Huckleberry Finn Human Interaction

Although Huck is a bit racist to Jim at the beginning of their journey, the negative attitude held by Huck begins to fizzle as their adventure continues on. The more Huck and Jim go through together, the closer the two become. Huck begins to see Jim as a friend and vice versa. By the end of their journey, Huck disagrees with society's idea that blacks are inferior. One example of this is evident when Huck doesn't tell anyone of Jim's whereabouts. Huck doesn't tell anyone because he knows that if he does, Jim will be forced to return to slavery. Instead, Huck chooses to "go to Hell" for his decision. He has shied away from society's acceptance of slavery.

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

In the beginning of the story, Huck treats Jim like any other slave would’ve been treated. Huck was raised in a society that dehumanized slaves as if they were below everyone else because of their skin color. The start of Huck and Jim’s friendship was put on display when Huck and Jim got separated, and Huck tried to convince Jim that he was only dreaming. However, upon catching onto his scheme, Jim became very unamused by Huck. “Then he got up slow, and walked to the wigwam, and went in there, without saying anything...It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger-but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks,” (Twain 95). This is a turning point because Huck finally starts to understand that Jim is a human and just like him, he has feelings.

Unfortunately, other complications soon arise. Huck happens upon Jim soon after his own escape. Jim had run away from Huck's aunt after learning of her intent to sell him south to New Orleans, and once these two fugitives cross paths, their companionship is maintained for most of the book. Jim's presence presents several problems to Huck. At first, when Huck initially runs into Jim, he is simply glad to find a companion for his idle days on the raft. Indeed, Jim does prove a loyal friend to Huck, and his companionship comes to be deeply appreciated by the latter. However, it is soon evident that Jim's company is rather dangerous as well, for he is sought after by slave hunters, and, in those days, any person caught harboring a runaway slave was just as much a

In chapter eight Huck is delighted to find Jim camping on the island he’d been hiding on, only to be shocked when he finds out Jim had run away. Jim tells Huck how he overheard Miss Watson discussing selling him for $800 to a slave trader up in New Orleans (75) and instead of going back to town and turning Jim in, Huck invites Jim to run away with him. At first, refusing to turn Jim in could have been Huck ignoring societies laws for the sake of not outing himself as not dead like everyone believes he is, but when he makes the offer of letting Jim on the journey with him it’s him showing courage to help someone who had been kind to him in his time of staying with Miss Watson.

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

Huck has escaped from his father, has a new found independence on the island, but he still finds himself lonely and depressed, proving that his independence has not solved his problem completely. "I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling satisfied; but by and by, it got sort of lonesome, […] and [I] counted stars […] and then went to bed; there aint no better way to put in time when you are lonesome"(243). When Huck discovers that Jim is on the island with him, it is the first time in the novel that he does not feel lonely. Twain deliberately waits for this moment of Huck's complete isolation because he wants to foreshadow to the reader that Huck will never feel content until he befriends Jim. "I was ever so happy to see Jim. I warn't lonesome now" (251). Once Twain expresses that Huck is no longer lonely, he begins to show that Huck is content with Jim as Huck tells Jim how much he is enjoying himself. "'Jim, this is nice' […] ‘I wouldn't want to be no where else but here'" (249). Twain now gives Jim the first opportunity to express his feelings for Huck. Implying to the reader of Jim's parental role, Jim discusses how Huck would not be safe and dry if it wasn't for him. Jim's feelings for his own children are replaced as he has the opportunity to care for Huck. At this moment the reader is made aware of the fact that Jim needs Huck as well. "Well you wouldn' a ben

Jim was the only person Huck had for the majority of their adventure and always had to be dependable on him. In Document F, this is the part where Huck comes up with the plan on how to save Jim from the Phelps’ farm. This primarily shows how Huck saw Jim as his friend, “‘Here’s the ticket. This hole’s big enough for Jim to get through, if we wrench off the board,” (Document F). This shows Huck’s plan to help set Jim free and he wouldn’t be going through this trouble if he thought Jim was worthless. He views Jim more as an equal since he believes that he should be free. In Document B, we see how frightened Jim is that Huck is going to tell where Jim is, however, Huck is thinking the complete opposite. Huck believes that it is right to not tell on Jim, “‘I ain’t agoing to tell, and I ain’t agoing back there anyways.’” (Document B). Since Huck won’t say anything about where Jim is, it shows how he sees Jim more as a friend and trusts him enough to go on an adventure together. Jim and Huck truly get to know each other on their adventure together. They get to share many laughs, smiles and talks. With these talks is where Huck gets to also view Jim as someone to look up

     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

Furthermore, Huck internally criticizes Jim’s talk about “saying he would steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t ever done me no harm,” and states that it was a “lowering of him” (16). Huck’s lack of moral development epitomizes here, as he criticizes a “n*****” for his utopian vision of a peaceful life with his family. Huck’s conscience starts to attack him in this moment as he no longer thinks about Jim as his friend and starts to acknowledge that, in reality, he’s a black person. Although it appears that Huck is moral since he helped Jim escape, Huck doesn’t disapprove of the institution of slavery; he only helped Jim because he values their friendship. This is further exemplified when Huck makes the decision to take the canoe and go tell on Jim, though he tells Jim that he will go and check if they’re in Cairo. Twain juxtaposes Jim’s two possible futures, one of freedom, and the other of enslavement, to show the influence Huck’s choice will have. When Jim calls out “‘Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck;

Jim becomes very close to him in the novel after all of their adventures together. “Pooty soon ill be shouting for joy, en i'll say it all accounts O Huck. Is a free man en I couldn't ever ben free if it wasn't for Huck.” (Twain 88) This is Jim saying how Huck helped him and he could be a free man without him. Jim is so grateful for all the things Huck did for him. “Well,I did. I said I wouldn't, and Ill stick to it.” (Twain 43) This is him stick to his word and not giving up on what he said. He is great friends with Jim and helps him

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,

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

The heart of the story begins when Huck meets up with the escaped slave Jim. Huck’s first step to overcoming society’s prejudice and racism occurs when he meets Jim on the island. "I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn’t lonesome, now" (Twain 36). From this point forward, Jim is not a just a slave to Huck. He is a partner.

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.