Why Is Huck Finn A Good Role Model

Bill Carroll

Mrs. Scott

19th Century American Novel

May 15th, 2017

The Adventures of Jim There is certainly a lot to like about Huck Finn. While he may be a little rough around the edges, and occasionally exercises less than stellar judgement, he still shows himself to be a good person overall. However, his companion and good friend Jim is the real hero of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Relative to Huck, Jim consistently displays better judgement, a higher sense of morality, and in general to be a lot more mature than Huck, and by extension Tom Sawyer. Thus, while he may not be the title character, Jim is arguably the main hero of the novel, as well as the main role model. The first main characteristic of Jim that makes him a better hero than Huck is that Jim is far more kindhearted. The first example is when Jim makes sure Huck doesn’t know that his Pap died, as a way of trying to protect Huck from what he may see. While Jim knows that Huck would be happier without his father, he also understands that seeing his dead, decaying father may traumatize the thirteen-year-old boy,

Jim had multiple opportunities in which he could have easily betrayed, dumped, or otherwise abandoned Huck, but still chooses to stay with him despite the associated risks. He chooses to trust Huck when he claims that Jim had been drinking and made up the whole separation in the fog scene, despite his gut telling him not to. However, upon finding out that his trust was betrayed, Jim is righteously indignant for a short while, but quickly forgives Huck despite the magnitude of the lie. Finally, Jim trusts his own good judgement, in that helping Tom towards the end of the novel would be better for him in the end than letting tom die and becoming a free man. Thus, it becomes apparent that Jim’s plentiful and well-placed trust place him even further into the heroic