The Duke And The King In Huckleberry Finn

Less subtle are Huck’s observations of Jim as their relationship progresses. Jim at first is nothing but a source of amusement for Huck, but Huck slowly discovers the real person inside. In Chapter 23, Huck states, “…I do believe that he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for ther’n.” Later, Huck goes even further to say, “I knowed Jim was really white inside.” From Huck, this naïve statement was the highest compliment he could have given Jim, and reiterates the idea that a black man can have true emotions and real feelings, something that was not commonly believed at the

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

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

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

believes Jim to be inappropriate and stubborn at times, as in their exchange over the Biblical story of King Solomon and the French language. Huck doesn’t tell Jim but says to the reader,“ If he got a notion in his head once, there warn’t no getting it out again…I see it warn’t no use wasting words – you can’t learn a nigger to argue” (76-79).

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

Also as they go more south for example when they are in Arkansas the duke, the dauphin, and Huck speak on his behalf because of the limited rights slaves have in the south. The way Jim talks also is a major factor in the level of hatred in the eyes of the southern people. This is so because Jim talks very uneducated level which puts him in place in the views of the people who believe in slavery and if Jim were to talk smarter or whiter he would be hated even more because they people despise educated slaves. Along with Jim, Hucks language shows his social class and color. Huck was provided with little education and brought up under the Widow Douglas and Aunt Polly who were good people. His past is shown every time he speaks because his thoughts are expressed clearly and exactly how he intended to say it. Although he has errors every now and then, he is still considered the better type of white, unlike his father who as described by Huck was the worse white there was. As a result of Huck’s language he was more respected than and not as pampered with as Jim and some of the other characters. Along with Jim and Huck, Huck’s pap and the Duke and Duchess’s language reflects their race and their level of education. Huck’s pap was a

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic novel with the ongoing debate of whether or not the novel should be read within schools. This debate is surrounds to book within the matter of slavery and harder writing for students to understand. However, Huck Finn educates students about the past in a different view also opens students up to local color by showing slaves are humans as well.

In Chapter 14, Huck and Jim argue about why French people don’t talk the same way as American people. Jim’s argument is very rational; he says that French people and American people are both men so “‘why doan’ he talk like a man? You answer me dat!’” (14). Twain creates this seemingly trivial scene as an allegory to the fact that whites and blacks are both men, yet they are treated starkingly differently. In addition, Huck realizes “I see it warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit” (14). Huck believes he is smarter than Jim because society innately believes that white men are superior to blacks, yet Jim is wiser and more rational than Huck because Jim recognizes the faults in society that Huck overlooks because he is so accustomed to them. This scene also exemplifies that Huck’s morality hasn’t increased because he can’t see past society’s restricting lens, and recognize that Jim’s argument makes sense. Huck and Jim become separated because of the fog but after much panic and loneliness, they are later reunited. However, Huck pretends it never happened and calls Jim a “tangle-headed old fool” (25). Huck’s act of dishonesty towards Jim portrays the superiority that white men felt over blacks in this time. Although Jim believes Huck at first, Jim realizes that Huck lied and confronts him: “En all you wuz

Throughout Huckleberry Finn, Huck sees countless people get taken for a fool and believe foolish things. Most obvious are the people that get taken in by the King and Duke, but even earlier in the book, Huck sees people believing untrue things. For instance, when Huck tells the watchman that he has a family that

Huck’s relationship with Jim evolves through out the first chapters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Before their relationship evolved into a friendship, Huck saw Jim as an inferior, and Jim saw himself as one as well. Evolving into the end of Chapter 16, Huck has thoughts of apologizing for a trick he played on Jim, showing that Huck saw him as an equal, and a friend. The first time Huck speaks to Jim is on Jackson’s Island, when they are both runaways. “‘Well, I b’lieve you, Huck. I—I run off.’ ‘Jim!’ But mind, you said you wouldn’t tell—you know you said you wouldn’t tell, Huck.’ ‘Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it” (45). When Jim tells Huck the reason why he is out on Jackson’s Island, Huck is surprised, as Jim became nervous and tried to use Huck’s word against his own. Clearly there still is not a lot

Twain uses colloquial diction to convey Huck’s struggle between the values of his southern upbringing, which urge him to return Jim, and his strong friendship and loyalty with Jim, which encourage him to protect the runaway. Although Huck lacks education, Huck interprets the laws in ways that are morally sound, an interpretation that most educated people fail to understand, while they blindly accept the injustice of slavery. Throughout the novel, Twain makes use of uneducated diction and syntax to convey an ironic contrast between Huck’s ability to discern between moral and immoral actions and his lack of education.

This passage reveals a lot about the King and the Duke. It shows that they are in fact not really the King and the Duke, but two conmen who teamed up to scam gullible people. It also changed the perspective on how Huckleberry views life. Before this event Huckleberry believed that everyone was good and that he would never get tangled up with the bad people. This event will cause Huckleberry to grow more mature and learn the way of life.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been labelled as a picaresque novel. A picaresque novel is an adventure story that involves an anti-hero or picaro who wanders around with no actual destination in mind. The picaresque novel has many key elements. It must contain an anti-hero who is usually described as an underling(subordinate) with no place in society, it is usually told in autobiographical form, and it is potentially endless, meaning that it has no tight plot, but could go on and on. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has moulded itself perfectly to all these essential elements of a picaresque novel. Huck Finn is undeniably the picaro, and the river is his method of travel, as well as the way in which he wanders around with no

Along the way, they meet the duke and the king, two white people. What Twain is doing here, is to contrast these two cons with Jim, a kind and honest man. The duke and king, over and over again, make up stories, fake their identity to cheat on people and take their money. When they try to be the two brothers of a rich man to take all the iherited money: “Well, when it come to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud -- the poor girls, too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give the next woman a show. I never see anything so disgusting.” (Twain 178). Why was it so disgusting to Huck? The true nature of these two white men, the duke and the king, proves that the stereotypes of racism was completely wrong. There are white people who do not have morality like Jim does. The contrast was too large, to be compared, Jim shall be loved and valued more than the two frauds. While the Victorian women complaint about Huck’s behaviors, considering him