Jim´s Role In Huck Finn's Development

Throughout all of his adventures Jim shows compassion as his most prominent trait. He makes the reader aware of his many superstitions and Jim exhibits gullibility in the sense that he Jim always assumes the other characters in the book will not take advantage of him. One incident proving that Jim acts naive occurs halfway through the novel, when the Duke first comes into the scene "By right I am a duke! Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that..." In the novel, Huck Finn, one can legitimately prove that compassion, superstitious and gullibility illustrate Jim's character perfectly.

Even though Jim and Huck had a lot of good times, there was some bad times. For example, after Jim was taken back into slavery Huck mabe a plan to get him out but he said, “... it’s a dirty low-down business…” (Document F). This shows that Huck knew Jim was a slave and he knew messing with slaves a very low on the totem pole. Another example, would be when Huck was going to write a letter to Jim’s owner explaining where he was during that time, Huck says, “... everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, and they’d make Jim feel it all the time… “ (Document E). This proves that by the end of the story Huck was thinking of Jim as a slave. However, a few bad moments do not define a

     On Huck and Jim’s journey to Cairo, Jim begins to speak about when he is free he will go and find his children and take them from the slave owner. This rubbed Huck the wrong way; his standards of Jim had been lowered because, from Huck’s point of view, why would Jim steal his children away from a man who has done nothing to him? Huck’s conscience began to come into play and he had made up his mind: He was going to turn Jim in when they reach shore. He was sure of it until Jim began to sweet talk Huck, telling him that Huck was the only white man that had ever kept a promise to him. This comment went directly to Huck’s heart; he could not possibly

Although many make the argument that Huck is immature because of his young age, he actually shows growth and maturity by noticing the similarity between Jim and himself. When Huck and Jim are on the raft, Huck notices that Jim is upset. Huck knows it must be from missing his wife, children, and home, and makes the statement, “I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks do for their’n”(Twain 117). For all of Huck’s life, he allowed society to make him believe whites were superior to blacks, yet Huck is beginning to see how society is wrong with this. Jim is a person and feels things just as hard as whites do.

Jim helps Huck develop greater character changes throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. In the story Huck learns a lot of lessons on how to grow into a better and more trustworthy friend. Jim helped him throughout the story to show him a different side of life, and how everyone is different and they grow in different surroundings. Jim and Huck both grew in maturity with their life, and wanted the best for one another. Huck finds out a new identity for the world as he grows later on in the story.

Huck has an established sense of morality which changes throughout the novel, his moral development is shown through Huck’s guilt when he is presented with two opperunities to turn Jim in, and how he feels after choosing not to. Huck was raised to believe that white people were above black people, and that slaves were nothing more than property. This is shown through the way he treats Ms. Watsons slave Jim. He thought it was ok to treat him like property, to play mean tricks on him with Tom Sawyer, and still expect him to do all of Ms.Watsons hard work. As Huck and Jim meet on Jacksons Island,and travel down the river, sharing their adventure, Huck comes to see things differently.Huck discovers that Jim knows valuable camping information to help them while they’re on the island, He finds out that Jim has a family that he loves and cares about, and that he is deeply troubled because he may never get to see them again. After all of this Huck comes to the realization that Jim is his friend, and when Huck and Jim run into slave capturers on the river, Huck is faced with the decision to

Because blacks are uneducated, he sees them as stupid and stubborn. He frequently tells stories to Jim, mainly about foreign kings and history. When Jim disagrees with Huck, Jim becomes very stubborn and refuses to listen to explanations. Huck eventually concludes, "You can't learn a nigger to argue". Jim also seems to accept that whites are naturally superior to blacks. He knows that Huck is far smarter than he is. When Tom Sawyer and Huck are planning an elaborate breakout for Jim, he allows their outrageous plan to continue because they "was white folks and knowed better than him". This mutual acceptance of whites as superior to blacks shows how deeply rooted slavery was in Southern culture. This made it very difficult for Huck to help Jim. When Tom Sawyer says he will help free Jim, Huck is very disappointed. He had never thought that Tom Sawyer, of all people, would be a "nigger stealer". Huck had always considered Tom respectable and educated, and yet Tom was prepared to condemn himself to damnation by freeing a runaway slave. This confuses Huck greatly, who no longer knows what to think about his situation with Jim. When Huck is forced to make a decision regarding slavery, he invariably sides with his emotions. Huck does not turn Jim in, despite having several chances. His best chance to do what he believes is right comes as they are rafting towards Cairo, Illinois. Huck finally

Huck comes to the realization that Jim cares about his family as much as a white person would. At this point Huck stops seeing Jim as a slave, but sees him as a companion and as an equal. This is a major step in his moral development in the fact that he no longer follows what is sociably expected but rather takes his own path on what he consciously knows is

During the late 1800’s post civil war, the reconstruction era surfaced in the union. The reconstruction, a political program designed to reintegrate the defeated South into the Union as a slavery-free region, began to fail. The North imposed harsh measures, which only embittered the South. Concerned about maintaining power, many Southern politicians began an effort to control and oppress the black men and women whom the war had freed. At around this time, Mark Twain released his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which a young boy named Huckleberry Finn attempts to flee the South with an escaped slave, Jim. The novel follows the pair on their journey

Jim as a father figure is the polar opposite our protagonists biological father. In one particular conversation that Jim and Huck were having, we heard a story about Jim had hit his young daughter. Jim yelled at his daughter to shut the door but it seemed as though she kept ignoring him. Eventually Jim got infuriated and ran up to his daughter. Jim explained that, “En wid dat I fetch' her a slap side de head dat sont her a-sprawlin'. (Graff, Phelan 155)” This is the only real example of Jim committing physical violence for the sake of cruelty. The way that Pap responds to physical violence and the way that Jim do is drastically different from one another. In the next passage we find out that Jim's daughter is deaf and dumb and that he came

Huck's observation and reaction to the feud of the two families has reinforced his conscience about the chaos of white society in comparison to Negroes. Huck's reaction in regards to the King and the Duke is also an important point in Huck's development as a person. Huck, having been exposed and shown the immoral and corrupt products of society has grown strong enough to work against society in the end. This development has allowed huck go approach society in a more skeptical manner and to confront and accept that society and the world is not Widow Douglas' delusional mirage. This resulted in Huck to have more confidence in his relationship with Jim and loosened his bond with society's immoral

His whole life has been taught that “niggers” are property and are not meant to be free but In his heart he knew helping Jim was the right thing to do, no matter what anybody else says. “both Huck and Jim are depicted as characters who are capable of learning from their own mistakes, empathizing with others, and acting on the behalf of others” (Evans). As the journey down the river continues they run into two con men. These men pretend to be the Wilks brothers in order to rob this family of all of their possessions. Huck couldn’t see them do this poor family wrong. He spends some time really contemplating telling one of the girls, Mary Jane, the truth about these liars (Twain 175). He knows inside that it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t want to put himself at risk. He plans out every little detail of how he is going to tell her and how he is going to expose these men (Twain 175-178). His actions result from his sympathy for others and his conscience and show major growth as the story continues.

Huck’s views regarding black people come into question when Huck and Jim run away together. Their experiences together let them become closer to each other and let Huck recognize Jim as a human being with real feelings. Huck starts to view Jim as a caring individual when they are on the raft. This is a scene taken from when Jim and Huck were working together on the raft and Jim was trying to protect them both from the rain, “Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of reach of steamboat waves” (Twain, pg 64). In this part of the novel, Huck seems to be all Jim has, and Jim is also all Huck seems to have, and they work together to build a place that the waves cannot reach them. Their feeling of friendship is born through working together and protecting each other. Even though Huck and Jim are having new experiences together, Huck’s conscience is still going back and forth about the idea of freeing a slave. This quote is taken from when Huck

This is especially problematic considering that the book is supposed to contain the moral of racial equality: if Huck cannot overcome his racism, why should the reader? Most notably, Huck never seems to stand up for Jim despite seeing Tom’s cruel pranks: Huck has not grown up enough to speak up for what is right despite peer pressure. The fact that Huck participates in and admires Tom’s schemes is even worse as it shows regression since Huck had previously tried to be nice to Jim. Huck also does not fully overcome his racist tendencies because he does not seem bothered by the fact that other African Americans are being enslaved; he is beginning to view only Jim in a more human light, but any such progress is seemingly subverted by going with Tom’s cruel treatment of Jim. Huck’s lack of progress in overcoming his racism, especially the fact that he caved into peer pressure and did not show concern for other slaves, indicates a lack of character growth that ruins the ending of the

Despite an ardent view on slavery evident through interactions with Jim, Huck’s slowly shifting view of Jim from that of ignorance to seeming acceptance expresses his ability to stray from flawed societal values to his own developed moral code of conduct. This becomes evident when Huck protects Jim from men who board his raft, by hinting he has smallpox. Although one can see this as compassion for Jim, Huck questions with racist undertones, “s’pose you done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad” (Twain 127). However, he later affirms himself to “do whatever come handiest at the time.” (Twain 127). At this point, society still influences Huck, but his statement marks his decision to detach from societal values, and eventually allows him to form his own views on Jim. This comes slowly, as Huck cannot shake free from racism.