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How Did Huck Finn Change

Decent Essays

In Mark Twain's The Adeventures of Huckleberry Finn, the protaginist, Huck, goes on an epic journey with his loyal escaped slave, Jim. Throughout their journey, readers see Huck change and mature through his conversations with Jim. Jim would be the last person people would expect to help Huck. Not because he is not capable, but because he was a black slave. To fully understand the importance of Jim, the reader must be familiar with America's civil views when the story takes place, why Mark Twain wrote the novel, examples of Jim helping Huck (specifically their conversations on the raft, and Huck's decision to go back for Jim). First, The Advenetures of Huckleberry Finn is set to take place before The Civil War, while slavery is going on. Society slowly transformed to the point where slavery was accepted by almost all people in the South. As it became more accepted, white slave owners became very brutal with their slaves. Owners could get away with beating, and selling slaves. When slaves were sold, they would often be sold away from their family members, and they had no way to dispute it. Knowing the problems in society will help …show more content…

Twain uses his book to beautifully point out important problems while still maintaining the innocence of a child. Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison describes Huckleberry Finn as remarkable for, “its ability to transform its contradictions into fruitful complexities and to seem to be deliberately cooperating in the controversy it has excited.” (Howe). Mark Twain wrote the novel as an anti-slavery novel, which suggests that he wasn't prideful, as he was in a family that owned slaves. Twain's childhood aslso helped fuel the novel. Because Twain saw how bad slavery was first-hand, he could better appreciate freedom and express his views. Sheeley Fishkins gives a glimpse into Twain's thought process by

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