Examples Of Trust In Huckleberry Finn

As Huck’s parental figure, Jim has the obligation to serve as Huck’s moral compass, guiding him with his decisions. Jim is the closest thing to a father to Huck and it is his duty to protect him and guide him in the right direction. When Jim realizes that Huck had pranked him into thinking they got separated from each other in the fog, Jim tells Huck, “What do dey stan' for? I'se gwyne to tell you. When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what become er me en de raf'.

The relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim are central to Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Huck's relationships with individual characters are unique in their own way; however, his relationship with Jim is one that is ever changing and sincere. As a poor, uneducated boy, Huck distrusts the morals and intentions of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. The uneasiness about society, and his growing relationship with Jim, leads Huck to question many of the teachings that he has received, especially concerning race and slavery. Twain makes it evident that Huck is a young boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. Huck's father, Pap, is a drunk who disappears for

They wants to jump in, but I says: 'Don't you do it. I don't hear the dogs and horses yet; you've got time to crowd through the brush and get up the crick a little ways; then you take to the water and wade down to me and get in-that 'll throw the dogs off the scent.'" (Twain 116) Huck acts like a Good Samaritan. Not only does Huck have pity upon these two men, he is also willing to take action and help them to safety. ""When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the river-bank a piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and tugged at them till I Got then ashore; then I covered up their faces, and got away as quick as I could. I cried a little when I was covering up Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me." (Twain 112) Huck has empathy for humankind; he treats others as he wants to be treated. Huck overlooked a person's social status, race or respectability when reacting to a situation. Another example of Huck's tenderness towards other humans is his experience with Jim on the river. At the beginning of the voyage Huck viewed Jim as a piece of property, a true reflection of Southern mores. "It was fifteen minutes before I would work myself to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't even sorry for it afterward, neither." (Twain 84) Going against social mores takes a great deal of looking inside one's self. Being raised in a time and place where blacks were looked down upon, Huck found that going against what

Huck rushes back to the island and demands that Jim be ready to run with him, meaning that Huck has risked his own freedom to save Jim. “Git up and hump yourself, Jim. They’re after us,” Huck finds out they are looking for Jim on Jackson’s Island and he rushes back to let him know (Twain 63). Huck could’ve easily ran and left Jim, but he didn’t. This is the first time where Huck begins to change and value Jim as a companion and friend. Huck realizes the value of Jim, outside of being a slave, and risks his own freedom in order for Jim to remain free. Huck realizes that Jim is a good and true friend and that lying is what will keep them safe and together in the society that they are living in. “He’s sick--and so is Mam and Mary Ann,” Huck lies to the men who want to search the raft for slaves (Twain 90). He says his family has smallpox which is what drives the slave searchers away. Huck knows they must lie about their intentions and who they are in order to be successful. This also proves how awful society was, they would have taken away Jim, no questions asked, and it just simply becomes easier to hold their tongues. This is when Huck first begins to protect Jim and defy society once again. Huck later hurts Jim’s feelings by playing a cruel trick on Jim and feels bad. Huck knows white people aren't supposed to, but he apologizes to a slave

     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

Society would expect that Huck should turn in Jim for being a runaway slave as soon as the two boys met. However, Huck promises Jim that he will not turn him in, which would be considered obscene at the time. The two runaways grow close, and Huck is willing to go as far as to lie in order to keep Jim from getting caught and turned in by others. For instance, when Huck and Jim meet the Duke and King, the con men question the runaways. Huck, in effort to prevent Jim’s cover from being blown, is willing to lie for Jim during the thorough questioning. “Goodness sakes! Would a runaway nigger run south?” (Twain 126). The bond created between Huck and Jim was so strong that the companionship allowed Huck to go against what was expected of him in society, in order to help his friend. Huck intentionally lies to white men in order to prevent his friend, a former slave, from getting into trouble. Society in the 1800’s, would have expected Huck to tell the truth, which ultimately would have resulted in Jim’s inevitable demise. Huck’s journey allowed him to see past skin colour, and which social norms are meant to be

Many view Huckleberry Finn as a racist book for the portrayal of the runaway slave, Jim, but Twain writes from Huck’s point of view, who was a product of his society. In the book, while using dialect and actions accurate for the time and location, Twain never portrays Jim in a negative light. In contrast to Huck’s father, Jim cares about Huck. For example, when Jim and Huck are reunited after getting lost in the fog, Jim tells Huck, “my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf” (p. 157), as opposed to Huck’s father who only wants him around to prove he has control over Huck. This shows the difference between his white father who should be a strong male figure in his life, and a black man who actually looks out for Huck. Throughout the book, Huck comes to realize more and more that Jim is human just like

Huckleberry Finn is a loyal person. While on Jackson’s island, Huck warns Jim of a search party instead of turning him in. Even though Huck is breaking the law, this early sign of loyalty toward Jim is

Huck Finn is naive and accepting of society's views at the beginning of the novel. He treats Jim as he is a lesser person than him because of his background. “When we was 10 foot off Tom whispered to me and wanted to jim to a tree.” This show how racist they were and what they were going to do to Jim. (Twain 7). Also he lies to his father because of what he has done to him in the past. “I haint got no money.” Huck. “Its a lie. Judge Thatcher got it. You git it. I want it.” Hucks Dad(Twain 21). This is when he lied to his dad about the money. He doesn't want his dad to get any of the money because he knows he will blow it all on alcohol. At this point in the book he is a very naive person.

One instance was when Huck lied to protect Jim from getting found out. “Your Pap’s got the smallpox, and you know it precious well…. “Well,” says I, a blubbering, I’ve told everybody before, and they just went away and left us” (Twain 136). The fib that Huck told the men who were searching for the slaves saved Jim indeed. Yet, Huck wasn’t trained to do that; he was taught to be racist and turn in runaway slaves. This comes to show that Huck’s gotten close to Jim he’s become a friend to him. The text stated, “I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him, but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. I went along slow then, and I warn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started of whether I warn’t” (Twain 134). This shows that Jim really did care for Huck. Even though he was taught to report runaway slaves he makes the right choice. He fibs and explains that the man he’s with has smallpox. Just imagine if you were Huck and you were close with Jim like Huck was, but you felt you had to tell on him, so consequently he got busted and was owned by a slave owner. Suddenly, you never had the chance to see him again. Sad, huh? Another mission accomplished by Huck, and he saved Jim from getting

In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck uses methods of deception to protect himself and Jim; however, in other cases you uses deception to re-establish his power over Jim. For example in the fog scene, in which Huck manages to convince Jim to discount his experience of getting separated, Jim believes that it was all a dream because that is what Huck said. Therefore, Jim trusts the words of Huck over his own experience. Seeing Jim's reaction to this lie, Huck reinforces the power he has as a white male in society in the late 1800s. However, Huck also uses deception, mainly in the form of disguises, to protect his identity, as well as Jim's identity.

His whole life has been taught that “niggers” are property and are not meant to be free but In his heart he knew helping Jim was the right thing to do, no matter what anybody else says. “both Huck and Jim are depicted as characters who are capable of learning from their own mistakes, empathizing with others, and acting on the behalf of others” (Evans). As the journey down the river continues they run into two con men. These men pretend to be the Wilks brothers in order to rob this family of all of their possessions. Huck couldn’t see them do this poor family wrong. He spends some time really contemplating telling one of the girls, Mary Jane, the truth about these liars (Twain 175). He knows inside that it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t want to put himself at risk. He plans out every little detail of how he is going to tell her and how he is going to expose these men (Twain 175-178). His actions result from his sympathy for others and his conscience and show major growth as the story continues.

A major theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is slavery and our evolvement towards the institution. “In fact, Twain’s novel is often taught as the text that epitomizes this tradition, with Huck held up as its exemplar: a boy courageous enough to stand against the moral conventions of his society. . .” (Bollinger, 32 – Say It Jim) In the beginning of Huckleberry Finn’s relationship with Jim, he has little respect for him and as their journey progresses he

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

Despite an ardent view on slavery evident through interactions with Jim, Huck’s slowly shifting view of Jim from that of ignorance to seeming acceptance expresses his ability to stray from flawed societal values to his own developed moral code of conduct. This becomes evident when Huck protects Jim from men who board his raft, by hinting he has smallpox. Although one can see this as compassion for Jim, Huck questions with racist undertones, “s’pose you done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad” (Twain 127). However, he later affirms himself to “do whatever come handiest at the time.” (Twain 127). At this point, society still influences Huck, but his statement marks his decision to detach from societal values, and eventually allows him to form his own views on Jim. This comes slowly, as Huck cannot shake free from racism.