he were still civilized. On the other hand, Jim used the freedom provided by nature to stay out of enslavement. Being able to live where there is limited people allows Jim to stay hidden from many of those that just want to put him to work. Jim does not mind being uncivilized if it meant he was free. Nature also gave him hope to see his family that was long lost in the past. The closest friend he has is Huck. Without nature they would not be able to become close friends since whites and blacks were not supposed to become close. Huck not caring about being civilized, realizes Jim has feelings too. Throughout their journey to freedom they tell many stories and they love the freedom nature has given them. Until one day Jim is caught and Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Sally recognizes Huck’s true identity. Tom tells Aunt Sally Miss
Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows the development of a young boy named Huck Finn. We see Huck develop in character, attitude and maturity as he goes on his adventure down the Mississippi River. This is displayed through his search for freedom from civilization and it's beliefs and through his personal observations of a corrupt and immoral society. Most importantly, we are in Huck's head as he goes through his confusion over his supposedly immoral behavior and his acceptance that he will “go to hell” as he conquers his social beliefs.
Huck does not consciously think about Jim's impending freedom until Jim himself starts to get excited about the idea. The reader sees Huck's first objection to Jim gaining his freedom on page 66, when Huck says, "Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I could get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way." Huck is hearing the voice of society at this point, not his own. He does not see a moral dilemma with Jim being free; he is opposed to the fact that he is the one helping him. This shows Huck misunderstanding of slavery. Huck does not treat Jim like a slave when they travel together, this shows the reader that Huck views Jim as an equal in most ways. Huck sees having a slave only as owning the person, not
Jim helps Huck develop greater character changes throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. In the story Huck learns a lot of lessons on how to grow into a better and more trustworthy friend. Jim helped him throughout the story to show him a different side of life, and how everyone is different and they grow in different surroundings. Jim and Huck both grew in maturity with their life, and wanted the best for one another. Huck finds out a new identity for the world as he grows later on in the story.
Life on the river was also good at first, but it also became tiresome for Huck. He liked the sense of freedom that he had while he was on the river with Jim, he didn't have to go to school nor did he have any rules that he had to live by. He didn't have to worry about what his father was going to do to him. However the river still set limits on their freedom, Jim and Huck were only able to travel at night because they were afraid of Jim being found and whenever they would stop for the day, they would have to cover up the raft with leaves and foliage. Huck did not like having to be the one that would have to go look for food and water for them, he never had to be responsible until this time and, he didn't like having to use such precautions so that Jim would not be found. Huck could have made life easier for himself and turned Jim in, but he looked at him as a friend not as a fugitive slave.
The first book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, features Huck, who narrates his adventures along the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck escapes from his alcoholic, abusive father early in the book, and, immediately thereafter, is primarily concerned with his own survival and contentment. However, even these basic amenities are threatened as he continues his voyage south. First and foremost, Huck must survive in the wild, a task he undertakes with remarkable skill and resourcefulness. Early on in the novel, Huck's skill at living in the wilderness is plainly established, and the reader never doubts his ability to provide for himself.
Jim, who becomes Huck's friend as he travels down the Mississippi river, is a man of intelligence and consideration. "An understanding of Jim's character is by no means a simple matter; he is a highly complex and original creation, although he appears at first sight very simple" (Hansen, 388). Jim has one of the few well functioning families in the novel. Although he has been estranged from his wife and children, he misses them dreadfully, and it is only the thought of a lasting separation from them that motivates his unlawful act of running away from Miss Watson. Jim is rational about his situation and must find ways of accomplishing his goals without provoking the fury of those who could turn him in. Regardless of the restrictions and constant fear Jim possesses he consistently acts as a gracious human being and a devoted friend. In fact, Jim could be described as the only existent adult in the novel, and the only one who provides an encouraging, decent example for Huck to follow. The people that surround Huck who are supposed to be teaching him of morals, and not to fall into the down falls of society are the exact people who need to be taught the lessons of life by Jim. Jim conveys an honesty that makes the dissimilarity between him and the characters around him evident.
Jim becomes frightened and runs away from Mrs. Watson. After Jim runs away from Mrs. Watson, Jim becomes a runaway slave. Jims journey with Huck to freedom commenced with only the fear of being caught as a runaway slave. Later in the journey, Jim starts to crave freedom from slavery. Twain states , "Jim said it made him all over trebly and feverish to be so close to freedom" (97). Jim's happiness is also expressed as they’re getting closer and closer to Cairo, as Huck describes more, "Jim was fidgeting up and down past me. We neither of us could keep still. Every time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" (97) Jim's happiness for freedom is obvious. The only way Jim can attain his happiness is through freedom.
In the novel, Huckleberry Finn, the two characters Jim and Huck grow closer than ever over their crazy adventure on the little raft. It all of their connections start because of the prank, the silly rattlesnake prank. Jim felt touched that Huck cared enough to feel a lot of remorse after his prank that the next part of the book Jim tells him a personal story about his child. Overall, the prank that was to just start out a novel had evolved into a great friendship between a traditional southern boy, and a slave who desires his freedom. They endure multiple problems together, and seem to always be there for each other, all because of the trust built from a ridiculous snake prank.
The raft serves as the uncivilized portion, he can do what he wants he doesn’t have to listen or even deal with other people other than Jim which doesn't bother him. They would never have to leave the raft if it weren't for all the incidents Twain puts them in. Their travels bring them to shore a lot, where they meet new people and often get into some pretty serious predicaments. Each one Huck makes it through, sometimes barely, but it gives Huck more of a reason each time to stay uncivilized. Huck and Jim encounter many different types of people and this gives them and understanding of the different types of people and that they aren’t all as bad as it seems.
However, as both Huck and Jim spent more time together, the audience realizes that people, specifically racist Southerners, are not as civilized as they are believed to be. Approaching near the end of their adventures, Jim became abducted and taken as a slave again. The book then becomes a matter of Huck intending to help free Jim because overall, he is human as well, and deserves to be just as equally free just as every white person. The friendship bond that grows between Huck and Jim marks the beginning of what is known as realism. Huck and Jim were in the adventure together, Jim portrayed a paternal figure for Huck, marking the start of change for not only Huck, but Jim as well since he finally had someone he could count on.
Throughout all these situations that Huck goes through, Jim has supported him, even when Jim was not with Huck at every time. Jim first met up with Huck on the island. Jim escaped Widow Douglas’s home because he was to be sold down south, which would separate Jim from his family forever. Jim is hands down the most important person to Huck throughout the novel, putting himself in a category as one of Huck’s new family members. Jim has been associated as Huck’s father figure. During their time together, Jim and Huck make up a sort of alternative family in an alternative place, apart from society. Huck escaped from society for adventure and a new life, while Jim has escaped from society so that he wouldn’t be separated from his family by being sold down south. Jim is based off of his love, whether it’s for his family or his growing love for Huck. Jim was thought of by Huck as a stupid, ignorant slave in the beginning of the novel, but as Huck spends more time with Jim, Huck realizes that Jim has a different kind of knowledge based off of his years as well as his experiences with love. In the incidents of the floating house and Jim’s snakebite, Jim uses his knowledge to benefit both of them but also seeks to protect Huck. Jim is less imprisoned by conventional wisdom than Huck,
Life on the river for Huck and Jim is very peaceful. Jim built a snug wigwam to keep their belongings dry, they could just lay looking up at the sky, and they good weather. Huck says, “We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness” (Twain, 64). The river provided Huck and Jim many things, not only food, but also a way to escape. For Huck, the river provided him an escape from his life with his father and the Widow. For Jim, the river provided an escape from being a slave. On the river they were both free from their past lives. Mark Twain, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, shows us how nature can offer an escape from society’s restrictions and evils. Even though nature has changed immensely since this book was written, it still provides an escape from society. In today’s world, nature can be utilized as a thinking place or as a place to recover from pain. There are many more themes that we can see in today’s society. Several themes of Huck Finn are still relevant today, including “Nature offers an escape from society’s restrictions and evils,” “People tend to act cruelly or irrationally in groups,” and “Discrimination causes pain and suffering for many people”.
Mark Twain also demonstrates how undesirable civilized society really is. Both Huck and Jim desire freedom, which greatly contrasts the existing civilization along the river. They both turn to nature to escape from the unprincipled ways of civilization. Huck wants to escape from both the proper, cultured behavior of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas and the tyranny of his father. Jim, on the other hand, hopes to escape from slavery and start a new life as a free man, hopefully with his own family eventually. Throughout the novel, the raft enables Huck and Jim to escape from the barbarism of their society to a place of serenity and peace, which is always on their raft, away from any other people. Through the duration of the story, Huck learns and does many things that would be contrary to the beliefs of society such as helping Jim
Throughout their many adventures the author portrays examples of American Romanticism. In the beginning of the novel we see Huck Finn as a boy who doesn’t value manners and doesn’t want to follow society’s guidelines. Huck wanted to be free
When Huck runs away from his father, he goes down the river in a canoe that he found until he gets to Jackson Island. There he is able to relax and recharge while feeling “rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied” (44). While Huck is on the island, no one can find him and take him back to the widow or his father. He is safely hidden from everything he was trying to escape from. Jackson’s Island is where Huck and Jim find each other after they’ve both escaped and it’s the place where they first become acquaintances. “…it was Miss Watson’s Jim! I bet I was glad to see him” (49). In this moment, Huck and Jim are no longer on their own. From then on, they both had each other and nature to rely on to help them escape from what was holding them back. The river is the only place where Huck, a white boy, and Jim, a black slave, are able to interact as friends and form a deep level of bonding. Jim even tells Huck, “’Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now’” (106). In normal society at that time, a black and white would never have a friendship like theirs, but on the river there’s no one to see them interacting and judge them for it.