The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The main character of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn, undergoes a complete moral change while having to make life changing and moral questioning decisions throughout his journey on the river. Huck appears first as a morally inferior character caused by living with a self absorbed and abusive father, because of his alcoholic habits. Throughout the whole book Huck is guided by Jim, a runaway slave who goes with him and helps Huck gain his sense of morality. During these encounters, he is in many situations where he must look within and use his judgement to make decisions that will affect Huck’s morals.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an important novel that shows how the two worlds of Huck and Jim collide to bring out the problems of racism and slavery before the Civil War. Huck is depicted to be a young boy who is oblivious to the outside world, and Jim a slave with a big heart who looked at the world in a different perspective. Throughout the journey together, Huck and Jim’s relationship was shaken by the cold reality of racism and slavery, thus opening Huck's eyes to the world around him, where Jim and Huck grow as individuals but also creating a new foundation for their friendship.As Huck and Jim embark on an adventure together to run away from there lives, Huck noticed to see Jim as a person then property.

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

Mark Twain tells the story of Huckleberry Finn, and his maturity that is developed through a series of events. This maturity is encouraged through the developing relationship between Huck and Jim, as well as the strong influence Jim has on Huck. Jim's influence not only effects Huck's maturity, but his moral reasoning; and the influence society has on Huck. Jim is Huck's role model; even though Huck would not admit it. At first Jim seems to portray a Black stereotypical role with his superstitions and ignorance, although his true identity and maternal role begins to shine through as his interactions with Huck progress.

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain and published on December 10, 1884. This picaresque novel takes place in the mid-1800s in St. Petersburg, Missouri and various locations along the Mississippi River through Arkansas as the story continues. The main character is young delinquent boy named Huckleberry Finn. He doesn’t have a mother and his father is a drunk who is very rarely involved with Huck’s life. Huck is currently living with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who attempt to make the boy a more civilized and representable citizen. Later Huck runs away and meets this runaway slave named Jim and they become good friends. As Jim and Huck travel down river in their raft they experience many conflicts.

The first time when Huck Finn is pulled in conflicting desires is when he finds Miss Watson's runaway slave, Jim, at Jackson's Island. Huck knows that if he doesn't turn the runaway slave in to his owner, "People would call [him] a low-down Abolitionist and despise (him) for keeping mum. " (Twain 43). Then later in the novel when he tries to write to Miss Watson that he knew where Jim was, he doesn't because " she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again." (Twain 212). The conflict within Huck Finn illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole because during the novel Huck develops affection for Jim are through he is challenging societal norms. When Huck tears up the letter when he remembers the time Jim said that "[he] was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now." (Twain 214)

Huck has a grim attitude toward people he disagrees with or doesn't get along with. Huck tends to alienate himself from those people. He doesn't let it bother him. Unlike most people Huck doesn't try to make his point. When Huck has a certain outlook on things he keep his view. He will not change it for anyone. For instance in Chapter Three when Miss Watson tells Huck that if he prayed he would get everything he wished for. “Huck just shook his head yes and walked away telling Tom that it doesn't work because he has tried it before with fishing line and fishing hooks.” This tells us that Huck is an independent person who doesn't need to rely on

Jim helps Huck develop greater character changes throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. In the story Huck learns a lot of lessons on how to grow into a better and more trustworthy friend. Jim helped him throughout the story to show him a different side of life, and how everyone is different and they grow in different surroundings. Jim and Huck both grew in maturity with their life, and wanted the best for one another. Huck finds out a new identity for the world as he grows later on in the story.

     Since Huck is the center piece of the novel people could say that Mark Twain expressed himself through the character. They would use the fact Huck was degrading Jim. As I have said Huck was raised that way from a child, but he evolved to different beliefs. In the beginning after Huck and Jim have run away they find each other. Huck’s first step to overcoming prejudice occurs on that island. Huck feels relief that he is no longer alone and needs Jim for comfort. You start to see a bond form which never forms between man and his "property". This may not be a gigantic step but it is a step. As the story unfold farther they form a rather special bond of needing each other which shows strong when Jim is auctioned off. He decides to save Jim which is totally unheard of for a white to do for a black. At first he challenges his views of religion whether or not he should write Miss Watson, his owner, and probably still lose Jim for good, or go for Jim himself. Huck decides

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

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

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn explores the ideas of racism and slavery through the eyes of a young white boy during slave times, who throughout the book is faced with ideas and people that force him to question the morals of which he was raised with. It's very important for us to know that Huck was raised by adults with superior attitudes toward Jim due to the color of his skin. Mark Twain wants the reader to realize that Huckleberry changes over time, and as an example, Twain writes about Huck eventually helping Jim out of slavery when he knows in his mind it's the wrong thing to do. A key theme in the story is the relationship that has been built between Huck and Jim.

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

Huck starts thinking, “I went along slow then, and I warn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I warn’t. When I was fifty yards off, Jim says, ‘Dah you goe’s, de ole true Huck; de on’y white gentleman dat ever kep’ his promise to ole Jim.’ Well, I just felt sick.” (Twain 114). Jim has taught Huck about compassion and empathy, as well as to reject the racist upbringing he had. Slowly but surely, with the help of Jim, we see Huck beginning to form his own beliefs about the world, and reject the upbringings he