Giovanni Torres
Mrs. Pearson
12/8/14
English 11 L3 In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, written by Mark Twain, a teenager named Huckleberry Finn discovers himself on an extensive runaway excursion from his father down the Mississippi River helping him find morality and individualistic responsibilities. As the novel progresses, the reader sees a large contrast between the two main characters, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Romantic Tom and Realistic Huck are friends down this road of never-ending adventure. Huck and Tom both vary and differentiate greatly through their individual capacity of cerebral performance, respond to society and the life they’re surrounded by, and their different reactions to slavery around them, especially Jim. A
Tom and Huck individually have contrasting ideas and methods as far as to saving Jim from being put back into slavery. Tom is extremely complicated and full of unnecessary embellishments. He has an,” unrealistic, narrow idealistic morality of authorities and “gold-leaf“ distinctions. ( Huck the Thief- Link)” This is present because of his devotion to the dreamy tactics that is read in his books. He fundamentally acclaims that there is “honor in getting out through a lot of difficulties and dangers. (215 Twain)”. Tom cultivates irrational and impractical plans just to make a simple situation turn into something beyond problematic. An example of this is when he decides to go against Jim’s word and fill his shed with wild animals instead of just getting the job done and keeping it simple. In contrast, Huck’s plan is immensely simple
In Tom’s eyes, Jim will forever be looked at as only being a “nigger.” The time frame called for someone of such color to be considered lower than a human being and not capable to feel emotions. Tom can’t see Jim as human due to the fact his mind is molded to believe that blacks are not equal nor human. Tom chooses the path of conformity doesn’t seek the ability to change his views on the topic of slavery. Tom is so caught up in his own world, or better yet the normality of society, that he uses Jim as a game and because of this, Jim is left to suffer. Tom doesn’t tell Huck or Jim that Miss Watson has legally freed Jim in her will after she died. Without that documentation, Tom would have never agreed to help Huck free Jim from slavery. In regards to Huck’s reaction to Jim, it doesn’t remain constant throughout the entirety of the novel. As the reader learns, the more time that Huck spends with Jim, the more that time allows for Huck to develop morality, therefore causing Huck to begin to value Jim as Human as opposed to property. He looks at Jim as being his friend because of Jim’s ability to open up to Huck and show vulnerability. `Jim talks about missing a family and Huck is able to understand that this man is human. When he finds out that the raft and Jim are missing he “set down and cried
Why would anyone in his or her right mind even think about freeing a slave? Everyone in the society was telling Huck that slaves were no more than ones property, but Huck began to question this belief when he got to know the property for who it really was. During the story there are many times when Huck feels an obligation to turn Jim in to the authorities and just get on with his life, but his conscience kept telling him that this man is a real person. Near the end of the story, Jim was stuck in a holding cell, since he had run away. After much consideration of the situation, Huck decides that he wants to free Jim because he believes that he shouldn't be treated that way. Even though the entire town believes that Jim should be contained and treated like property, Huck still sticks to his morals and goes along with the plan that could get him in trouble or even killed. At the end of the story we find out that Jim had always been free, and we now find Huck's actions to be heroic and noble.
...ing out for Huck like a father would. "I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come" (Twain ). In this line Huck states that though he does not have a plan just yet, the first thing that he will do once he has one, is to carry it out and free Jim. This shows his loyalty to Jim as he will always come back to him which demonstrates how much he cares for him and their strong bond.
	Huck’s attitude for Jim is racist which is seen when he decides to play a trick on Jim during their voyage. After Huck plays his trick his attitude toward Jim begins to change, "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 afterward, neither" (Twain 72). The dialogue throughout the book between Huck and Jim illustrates that Jim is more than property and that he is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future.
When Huck and Tom reencounter towards the end of the novel, Twain’s portrayal of each boys’ ideology sparks sharp contrast between practicality and romanticism. Tom is a risk-taker, a divergent thinker, an imaginative boy; exactly Huck’s opposite. Huck is a realist, a hesitant decision-maker, and a submissive boy. When faced with the challenge to free Jim from captivity by the Phelps family, both adventurists come up with a plan and after Huck presents his effective plan to Tom he says “Wouldn’t that plan work?” to which Tom replies, “Work? Why cer’nly, it would work, like rats a fighting.
Jim's character traits are easy to over look because of his seeming ignorance, but in reality Jim possessed some qualities that created a positive influence on Huck. He began by demonstrating to Huck how friends teach friends. His honest compassion also eventually causes Huck to resist the ideas society has placed upon him, and see Jim as an equal-- rather than property that can be owned. Huck knew he was going against society, and of the consequences that he could receive for freeing a slave. "It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame", (269-270). Huck then claims, "All right, then, I'll go to hell…"(272) This shows that Huck was willing to put himself on the line for a slave, because he ceased to view Jim as property and recognized him as a friend. At the beginning of the story Huck would have never done this, but after the many adventures that occur, Jims unconditional love for Huck pierces the shell society placed ar...
Growing up in civilization, Huck had recognized owning a slave as a societal norm. He slowly begins to realize the impact of society, on slaves and slaveholders. The more analyzation of the situation, the less comprehensible slavery became, and light was shown on the evils around it. Moral confusion ensues as those who seem to be kind and heaven bound, such as Miss. Watson and Sally Phelps, are oblivious to the inhumane injustice done to Jim and all of those enslaved. In this instance, Huck Finn has a more sound idea of morality than the adults in his life. During Huck’s impersonation of Tom, he is asked why he was delayed replying that a cylinder on a steamboat had blown up. When asked if anyone had been hurt, he comments that a “ni**er” has been killed. Sally then disregards this as a human life, and responds “Well
In lieu of his escape, Jim emphasized his feelings of becoming a free man. Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom (p. 238). Huck came to the realization that Jim was escaping for a far different reason than he, and began to see this “nigger’s” freedom as his own fault; he was an accomplice. Huck’s conscience became plagued by the fact that Jim was escaping the custody of his rightful owner, and he was doing nothing to stop this. In Huck’s eyes, Jim was essentially the property of poor old Ms. Watson, who didn’t do anything less than teach Jim his manners and his books. Altogether, Huck felt that he was doing wrong by concealing this, and felt miserable to say the least.
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
He was even disappointed when all the gang did was cause trouble at a Sunday school meeting. Later on in the novel, Huck is also faced with a moral dilemma when he comes across Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave. As they travel down the river, Huck mentions, “I began to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how, no way.
Tom is intelligent, creative, and imaginative, which is everything Huck wishes for himself. Because of Tom's absence in the movie, Huck has no one to idolize and therefore is more independent. Twain's major theme in the novel is the stupidity and faults of the society in which Huck lives. There is cruelty, greed, murder, trickery, hypocrisy, racism, and a general lack of morality. All of these human failings are seen through the characters and the adventures they experience. The scenes involving the King and Duke show examples of these traits.
...all along Jim was free but being the adventurous boy he is he wanted Jim to turn out and be a hero like the one’s he reads about. Tom knows Jim could have been freed multiple times if he didn’t put him up to all of the childish games. Jim had stayed by Tom’s when he almost died and would do anything for him but Tom couldn’t give Jim the same respect back. His foolishness behavior caused Jim more pain and almost didn’t get him freed. Jim was a father figure to both boys and he stood by Huck’s side since the beginning of the novel.
He wanted to have fun and play as if Jim was meant to be locked up merely so they could have an adventure. He wouldn’t have said anything until more family came and verified it. “And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took all that trouble and bother to set a free n***er free! and I couldn’t ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he could help a body set a n***er free with his bringing-up” (Twain 290). Tom didn’t care about Jim and didn’t even care that he broke his own leg in the process, he just wanted to have fun and to have a story to tell people. Everyone was confused at why Tom would do such a thing. Huck was especially confused because he was against slavery and saw Jim as an equal, so that’s when he asked Tom about it. “And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all the n***ers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight procession and a brass band and then he would be a hero, and so would we” (Twain 291-292). Tom had known about the risk in everything, and
Huckleberry Finn’s conscience and morality about regarding Jim as a friend changes throughout the novel as their bond with each other increases. In most parts of the story,Huck has internal conflict about whether or not he should turn Jim in,but Huck keeps thinking about how bad he would feel afterward. In chapter 8,Huck finds that Jim is a runaway. Jim explains to Huck that he overheard Miss.Watson talking about how she was going to sell Jim to a slave trader in New Orleans for $800 which would separate Jim from his family. Plus,he and Jim are traveling together for the same reason;freedom. Huck is escaping his own home life from the Widow Douglas and his abusive father believing that they're keeping him from being who he wants to be.
... he now realizes that stealing property is bad. Since Huck and Tom, although in a drawn-out manner, free Jim it is implied that he regards Jim as a fellow human being, not a slave. Showing Huck this equality and fostering a friendship between him and Jim could only be done by this kind of physical journey, as the idea of equality was only in its infancy at the time and had not taken root with any southerner.
The way Huck and Jim encounter each other on the island, draws parallels in their similar backgrounds. Huck is torn between a life of manners and etiquette and a dangerous life a freedom, and while Jim at an impasse because he is being sold into slavery farther away from his home and away from his family. Each choice, for both characters comes with a cost so they both decide to runaway, in an attempt to assert some control over their lives. After spending much time together, the pair establish a connection which at times Huck feels guilty about since it violates everything he was raised to believe. At a certain point, Huck considers turning Jim in by, writing a letter, but after recalling the goods times they shared, Huck exclaims, "All right, then, I 'll go to hell!” (Twain) and quickly tears up the letter. Twain depicts Huck and Jim 's eventually friendship as a source of emotional strife for Huck and Huck constantly has to decide whether to abandon Jim and turn him in or abandon his religious beliefs and stay with Jim. The ripping up of the letter that would have turned Jim in symbolizes the choice Huck 's has selected. For this moment onward, Huck is dedicated to keeping Jim from being sold back into slavery and has no intent on going back on his choice. While there are times, Huck pays attention to the color of Jim 's skin he believes that