Huckleberry Finn Freedom

In the essay, “Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Matthew Hurt writes that “Jim's lecture on friendship does not elevate Jim in Huck's eyes, but rather degrades Huck to a lower position” (Hurt). Hurt’s statement further explains Huck’s humiliation towards his uncalled-for prank on Jim. Jim’s speech helps Huck realize that Jim is also a human being and that he should be more grateful and kind to him. Being a father himself, Jim assumes the role of Huck’s father and helps guide him with his morality and decisions, which includes how he treats others. Twain’s purpose of slowly progressing Jim’s character was to eventually develop him to become the hero he was meant to be.

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

"Sometimes we would have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark or two--on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts" (Examining the River in Terms of Symbolism in 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'). Freedom is a wonderful thing many Americans today take for granted. According to Webster's Dictionary, the word freedom is defined as "the condition of being free from restraints." Although, both characters, Huck and Jim, were free in different senses, they were still free. "...Because the river was so peaceful and calm that it led to their freedom to do as they please without the barriers given by society on land" (Examining the River in Terms of Symbolism in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn")"Jim is safe from those who hunt runaway slaves. On the river, Huck has the time to ponder all that goes on around

This is exactly the kind of behavior that twain didn’t like. However, the main theme in this book is breaking free. He urges his readers to do the right thing, not necessarily what everyone else is doing. He illustrates this ideal with Huck. Most everyone else thought of Jim, along with blacks in general, as something less than human. Huck knew this was wrong, and his actions followed this when he rescued Jim. Main characters Huckleberry Finn Huck is the narrator of the story and for the most part is honest to us, the readers. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and everything else that will eventually make him civilized. A big debate surrounds Huck on whether he changes or not throughout the story. Huck, in the beginning, seems very set in the south’s anti-black ways, however, Huck states that he will go to hell to keep Jim out of slavery. At this point it seems like he does change, but at the end of the book, Huck plays yet another joke on Jim and seems as though any change was temporary. Huck has little sense of humor, which is ironical, considering the book is satirical. Twain has also been criticized about Huck’s character, in that it seems as though Huck knows too much for his age. In one of the movies Huck was about seventeen, in another he was about eight. I figure from the book that Huck is

He has a father who is abusive as well as an alcoholic, which is why two older ladies by the names of Miss. Watson and Widow Douglas watch over and care for him. The concept of a journey to freedom is portrayed through Huck due to him leaving home as a young boy and seeking for independence. In chapter eleven, Huck dresses up as a girl to go steal food and other items from a home for Jim and himself. “My mother’s down sick, and out of money and everything…” (62). Huck lied to a woman just to steal things from her home to survive because he was running away to become free. "It didn't take me long, though, to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes at all..." (40). This is ironic because Huck is noticing that the King and the Duke are con men and liars, but Huck himself is just like them because he lies to people all the time to better himself and get to freedom. Huck has to go through many disadvantages as well as Jim, on their journey to

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.

Carter claims that “Jim was a first in American fiction- a recognition that the slave had two personalities; “the voice of survival within a white slave culture and the voice of the individual: Jim, the father and the man.” Twain uses several examples to show that Jim, the voice of slavery, the voice of survival and the individual, faces difficulties and pain. In Huckleberry Finn, one small example of the individual in pain, trying to survive, is where Jim hides while Huck is in town. “I poked into the place away and come to a little open patch as big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying there asleep- and, by jings, it was my old Jim!” (143). This was the moment where readers could truly realize the conditions that the individual had to face while escaping slavery. This is the moment where people should feel sympathetic for

In the appropriately titled novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", by author, Mark Twain, a young boy, named, Huckleberry Finn's life is completely changed. The story is basically that, Huck is sent to live with his strict relatives that try to conform him into someone he isn't, but, sequentially ends up traveling down the Mississippi River, with an escaped slave, Jim. As the novel progresses, Jim and Huck develop an extremely close friendship, which makes him change his views on slavery. Despite numerous chances, Huck never turns Jim in, because of his new outlook on slavery. Although slavery is a main theme in the book, it is not the only one. Because, author, Mark Twain creates a social critique by juxtaposing the

Twain also exposes the deplorable concept of slavery by allowing Huck to view Jim as an equal person. As the novel proceeds, Huck and Jim continue their voyage down the Mississippi River and become close friends. Huck eventually has to decide whether or not to turn Jim in to Miss Watson. "…And I got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and

In Mark Twain's fiction novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck, has a special relationship with a runaway slave named Jim. Jim, since the time period allowed slavery in the 1830s, joins up with the main character, Huckleberry Finn, in his trip down the Mississippi River. Jim ran away from Miss Watson because she was going to sell him down South. Huck ran away from his abusive father, and soon comes across the escaped slave. Throughout the novel, Jim acts like a father figure to Huck.

Furthermore, the novel illustrates the unrestricted freedom the river provides through the connection with nature, independence from slavery, and the pair’s relationship. After escaping the clutches of the restrictive lifestyle of Miss Watson and the violent relationship with his father, Huck seeks refuge in the waters surrounding himself with nature, considering it as his home as he proclaims, “...there warn’t no home like the raft…Other places feel so cramped and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (Twain 117). As Jim escapes from civilization towards life on the raft where open friendship and freedom that the river provides overcome prejudice against racism and slavery, he grows as an individual as he declares risking his life and freedom for Huck, “my heart wuz mos’' broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn' k'yer no mo'

On the other hand, Jim was not given the same amount of freedom as Huck. To Jim, freedom is the thing he strives for the most in his life. "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!”’ (Page 88). This exemplifies Jim’s joy of the voyage to Cairo and just the thought of freedom. Though they are not that close to Cairo when he says this, just floating around on the raft and knowing that he will be there soon is enough excitement for him. “Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you? What I tell you up dah on Jackson Islan’?... en it’s come true; en heah she is!” (Page 293). This demonstrates Jim’s journey coming to an end and him finally reaching pure freedom and having true happiness.

Freedom is what defines an individual, it bestows upon someone the power to act, speak, or think without externally imposed restraints. Therefore, enslavement may be defined as anything that impedes one’s ability to express their freedoms. However, complete uncompromised freedom is virtually impossible to achieve within a society due to the contrasting views of people. Within Mark Twain’s 1885 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, numerous controversies are prevalent throughout the novel, primarily over the issue of racism and the general topic of enslavement. The characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn along with their development take an unmistakable, resilient stand against racism and by doing such in direct relation

Huckleberry wants to be free such that Huck can think individually and do what he wants to do. Furthermore, Jim wants to be free of slavery so that he can go back to his wife and children, which he has a natural right too. In Marks twins book, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" indicates people can be free also imprisoned in themselves. The Duke and the king, for example, foils to Huck and Jim, are so free that they can become anybody within playacting and imitation. This is because they have no moral compass and are imprisoned in their selfishness.

Toward the middle of the book Huck and Jim are trying to find Cairo, Ohio so they could get to the free states. ”We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat and go way up the Ohio amongst the free states, and then be out of trouble (Twain,86). This shows Jim acting out of character because up until now Jim has always done what he has been told to do. Now he is doing something for himself. He is doing everything he can to be free.