The relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".

During the book, Huck hasn’t really experienced what life really was and what you might encounter during times that just come out of anything. Jim is someone that you might call strange and unexpected. When Huck

In Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the adults in Huck's life play an important role in the development of the plot. Pap, Huck's father, constantly abuses the boy, never allowing him to become an intelligent or decent human being. He beats and attacks Huck whenever they meet up, and tries to destroy Huck's chances of having a normal life. This situation is balanced by several good role models and parent figures for Huck. Jim, the runaway slave, embraces Huck like a son, and shares his wide ranging knowledge with him. He also protects Huck on the journey down the river. Widow Douglas is another good role model for Huck. She tries to civilize him and make him respectable to society,

They meet up at Jackson’s Island, and decide to stay together while they set out on the river. At this point, Huck is known to lie about many things. Any time he gets into trouble, he will lie to help himself. However, growing extremely close with Jim changes him, and after the Duke and the Dauphin sale Jim, Huck stops lying and becomes a better human. Jim did not just provide someone for Huck to go through life with, Jim provided a true friend who changed Huck’s outlook on what is right in life. He considers turning Jim in several times, but eventually makes the decision to not turn him in and cause his friend to go back to the life he left. At the start of the book, Huck would have turned Jim in with no hesitations, but Jim helped Huck to discover that what is right by society’s rules is not always morally right. Thus, his relationship with Jim makes him less civilized in society’s eyes, but more civilized through the eyes of people who have a good heart and want to help others. Society would have condemned Huck for these choices, but considerate people would praise him for making a kind decision. Without Jim, Huck would not have been able to make a decision like this that showed his good

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the plot into Huck and Jim's adventures allowing him to weave in his criticism of society. The two main characters, Huck and Jim, both run from social injustice and both are distrustful of the civilization around them. Huck is considered an uneducated backward boy, constantly under pressure to conform to the "humanized" surroundings of society. Jim a slave is not even considered as a real person, but as property. As they run from civilization and are on the river, they ponder the social injustices forced upon them when they are on land.

Throughout all these situations that Huck goes through, Jim has supported him, even when Jim was not with Huck at every time. Jim first met up with Huck on the island. Jim escaped Widow Douglas’s home because he was to be sold down south, which would separate Jim from his family forever. Jim is hands down the most important person to Huck throughout the novel, putting himself in a category as one of Huck’s new family members. Jim has been associated as Huck’s father figure. During their time together, Jim and Huck make up a sort of alternative family in an alternative place, apart from society. Huck escaped from society for adventure and a new life, while Jim has escaped from society so that he wouldn’t be separated from his family by being sold down south. Jim is based off of his love, whether it’s for his family or his growing love for Huck. Jim was thought of by Huck as a stupid, ignorant slave in the beginning of the novel, but as Huck spends more time with Jim, Huck realizes that Jim has a different kind of knowledge based off of his years as well as his experiences with love. In the incidents of the floating house and Jim’s snakebite, Jim uses his knowledge to benefit both of them but also seeks to protect Huck. Jim is less imprisoned by conventional wisdom than Huck,

Hucks acknowledgement of Jim as a friend instead of property shows his ability to accept others based on morals. Jim shows fatherly characteristics and his actions show his desire for Huck to be safe. On the river Huck learns a variety of life lessons that help to build the growth of his character. He learns how to live away from society’s demand and rules, and the actual value of a friendship. “ So in two seconds away went a-sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again all by ourselves on the big river, and nobody to bother us” (Twain

Jim is ignorant but kind. In the book, he takes care of Huck. Once, the fake Duke and the fake King ask Huck and Jim to stand the night when they go to sleep. It is nice of Jim that when Huck is tired, he stands for Huck and let Huck sleep. According to Huck: “I was pretty sleepy by that time, so Jim said he would stand the first half of it for me; he was always mighty good that way, Jim was” (P138). And there is another time Jim stands for Huck, and Huck says that “I went to sleep, and Jim didn’t call me when it was my turn. He often done that” (P165). Jim is just so kind to Huck, makes Huck be grateful for him. Huck appreciates what Jim done for him. Huck realizes that friends take care of each other because he sees Jim taking care of him. He would not be lonely any more. Also, Jim is a black slave; it is different from a white friend to Huck. This makes him feel the humanity from a slave. He knows the slaves are also humans but not objects because of Jim’s kindness. Huck learns those when he thinks Jim is always mighty good. It is a good environment of having Jim there, Huck is influenced by him to be kind-hearted and selfless. Huck sees the nice side of a slave instead of a bad side which is described by people in general, too. Jim is the friend who accompanies Huck, affects him to feel the

When Huck and Jim first ventured off together in hope of starting over in a new life, Huck began to set the differences aside between him and Jim subconsciously because he did as his heart felt. As they both sought freedom and independence, Huck’s heart over powered his mind and his conscience was silenced as he began his character reformation. As they developed a friendship, Huck expanded his mind in ways of thinking what is best for Jim. Huck’s character matured as he made ethical decisions to help Jim find freedom and stay safe as they did so. Huck’s pure heart saved Jim’s life and his corrupted conscience was

Huck puts a snake under Jim’s pillow as a prank, but Jim ends up getting bit. This was very mean, but Huck did not intend any harm to Jim. He just wanted to scare him as a joke. After he found out that the snake bit Jim, Huck feels very bad about this. At another time in the story, Huck and Jim are separated, and Huck comes up to Jim as he is sleeping, and decides to play another joke on him. He tells Jim that there was no storm, and that he never left the raft. Jim realizes that Huck is just trying to make Jim feel dumb, and then gets mad. He says "'All you wuz thinkin 'bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.” (Jim, page 98) People say that Huck is being mean to him, and treating him like a slave, like property. Huck does not treat Jim with complete respect through the whole story, but when it all comes down, Huck really cares about Jim. Jim is practically a father to Huck. Jim watches out for Huck, such as the time when he told Huck not to look at the dead body that he found on the boat. Huck feels bad for Jim when he gets bit by the snake, and especially when he is enslaved at Aunt Polly’s house. Huck and Tom Sawyer put their lives on the line, and come up with a very detailed plan to break Jim out, and free him from slavery again in the middle of the night. They truly care about Jim and treat him like a person, and a friend. This shows the complete opposite of

In the article “Huck,Twain,and The Freedman’s Shackles: Struggling with Huckleberry Finn Today” written by Tuire Valkeakari clarifies “ Jim starts, after Pap Finn’s death, to protect the fatherless boy as unselfishly as if Huck were his own son. Notably, Huck intuitively submits to Jim’s newly establish authority as an adult protector”. This quote proves to show

Although Huckleberry Finn grew up in a predominantly slaveholding southern state of Mississippi, Huck chooses not to turn Jim into the slave catchers when he meets them, because he does not follow the normal rules of society, he rather follows what he believes is the morally right course of action to take in any situation, even if his decision are difficult to accept within himself. Jim and Huck, despite their differences are both outcasts, one a runaway slave, and one the son a racist and drunkard as a father who is a member of the lowest societal and economic class in Missouri other than slavery. Despite their similarities and their rather cordial relationship, society does not condone of their friendship and will try to ruin their friendship.

“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” In “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” written by Mark Twain, the author makes a commentary on the misguided ideas held by the Southern people towards the African Americans, who they saw as barbaric individuals void of intellect and morals. Mark Twain shows this through his portrayal of the relationship between Jim, the “escaped slave,” and Huckleberry Finn, the runaway child. Throughout the novel, Jim, the escaped African American slave, is portrayed as a nurturing father figure to Huck, protecting Huck, both psychologically and physically. During their journey, Jim discovers Pap Finn’s corpse lying prone on the floor; he prevents Huck from discovering who it is, “I didn't look at all.

In Huckleberry Finn, the idea behind the relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim is critical to understanding these characters from a base state. Both of these characters come from different backgrounds and have different views on various issues, so how were these characters able to bond throughout their adventures? Throughout the book, Huckleberry Finn and Jim’s relationship evolved through the idea of respect gained for one another and through the adventures that these two share together. Arguments over the origin of the change in relationship between Huck and Jim state that because huck never had a true father that was there for him; therefore, he sees Jim as this fatherly role that he can look up to and learn from. However these

There is a moment where he “couldn’t seem to strike no place to harden [himself] against [Jim],” instead he sees how horrible the “other kind” is (213). Huck finds that his morality will forever override the close minded hypocrisy of society and that the middle and higher class citizens during this time are in the wrong. There is nothing better than Huck realizing the value of his relationship with Jim during their journey; Jim has become like a father figure to Huck.

For example Jim begins to cook for Huck, protect him and create shelter and a place for them to sleep while they are traveling. Huck also begins to think of Jim as the human being that he is rather than just a slave. “Huck and Jim overcome the race barrier…,” Huck begins to see Jim as a father figure he grows closer to him than any other character but, “only after Huck overcomes the inner struggle of whether to save Jim or not (Steen, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”).” Throughout the novel the barrier of race holds Huck back in several ways emotionally and mentally. There is a visible shift after Jim spends the night thinking of his wife and children. Huck elaborates on how “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;…”Huck comes to the realization that Jim loves just as everyone else does. “I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n.(Twain 152)” Twain portrays Jim to be the father figure that Huck needs in order to prove “There are many humorous things in the world; among them is the white man’s notion that he is less savage than all other savages.”(Steen, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.) Consequently, through Twain’s perception of blacks during the 1800s and he illustrates that despite the color of your skin, what matters is who you are