In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s valuation of Jim as a friend and companion is in direct opposition to what society has deemed an appropriate relationship between white and black people. This juxtaposition is further underscored by Huck’s relationship with his father, a malevolent drunk
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain presents the story of a 13-year-old boy who tries to escape the “sivilized” society by running away from all its constraints. On his way to freedom he meets Jim, a runaway black slave who is hiding from the villagers in order to remain alive. As their ways intersect and since both have similar goals, the two remain together in an attempt to find freedom. This is a pregnant theme in the novel and it applies differently on the two characters: they each want to achieve freedom but each type of freedom is different. They search for the same feeling but with completely different thoughts and wishes. My aim for this essay is to analyze Huck and Jim’s manners of perceiving independence and to illustrate by means of quotations some of the most clear and interesting passages regarding their goals. Also, I would like to discuss the theme of racism which is also an important one in the novel’s development.
Their illiteracy, superstitions, love for adventure, cunning nature, and similar desire to run away from society’s morals brought them closer together in their friendship; however many people tend to overlook this aspect of the novel and its importance. These similarities prove to be significant as they spark Huck’s overall realization that black people, like Jim, are just as much human as the everyday Southern white man. Huck realizes this when he learns about the aspects of Jim’s dark past. When he lived with his wife and kids, Jim beat his daughter for not listening to what he asked of her when, in reality, she couldn’t hear his requests from the damage scarlet fever had done to her body. Huck described his realization about the misery and sorrow Jim felt when he said, “He was thinking about his wife and children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does their'n. It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so" (141-142). Here, Huck realized that Jim felt as much emotion for his family as a white man would for his. Twain tries to show, through Huck’s understanding of the similarities between the two races, that Jim is just as much of a human as a white man, backing the equality of blacks and whites. He falsifies the social stereotype that a black slave didn’t feel the same emotions and act the same way white people
The Pre-Civil War novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is about a young boy named Huck. His mother is dead and his father is an alcoholic. Huck is now being raised by the Widow Douglass, a woman who is attempting to raise Huck to be a successful, educated member of society, despite his many protests. Because of the violence and forced conformity, Huck runs away and unites with a runaway slave named Jim. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck decides to help him break free from slavery. By doing this, he is going against the societal norm and refusing to follow certain rules just because that’s what everyone else is doing. As they run away together, Huck begins to notice and understand the common stereotypes within society. He rebels and goes against society in his attitudes and philosophies. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain explores why humans follow ridiculous ideas just because they are the societal norms by pointing out the hypocrisy within society’s ideals, incorporating satirical examples about religion, education, and slavery into his novel.
In the novel, individual conscience plays a big role on the lives of the characters. Throughout the novel, Jim and Huck help each other to find their true identities through their journey down the river, although they are both very different, in social class, race, and view on society and the world, they are able to form a father-son relationship in which Huck is able to mature and grow his conscience. Jim is able to mold Huck’s conscience into the way it should be, not the way society wants it should be. Mark Twain uses Huck in the novel to the reader that when it comes to friendship, race should never be an issue, and that individual conscience is far more important than society’s opinion. Jim forces Huck to take a closer look at the society he lives in, the realities of slavery, and he helps Huck to better understand the lives of black slaves, Huck therefore understands slavery from not only the white perspective. Jim not only helps Huck to develop his conscience, but he also helps him to understand why the freedom of any man is the most important thing in the world, Jim becomes his father in a sense, therefore Jim is able to let Huck see the world from the perspective of a slave.
A novel structured on the theme of morality, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain focuses on Huck Finn’s multifaceted growing up process. Huck, through his escapades and misfortunes is obliged to endure the agonizing process from childhood to adulthood where he attains self-knowledge and discovers his own identity. Throughout the journey down the Mississippi River, Jim, Ms. Watson’s runaway slave, accompanies Huck, and is later joined by two con men. It is during this journey that a great moral crisis in Huck’s life occurs where he must make a painful decision as to whether he is going to give Jim up to the slave hunters or notify Ms. Watson about Jim’s whereabouts and assist him to remain a free man. This is the turning point in his character where through deep introspection, he learned to think and reason morally for himself. He comes to his own conclusions, unaffected by the accepted, and often hypocritical, perceptions of Southern culture. Huck also deciphers the truth in the face of lies held by the antagonistic society with its evil nature.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, can largely be considered a critique of society during Twain's time, and a satirical attack on the post-Reconstruction society in which Twain lived. In his story, a young boy named Huck Finn faces a daunting moral conundrum as he experiences a series of adventures while on the run with a runaway slave named Jim. As he spends more time with Jim, Huck soon realizes that Jim is not that different from him, and contrary to what he has been led to believe thus far, Jim has emotions and is just as human as any other white person. This comes as a shock to Huck, who exclaims that it "isn't natural" that Jim, a black man, cares just as much about his children and family as any white man. The fact that Jim cries and laments over his children missing him, and expresses grief over hitting his deaf daughter Lizabeth, forces Huck to the realization that Jim is a human. Huck's recognition of Jim's humanity goes against everything that he has been taught, and is contrary to how most white people in his society see blacks.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel by Mark Twain, tells the story of a young man who runs away from home. While on the run, Huck comes into contact with a slave fleeing from his owner. Huck also lives with this family, so he and the slave, Jim, have a history. Huck and Jim team up and make their get away and head for the free states. On the way, they battle storms, con men, suspicious people, and their own personal morals. Throughout his journey, Huck finds himself conflicted about behavior society deems acceptable. He battles a society which views slavery as a norm and relentlessly attempts to “sivilize” him. Twain uses the character of Huck Finn to illustrate flaws in 1800s American society. While society can have a profound influence on an individual, likewise, there are times when the individual must break free of society’s dictates and determine his own values and beliefs.
In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, freedom is portrayed from the perspective of two characters in the book: Huck Finn and an escaped slave, Jim. They travel together along the Mississippi River and their characters develop throughout the journey. Twain develops Huck’s character by the choices he makes as the novel progresses and he goes through many changes. Huck struggles with racial values that has been taught to him by the white adults in his life, they collide with the feelings he has towards Jim, a slave who gradually becomes his friend over the course of their journey down the river to freedom and is forced to reevaluate his point of view on slavery. There are many turning points in their relationship which contributes to Huck’s rejection of society’s false beliefs: when Huck promises Jim that he will not tell anyone that he has run away, when Huck decides to keep his promise despite what his conscience it telling him to do, and also when Huck decides to risk all the guilt he will feel by helping Jim find his freedom from is enslaved life. Twain uses the ideas of freedom in contrast to slavery, and civilization against modern society. These moments show Huck’s growth as an actual person, which corresponds along his isolation of rejection from society and its’ morals.
In the classic American novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a boy sets out on a journey with a runaway slave and is exposed to a variety of walks of life. The sad reality of Huck is that his father, the only non-female, adult influence in his life, is a deadbeat and is no positive role model on Huck’s life. On Huck’s journey, he encounters many different powerful men, leaving it up to Huck to decide what are good and bad personality traits to have. In turn, Huck grows up and gains his own moral code. The conscience that Huck adopts is mainly due to the interaction with the Duke and the Dauphin, the Phelps, Tom Sawyer, and Jim. Huck’s adventures down the river with Jim gives Huck the moral compass needed, by exposing him
Huckleberry Finn is a rebellious boy who defies the rules whenever he deems it fit. In the satirical novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a runaway boy befriends an escaped slave in the deep south. The majority of society frowns upon Huck and his choices and he struggles with his decisions the whole novel which reveals thematic subjects such as friendship, love, and betrayal. Throughout the story Huck cannot decide whether to do the right thing or not, but ultimately his heart wins over the views forced upon him by society.
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn encounters Jim, a runaway slave, who influences his moral view on slavery that was once shaped by a flawed racist society. In the beginning of the novel, Huck portrays his childish behavior by playing jokes on people and living a carefree life. As his adventure in the book continues, he runs into serious situations where his maturity and morals are tested. In the beginning of the book, Huck belittles Jim’s humanity. Raised in a southern society, Huck views Jim as socially unequal and experiences no regret when he teases him. However, as Huck spends more time with Jim on the raft floating down the river, Huck begins to form a relationship with Jim he never expected. As Huck is faced with the concrete realities of the raft, Huck is forced to open himself up to Jim's voice; “the practical situation at ...