The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a very controversial book due to its use of racism. Although the racism in the book is historically accurate and is meant to make the reader uncomfortable, many want to rid The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from schools. Huck Finn experiences this racism everyday and grew up with this racism. Huck’s views of slaves are higher morally than many people’s during the time, however. An example of Huck’s morals is seen when he becomes friends with Jim very quickly on the island. In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn’s morals are challenged with an internal conflict to ultimately decide the future of Jim’s life. The escape to freedom on the raft brings Huckleberry Finn his Challenge, an internal conflict of morals that he had not been expecting. Huck reflects on his internal battle while cruising down the river with Jim on the raft when he says, “...I begun to get it through my head that (Jim) was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience…” (Twain 91). Huck is mad at himself because he is helping Jim, a slave, escape even though he was taught that slaves are property not people. Although he does not say this, part of the reason he is angry, if not the only reason, …show more content…
Huck Finn reflects on his lowest point of his internal conflict when he says, “I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn’t try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn’t come. Why wouldn’t they?” (Twain 215). At this point in the book, Jim has been taken and sold to a nearby farm and Huck feels very sad and is confused as to why he feels that way. He was taught that slaves are not the same as white people and therefore its impossible for him to have a personal connection with Jim, a slave. This reflection ultimately leads to Huck’s
Anyone living in the time period Huckleberry Finn was alive for would be taught that black people should seen as slaves, not people. They were treated like objects and property instead of humans with feelings. Very few people were able see black people for who they really were. Huck eventually met Jim and got to know him as a person, instead of a slave. Huck was able to view Jim as a friend, a father figure, and a slave.
Twain’s purpose in writing that part was to get people to realize and understand how ridiculous it is to treat someone differently just because of the way they look. Twain’s depiction of Huck’s moral struggle has been just one of the ways he gets his readers to understand the idea he was trying to convey. Throughout the book, Huck begins to gradually change his views on the issues of racism and slavery. He is quoted saying, “Alright then, I’ll go to hell.” (p.195) Right before tearing up a letter he wrote to Miss Watson telling her where Jim was. Huck realizes that he would feel even more guilty if he turned in his friend. Throughout the book, it had been hard for Huck to separate himself from society’s view of African Americans, and this part is a definite turning point for him, but also an important lesson. Huck’s decision reminds the reader that society doesn’t always know what is best, and makes people realize that the right decision might not always be the popular one. As Huck’s friendship with Jim begins to form as the book progresses, he soon realizes that his perception of Jim and other African Americans isn’t entirely
On Huck and Jim’s journey to Cairo, Jim begins to speak about when he is free he will go and find his children and take them from the slave owner. This rubbed Huck the wrong way; his standards of Jim had been lowered because, from Huck’s point of view, why would Jim steal his children away from a man who has done nothing to him? Huck’s conscience began to come into play and he had made up his mind: He was going to turn Jim in when they reach shore. He was sure of it until Jim began to sweet talk Huck, telling him that Huck was the only white man that had ever kept a promise to him. This comment went directly to Huck’s heart; he could not possibly
At this point in the novel, Huck still holds the belief that blacks are essentially different from whites. Also, Huck's conscience constantly reminds him that he is an abolitionist for helping Jim run away from his owner. Huck does not see that Jim is looking for freedom just as he is.
He struggles for a bit with the idea of Jim being in slavery and tried to write a letter explaining where Jim was, but ended up ripping it up and says: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell... (217).” This a major turning point in Huck’s ideals. He finally comes to terms with the fact that he does not agree with Jim being a slave. Huck decides to go try to free Jim, which shows that he is going against the social norm to rescue someone he holds dear. This speaks to how he has developed as well as how Jim and Huck have grown closer through the
During the book, Huck hasn’t really experienced what life really was and what you might encounter during times that just come out of anything. Jim is someone that you might call strange and unexpected. When Huck
At a young age, people were programmed to believe that slaves were inferior human beings that were void of thoughts, intellect, feelings, etc . Huck first sees Jim as another half-witted slave, but as they spend more time together on their trek, he realizes that what was once a mindless slave below him, has become a good companion and friend to him. Huck’s relationship with Jim is very intriguing overall. In chapters 1 through 3, Jim is introduced into the novel as a simple, superstitious slave to Mrs. Watson.
Along the path of self-discovery, challenges constantly present themselves as opportunities to grow intellectually and as a chance to succeed. Often times, the use of personal judgment and self-understanding is necessary in order to overcome these challenges. In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck experiences difficulties which compel him to use his moral judgment. Huck, a young boy in search of freedom, is accompanied by a runaway slave named Jim as he embarks on a treacherous journey down the Mississippi River. During his adventure, Huck must determine the fate of the runaway slave. However, as his relationship with the slave deepens, he comes to realize this task is far from simple. Huck faces this life-defining yet
Because blacks are uneducated, he sees them as stupid and stubborn. He frequently tells stories to Jim, mainly about foreign kings and history. When Jim disagrees with Huck, Jim becomes very stubborn and refuses to listen to explanations. Huck eventually concludes, "You can't learn a nigger to argue". Jim also seems to accept that whites are naturally superior to blacks. He knows that Huck is far smarter than he is. When Tom Sawyer and Huck are planning an elaborate breakout for Jim, he allows their outrageous plan to continue because they "was white folks and knowed better than him". This mutual acceptance of whites as superior to blacks shows how deeply rooted slavery was in Southern culture. This made it very difficult for Huck to help Jim. When Tom Sawyer says he will help free Jim, Huck is very disappointed. He had never thought that Tom Sawyer, of all people, would be a "nigger stealer". Huck had always considered Tom respectable and educated, and yet Tom was prepared to condemn himself to damnation by freeing a runaway slave. This confuses Huck greatly, who no longer knows what to think about his situation with Jim. When Huck is forced to make a decision regarding slavery, he invariably sides with his emotions. Huck does not turn Jim in, despite having several chances. His best chance to do what he believes is right comes as they are rafting towards Cairo, Illinois. Huck finally
As a result of his relationship he’s developed with Jim, Huck settles the internal conflict of how he was raised in Mississippi versus his own feelings. While trying to figure if his action of helping Jim was morally correct, Huck says, “Hold on,-s’pose you’d done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad-I’d feel just the same way I do now,” (Twain, 113). Huck figures that it’s more trouble to take the action that is socially accepted than to follow his conscious and not have to worry about it. Huck decides not to bother with the thought, because weather continues to help Jim or, he would feel the same regardless of his action. Huck is now free of conscious and he is willing to further support Jim on his journey towards freedom. As a slave, Jim does labor for his masters for free, because he is considered property. However, on the raft with Huck after receiving $40 from the slave catchers, Jim and Huck “talked about the money. It was a pretty good raise, twenty dollars apiece,” (Twain, 114). Huck willingly splits the money with Jim without any remorse or hesitation, an action that a typical member of the southern society would not attempt. Huckleberry Finn is a unique character, one that is not bound to the shackles of society, but is able to transcend the mental boundaries society tries to place upon him, because his ethical nature is stronger than voices of
In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character Huck deals with multiple problems that he comes in contact with such as becoming more “sivilized” and educated. The most significant problem that Huck deals with effectively is racism against his own moral beliefs. As readers encounter the developmental story about a boy who flamboyantly decides to have an adventure, which leads into an eye-opening experience that exposes racism not only for readers but for the character Huckleberry Finn.
Huck is on the right path in becoming a faithful friend to Jim. He finds himself struggling to be his support system. He feels divorced from the outside world. As expected, his heart is confused in deciding what is morally and ethically appropriate. His conscience pushes him to reflect on the effects of society and how it incites behavior like his: reckless and unforeseen. This situation made him “trembly and feverish…because [he] begun to get through [his] head that [Jim] was most free… and [he Huck] was to blame” (Gerald and James 100). As a white male, he is expected to turn it runaway slaves of color. Nevertheless, he has no personal desire to follow these expectations. Rather, he chooses to protect Jim, even if he undoubtedly fears to
Often times Huck found himself in a moral dilemma on whether to do what society instilled in him or to do what he thinks should be done. Huck betrayed those feelings of “what society would want” him to do in order to be a good friend to Jim, putting his own self up at risk again for Jim. Jim was being held captive by Huck’s current host and Huck, abandoning his duties of his superior race and being a good Christian, as the Widow called it Huck suddenly has an epiphany “All right then, I'll go to hell!” as he goes to “steal Jim out of slavery” (212). Seeing the situation through Huck’s perspective it gives the reader every little detail that goes into his thought process in his decision making. These types of actions were considered wrong by society at that time and place but Huck sets that all aside and does what he feels is the right thing. Most of the time Huck has to think on his feet making the decision making process even more difficult, like the time when Huck was going to give Jim up as a runaway slave. “Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on, s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad---I’d feel just the same way I do now” (91). Even through Huck’s dialect you can see him argue with himself on what the right thing to is, but he throws out what society would do and does what his heart tells him. Through Huck arguing
Huck’s views regarding black people come into question when Huck and Jim run away together. Their experiences together let them become closer to each other and let Huck recognize Jim as a human being with real feelings. Huck starts to view Jim as a caring individual when they are on the raft. This is a scene taken from when Jim and Huck were working together on the raft and Jim was trying to protect them both from the rain, “Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of reach of steamboat waves” (Twain, pg 64). In this part of the novel, Huck seems to be all Jim has, and Jim is also all Huck seems to have, and they work together to build a place that the waves cannot reach them. Their feeling of friendship is born through working together and protecting each other. Even though Huck and Jim are having new experiences together, Huck’s conscience is still going back and forth about the idea of freeing a slave. This quote is taken from when Huck
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain provided social commentary on southern society and beliefs. Twain addressed a number of significant issues throughout the novel, including religion and slavery. There are a number of instances where Huck, the 14 year-old protagonist, pushes back against the idea of organized religion. Similarly, Huck encounters a personal and moral dilemma when it comes to the practice of slavery. This idea of rebellion against society is a major concept explored in the book. Small instances of Huck’s rebellion culminate with him eventually freeing a runaway slave. The main examples include Huck’s refusal to learn the Bible, Huck’s decision against not to turn Jim in, and Tom and Huck’s choice to set Jim free at the end of the story. Huck’s refusal to conform to and demonstrate the social norms of the South illustrate the theme of rebellion against society.