Rachel Crawford ENGL 222 Dr. Perrin 12 February 2013 Morrison and The Adentures of Huckleberry Finn In Toni Morrison's essay about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, she discusses the racial problems and the use of the word “nigger” in the book. Morrison talks about the word embarrasses, bored, and annoyed her, but that “name calling is a plague of childhood”. She also talks about how there is a fatherhood issue throughout the book. She talks about how Huck can't settle down anywhere. He is almost afraid to be alone because simple things seem to frighten him. But then when Jim and Huck are together all those feelings of being afraid and lonesome aren't there as much. She kind of refers to Jim as a kind of father/ older brother …show more content…
Huck spent most of his time running away and hiding from his dad, because he was afraid his dad would come get him and beat him. I do agree with Morrison that Huck doesn't want to admit that he and Jim are going to have to one day go their separate ways. Huck makes up reasons of why they don't land in Cairo just so he and Jim can stay together. But in Morrison's essay she questions whether Huck will be able to make it without Jim when he goes into new “territory” and goes on adventures without him. I do believe Huck can do it without Jim. One, because he now knows that his father is dead and won't be coming after him. Two, because he has learned a lot from being on his own even though Jim was with him. He still had a big responsibility for both himself and Jim and making sure they made it through all of their adventures. I think that Huck has grown as a boy and matured more than most boys his age, because he is living on his own and not only having to look after himself, but also Jim. Morrison said, “Name calling is a plague of childhood and a learned activity ripe for discussion as soon as it surfaces” (386). I fully agree with Morrison on this point. Growing up you tend to follow what others do, whether it be your family upbringing or friends that have been brought up different than you. When you are a kid, if your friend calls some one a name normally other kids will join in just because that is
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
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
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
a big part in the story is abuse. Huck’s father continuously harassed Huck when they were around each other. Huck’s father also abandoned Huck.
The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers the situations and people Huckleberry Finn encounters after he runs away. Huck prevents his alcoholic father from getting his fortune and is able to run away after his father, Pap, kidnaps him and leaves town. It has many colorful characters that exhibit several facets of society at that time in history. It is anti-racist although it uses the word "nigger" frequently. Huck seems to struggle throughout the book with what he has been taught and what is morally right. His main and most consistent interaction is with Jim, a runaway slave. Although he had been taught differently throughout his entire life, he eventually makes the choice to go against what society deems to be right and be Jim's
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
Huck's maturity grows with the same issue later on. When approaching Cairo, the point where Jim can become free, Huck decides that he has done something terribly wrong by not turning Jim in and decides he is going into town to tell on him. However, in a split second, while encountering some slave hunters, Huck decides against it and continues to protect Jim. This episode is particularly significant because even though Huck was "feeling bad and low, because [he] knowed very well [he] had done wrong" (91) he still made a conscious decision to do what he felt was right rather than what society thought was right.
I feel that there was much character development in these certain chapters. One of the most meaningful quotes in this section in the novel occurs at the end of chapter 23, when Huck and Jim have their conversation. Huck is clever enough to assume what Jim is upset about, displaying Huck’s ability to be in touch with emotions. The quote reads, “I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n” (Pg. 156).This quote also causes me to realize how much Huck truly develops as a character throughout the novel because I don't believe he would say something like this before. Although the small size of the quote, it carries much meaning, along with displaying Huck’s consideration for a friend like Jim. It also demonstrates Huck’s emotional side with is not shown very much in the novel. Huck knows more than what it seems like he would, and he does not fail to prove that. I think that a life of abuse and heartbreak caused for him to bottle up his feelings and keep them hidden, but like everyone else, he still has feelings. This quote also displays the certain connection that Jim and Huck have between each other, the reason being they had become so close. In my personal opinion, all I think he wants is someone to take care
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, we are introduced to Huck a boy of about 13 years of age. From a young age Huck grows up in the absence of both his parents. However, Huck is raised by two women who take him in as family, the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, who make it their goal to “sivilize” (Twain 1) Huck. In the plot of this novel we learn that Huck is beaten repeatedly, and even kidnapped by his overbearing and critical father, Pap. We also learn that Pap, because he is always drunk, is an intimidating figure in Huck's life. Twain also writes about a character named Jim; Jim was Miss Watson's slave, freed after her death. Throughout the novel, Twain creates a strong friendship between Huck
In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it follows the story of a young boy named Huck who goes on an adventure with a runaway slave named Jim. During this time period slaves aren’t viewed as citizens but as someone who doesn’t deserve to have any rights. However, Huck saw Jim in several other ways than him just being a slave. He saw Jim as a father figure, a slave and a friend.
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
In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck matures during his journey on the Mississippi River, alongside his companion, Jim, a runaway slave. At the beginning of the novel, Twain, an ardent abolitionist, characterizes Huck as immoral and ignorant, to convey the racist lens through which whites saw blacks in the 1830s. When Huck escapes civilized society, he begins to form his own opinions, and his eyes open to different perspectives that allow him to develop and reach self-knowledge. As Huck’s character develops, it appears that his morality increases too, since he helps Jim run away, despite the consequences; however, in reality, it is only Huck’s respect for Jim that increases. Twain exemplifies this theme through
Huck is later left by himself after Jim is sold to another slave owner. Huck fears the repercussions of freeing Jim but overcomes his fear and resolves his inner conflict of whether he should turn in Jim or not: “I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and only one he’s got now” (Twain 225). After almost losing Jim Huck becomes more aware to the world around him. He is reborn and realizes many things that are so wrong in society such as racial inequality at the Phelps and the slave
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,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has been called one of the greatest American Novels and considered a masterpiece of literature. The book is being taught by teachers across the country for years. Now, Huckleberry Finn, along with other remarkable novels such as Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird, is being pulled off the shelves of libraries, out of schools and banned from classrooms because it has been considered unsuitable and racist for today's youth. An classic American novel like this book should not be banned from schools; it shows history, growth and friendship.