Huck's Unconventional Freedom: Cabin Imprisonment

1821 Words4 Pages

Huck 's father kidnaps him chapter (page 33) - After the law and the judge as well as the women who had taken him in fail to protect him, Huck ends up being imprisoned by his own father in a cabin in the words. At first however, Huck does not express any sort of distress or dislike regarding the situation, which goes to show how used he is to accepting bad treatment such that he does not deserve. Despite being held captive, Huck feels freer in the woods than he was in the town, and enjoys his time there to an extent. He is also reluctant to abandon his father despite how terrible he is, which demonstrates how he is still a boy who remains loyal to his dad out of familial obligation. He eventually escapes after he is almost killed by his pap, …show more content…

They are similar characters in that they have run away from the chains that civilization binds them with, Jim of course in a more literal sense. The two are able to come together and lead this idealistic life on an island of their own where Jim does not have to serve a master, and Huck does not have to pray or go to school. They had also had little control over their own lives back in St. Petersburg due to Huck being a child subject to the domination of adults, and Jim a slave forced to submit to the will of a white man. The island becomes the perfect safe haven from society for the two, and their meeting there allows them to form a bond over their mutual …show more content…

He forced Jim to do all these silly things and to remain in chains while he acted out his childish fantasies based on the books he read, and Jim merely followed along because he knew no better. Huck used and manipulated Jim for his own selfish desires, and this makes him little better than those who own slaves. His behavior towards the free black man is also never asserted as wrong, even though it would have been considered so if he had done the same to a white man. This is Twain 's way of saying that even though there are free black men, the white man remains dominant and holds no qualms about abusing their power over

Open Document