Huckleberry Finn Values

As a runaway slave accompanying a white boy, Jim cannot expect what Huck could do to him; Huck could turn him in or leave him by himself. Jim also had the opportunity to leave Huck, but having all his faith and trust in Huck, Jim decides to stay, hoping Huck was not lost in the fog. After Jim’s lecture, Huck starts to feel guilty, saying, “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his feet to get him to take it back”

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 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

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.

Again, Huck describes feeling “wicked” and “ornery,” though this time he tries to justify his emotions with plausible insights into his upbringing; however, this is to no avail as Huck finds himself back in his perpetual state of self-deprecation. A key difference between Huck’s previous moral conundrum and this one is consistent religious reference, which is similarly reminiscent of Huck’s early morality. For example, Huck’s early rejection that Providence could love him is realized in this later scene. This example is what was previously referred to as the “religious enforcement of Huck’s emotions” and evidently does not subside; however, Huck, with his newfound empathy, now allows those emotions to lead his decision making. In doing this, Huck allows himself to surpass the status that religion attempts to fix him in. In this manner, the parallels between Huck’s early and late morals are necessary to show the extent of his shift in ideals and, moreover, Huck’s willful dislodging of his place in society, the thought of which had previously plagued him. Because of his connection with Jim, that relationship is the stable place that Huck needed and therefore his relationship to the greater society is unimportant, allowing Huck to make a definite and permanent decision of eternal hell (this idea reverts the seemingly immoral status of hell to a semblance of higher

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

Huck struggles with whether it’s wrong not to tell Miss Watson about Jim, but then he remembers all their time together, and familial allegiance kicks in, so he says “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (205). By saying this, Huck commits to being faithful towards Jim, and Huck certainly follows through with his loyalty when he tries to free Jim. Huck finds his true family with Jim because he has a sense of belonging when he’s with him and they’re both there to care for each other. So, while Huck has been going through all these other families, he’s been with his the whole

Huck wanted to free Jim of slavery. He even risked going to Hell for that. These two have been together almost the entire book, they went through everything together, being split up, facing up against con artists, whatever it took for Huck to free Jim from Miss Watson. But in the book, Huck being troublesome, decides to play a mean trick on Jim. About halfway through the book, page 148, before Huck met Aunt Sally, Huck and Jim decide to escape using a gigantic raft they found and a huge thick fog came through, causing them to split up, Jim was terrified he lost Huck, and fell asleep, Huck plays a trick on Jim by finding Jim, told him he dreamt the fog that caused them to split up, and Jim realized it wasn’t a dream and Huck was lying to him and his feelings were really hurt.

He grows to see Jim as a father figure, but he never realizes that Jim is a human while being African American. When referring to how Jim did the right thing by helping them, Huck says, “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did” (276). By denying that Jim can be good while being not white, Huck is taking part in the beliefs of the surrounding slave-owning society. Huck likes Jim because he takes care of Huck. When it comes to other slaves, however, such as Jack at the Grangerford house, Huck does not see them as human either.

“I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now… I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again” (Twain 214). Hucks compassion knowing that Jim hated the brutal slave life, makes him feel compelled to save Jim. Huck knowing Jim never did him harm and would sacrifice anything to keep Huck alive, make Huck a more moral person because no ordinary white man at the time would bother to look at a slave to be a friend. Hucks Compassion for others drives him to be a more moral person. When Jim is sold away, Huck immediately tries to find him, but he needs the help from his best friend Tom Sawyer.

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 thought that since going straight to prayers was not working, maybe he would feel better if he wrote a letter to Miss Watson reporting Jim’s escape. He told himself he did not have to send it, but thought he would feel less pressure if he wrote it down first. After writing it, he said that he feels “all washed clean of sin” after. He then told himself he could pray or think now, but in a selfless act, decides it is not worth turning in someone he cares

Born into slavery, Jim was not given the opportunities of those of the common white man. He was seen as an outsider and as an inferior being to society. Jim had been treated differently all his life, based on the color of his skin. He was forced into labor and was denied the right of freedom. When Huck had first come in contact with Jim on Jackson’s Island, he immediately felt the need to return Jim back to his rightful owner, as if Jim were an object rather than a person. This was the first time that Huck had really thought about

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.