The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain

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.

Originally, Huck believes that he should turn in Jim, a slave running away from being sold by Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. He does not see it as following the law, he just believes that it would be immoral for him not to turn in Jim to the cops. Huck Finn was raised to accept the idea of slavery which has been shaped by a society who accepted slavery. The pranks that Huck Finn pulled on Jim reflects Huck Finns attitude towards Jim 's intelligence. In the scene after Huck Finn and Jim get separated in the fog, Huck thinks Jim is stupid enough to believe that none of it

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.

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck struggles to conform to society’s views and expectations. Society pressures Huck Finn into earning a standard education, but through his worldly knowledge and common sense, he can view the world differently than the people around him. Through his perspective on Southern society, Huck struggles to accept the moral beliefs that have been instilled upon him at birth because he befriends an African American slave. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain effectively uses the motif of dead bodies to suggest that truth finally reveals the inconsistencies in society through Huck’s common sense.

Throughout history, and even into present times, racism appears as an all too common societal concern. From slavery and discrimination to unequal rights, African Americans’ long history of mistreatment led to the desire and craving for freedom. In Mark Twain’s adventure novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, such motives from pre-emancipation era African American slaves become evident. In the novel, the characters’ attempts to leave the shackled south for the non-restrained north in hopes of freedom become justified. By analyzing and understanding how society feels about African Americans based on the geographical locations of the Southern United States, the Mississippi River, and the Northern United States, the reader comprehends the influential drive behind the desire to escape racism.

Year after year The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is placed in the top ten banned books in America. People find the novel to be oppressing and racially insensitive due to its frequent use of the n-word and the portrayal of blacks as a Sambo caricature. However, this goes against Mark Twain’s intent of bringing awareness to the racism in America. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is classified under the genre of satire and is narrated by a fictional character named Huckleberry Finn. The novel takes place in the south during the year 1845. With his abusive father, and no mother, Huck is left feeling lonely, and as if he has place to call his home. So he decides to leave town, and on in his journey where he encounters a slave he’s familiar with, Jim, who is also running away. This story captures their relationship and growth as they face many obstacles on their way to freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn satirizes people’s greed and violent behavior by mocking the stereotype of southern hospitality.

Because Jim is a black man and a runaway slave, he is at the mercy of Huckleberry Finn. The only principles Huck has encountered are those of rural Missouri, in which slave-owning is just one kind of ownership and is not subject to critical pressure. (Bennett page 125) Although initially we see the humanity of Huck in that he helps Jim despite what is morally required of him due to his social setting.

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

While he was seemingly content, he refused to be sold to a new master in New Orleans. While Huck does not look down upon Jim the way others do, they begin to act as equals in chapters 8 and 9 since society is not there to influence their actions. Jim does not fear Huck turning him in as a runaway slave since Huck is on the run, too. As question 1 references, the two are parallels. They are both running away from society’s expectations of them. Huck feels as though he will be stuck with his father purely based off shared genetics despite the abuse, and Jim is seen as a lowly slave purely because of his skin color. As the novel progresses, Jim is seen less as a slave in the reader’s and Huck’s mind and more as the father figure Huck lacks. While a superstition, Jim tries to protect Huck from any bad omens by warning him against touching the snake skin with his bare hands. He imposes this kind of caring afterthought that Huck has never experienced. In return, Huck is also quite protective of Jim. Towards the end of chapter nine, Huck is canoeing back to their settlement on the island and expresses concern for Jim being caught. He makes, “…Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with the quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a n----- a good ways off,” (Twain). Between chapters eight and nine, Huck begins to genuinely care for

How does Huck really view Jim in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? In the book, Huck helps Jim avoid slavery. When Jim eventually gets sold back into slavery, Huck goes through a lot of work to try to free him. Huck goes on many adventures with Jim, treating him as a normal person, but also calling him the “n-word” multiple times and seeing helping Jim as a sin. This book takes place during a time when helping slaves is socially unacceptable, yet Huck breaks many of these social norms.

He constantly found himself battling on whether to help Jim or turn him in, which would be more sociably acceptable. But as Huck befriended him, he came to realize that Jim was more like him than he previously assumed. And after witnessing Jim's emotional outburst concerning his daughter, Huck thought that Jim "cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so" (Twain 117). But this goes against everything he would have been taught to support slavery. One of the rationales behind slavery is that black people aren't humans, but "animals"/"savages". But by Twain showing Jim as having emotions that even a white person can identify with, he displays how the conception that blacks are emotionless animals is untrue. And later on, when he once again struggles with turning in Jim, Huck's actions sheds light on how cruel slavery is and the worth of a black persons life. He came to the decision that he would even risk going to hell to set Jim free, as he stated "All right, then, Ill go to hell" (Twain 162). After experiencing how Jim treated him and how much he acted like a normal "white person" would, Huck was able to realize that Jim's life was equally as valuable as his own and that forced labor would be injustice. Additionally, Twain used Jim's actions in contrast to characters such as the king, Duke, and Pap to further prove his

He realized that Jim is just as much as a person as he is, and that he cared for him more than he could ever try to care. This is what Twain’s goal was, he wished that the eyes of those ignorant enough to believe what they were taught should find out for themselves firsthand and challenge it. Caring contributed very much to the creation of the strong relationship between Huck and Jim. Jim becomes a friend, not just some slave to be bought and sold. With the impact of a good friendship, Huck's life is changed forever, and the reader takes on a new perspective of racial equality. After a difficult and timely struggle, both Jim and Huck achieve a good yet certain degree of freedom. Not just freedom from slavery for Jim or freedom from civilization for Huck, but freedom from the hard-headed and rigid mentality of the South and all of the immoral teachings it had to

Since the beginning, Huck was not allowed to express his own beliefs because that would be going against Southern norm, which is seen as inexcusable and disgraceful. As the novel progresses with Huck going on a strenuous journey with Jim, a runaway slave, Huck learns incredible life lessons and eventually changes his viewpoints about slaves. This sudden change in his beliefs and values of slaves is due to the environmental change Huck experiences. This new environment conditions Huck and makes him realize that slaves possess human traits and qualities like every other white person do. In particular, Huck’s journey with Jim on the Mississippi River teaches him not to judge other people based on their outer appearances, but to treat everyone with compassion and love. Huck becomes more inclined to disregard social norms that he learned to accept in the past. Huck is essentially influenced by his environment throughout the novel.

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.