There are two main characters in Huckleberry Finn: Huckleberry Finn, and Jim, a runaway slave. Huckleberry Finn finds himself torn between his own judgment of helping Jim escape, and the people around him who support slavery in its entirety. He is in a bad and dangerous situation while with Jim, because anyone might possibly think Jim a runaway "nigger" and turn him back in for the reward of cash, as well as clout for being honest. But Huck is a very bright and creative young man, and uses his intelligence to both his and Jim's advantages in order to save their lives, on more than one occasion. He is quite brilliant under pressure, as when encountered by two men looking for runaway "niggers". The men inquired about who else was with Huck. The men threatened to come closer and see, and Huck replied, "I wish you would, because it's pap that's there, and maybe you'd help me tow the raft ashore...He's sick..." and Huck let on that he needed the men's help, and that his "pap" was awful ill, and soon enough the men hollered, "Keep away, boy. Confound it; I just expected the wind has blown it to us. Your pap's got the smallpox, and you know it precious well." Huck makes great use of his mind and ponders every possible obstacle that comes his way. In most cases, that is what saves him from making the wrong decision, even if the wrong decision would be the easiest one to carry out.
The main goal that Huck and Jim were striving for was freedom, and after Huck faked his own death, and Jim ran away from Mrs. Watson, they thought they were home free. Not so, because within the time span between setting off and achieving freedom, they had been "run through the mill", so to speak. Huck and Jim had been separated at least three times, and two of those by life-threatening situations. They had lost, and then recovered their raft. They had on many occasions come close to being discovered by robbers. Huck even lived with a strange family who was nice enough to take him in when he was separated from Jim and the raft. And when things just started to get better, and freedom was on the tip of Huck and Jim's tongues, the raft became inhabited with two con men. One of which claims to be a duke, the other a dauphin. And for the last half of the journey, these false heirs of royalty continue to use Huck and Jim's travels to callously go from town to town, playing the townspeople like chess pieces.
The river, along with the sometimes-horrible weather that came along with it, symbolized the gate, or pathway, to freedom, and the obstacles that make a good thing worthwhile. And after losing and recovering their raft, and even after it was plowed through clear in half by a huge boat, it was none-the-less repaired by old Jim, as good as new. The raft symbolizes the relationship between Huck and Jim, as well as their unforgettable journey together.
As the story progresses, an insight is given through the thoughts of Huck, as he is the narrator. He becomes aware of his own heart, and whether or not he likes it, he begins to realize that he is actually doing the right thing by helping Jim to freedom. On many occasions he had compared himself to his best friend Tom, and there was a time when he thought it easier to "just do bad". And he wasn't quite sure if he had done the right thing by helping Jim at first. "Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to fun away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children- children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't even done me no harm."
There is no wonder why Huckleberry Finn is one of the all-American stories. Huck and Jim went through enough adventures to last a lifetime, and it stays upon the reader more than just a regular science-fictional novel because it sets the tone of what things were really like. By the time of the books ending, Jim, Huck and Tom all learned a lot about humanity. Jim was willing to sacrifice his freedom to get Tom back to Aunt Sally's house to get medical attention for Tom's wounded leg. In times of desperate measures, Jim proved to be a great man. And that proved Huck's decision that he had done the right thing. In the end, when Jim achieves his freedom and Huck proclaims he is heading out west, I would like to think that Mark Twain did not mention Huck's gold back in St. Petersburg, because in the big scheme of things, money doesn't matter all that much.