Huck and Jim The development of Huck through Jim - In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,

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Huck and Jim

The development of Huck through Jim

By: Ashik Kabir

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, many themes arise to the surface of the story. Perhaps one of the more recognizable themes is the one that deals with the development of Huck and especially with his feelings about Jim. Through the eyes of Huck, one must first look at the society that he lived in to understand what America was like during the time of this Twain’s story. Next, one must look at the way in which Huck was raised in order to see how Huck developed his own moral beliefs, a set of moral beliefs that were very different from that of the societies. Finally, by analyzing the moral “dilemma” through the relationship that Huck has with Jim, we will be able to see that Huck does indeed develop his attitude towards Jim for the better.

From the very beginning of the story, readers are aware of the time in which this book was written (or the period it was written for). The corruption of society morally fit the people’s need of that time. For example, Huck lived with his aunt in the beginning of the story. When his father returned to town, he demanded that Huck be returned to him. A court date is set to decide with whom Huck Finn should stay with. The Judge turns the custody back over the Huck’s abusive, careless, alcoholic father. Later, when Huck fakes his own death, we see how the society is more obsessed with finding the dead body of Huck then their care to save him from the one he was living with. This goes to show how the society felt about parenting and the father’s right to raise his child, even though Huck’s aunt is more capable of raising him. On top of society’s feelings towards awarding guardianship to unlawful parents, something far more extreme and detrimental, society still practiced slavery. People justified slavery through some social and religious means in order to preserve their right to own a person. Twain would show Huck’s feelings and challenge his morals by using the runaway slave named Jim. The “morality” instilled into many people were filled with contradictions, but coincidently enough, it wasn’t successfully instilled into Huck.

Huckleberry Finn did not conform to the society from the very beginning of his childhood. Many of Huck’s attachments with society were broken while Huck was living with his abusive father. Perhaps it was around this time in which Huck came up with his own version of what was right and what was wrong. To correct his behavior, in order to make him more “sivilized,” Huck was to live with Miss Watson. It was very apparent to see that Huck did not enjoy the time he spent with Miss Watson. Here is a quote taken from the book as to ...

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The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me…I got into my old rags, and sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.

This is just a small example of the many complaints that Huck made about Miss Watson’s attempt at civilization. This is also the place in which Huck detaches from himself, in many ways, from religion. After hearing upon the Widow’s version of heaven, Huck concludes that heaven is not the place that he would like to go. By detaching himself from society, Huck is capable of being morally superior by the standards of society.

Finally, we are able to compare the bond that Jim and Huck share. They first become friends when the meet each other down the river. Huck was running away from his father and aunt, while Jim was running away from slavery. Together, both were running away from the rules of society. As the story progresses, Huck helps out Jim in many ways, all the while, he is dealing with the moral dilemma that society has tried to place within him. The realization of Jim’s slavery being wrong takes place in many small steps. The first significant step takes place when Huck tries to play a joke on Jim. After placing a dead snake next to Jim, another snake is attracted to the dead snake. As Huck’s joke is “successfully” played out, Jim scolds Huck for being a terrible friend. At this point, Huck swears to never play mean jokes on Jim ever again. Jim’s comments also affect Huck in other ways. As Huck was heading off into town, for the purpose of finding out about his whereabouts, Huck debates over turning Jim in. While he is leaving the raft, Jim remind Huck of how grateful he is to have Huck be his friend, even after the joke. As mentioned earlier, Huck tricks a group of slave hunters, and in doing so, saves Jim’s life. This strengthens Huck’s decision to see that Jim’s slavery is wrong. Another significant part of the story deals with Huck’s moral issue of rescuing Jim, a slave, from prison. As Huck is writing a letter to Miss Watson, to tell her where Jim is; he stops, tears up the letter, and says, “All right, then I’ll go to hell.” At this vital moment, Huck decides not to conform to society, to go with his instinct, and to free his friend Jim. However, Mark Twain might have hurt the development of Huck when he reintroduced the character named Tom Sawyer. By making Huck passive, he allowed Tom to make Jim’s rescue into a game. Even after they set Jim free, the reader finds out that Jim had been free all along when Miss Watson died, giving Jim his freedom through her will. With this, Huck resorts back to being a child again. He can now view Jim as being “white” because he is free.

Mark Twain has written a story with many themes intertwined within it, but at least in this theme, we see that Huck does not take the message as far as he could have. One of the many things that he did not do was to not make Huck’s feelings about slavery revolutionary. Sure Huck does changes his views about Jim; he believes that Jim is “white” in the inside, but does not change his view on all colored people. He even goes as far to use the “n” word when referring to a passing boat down the river. For all the changes that we see Huck go trough, he does not go through the most important change of all…the recognition of all black people and their slavery being is inhuman. By doing this, Twain nearly destroys all the development we see in Huck. But then again, Twain may have not wanted Huck’s thoughts to be so revolutionary. Since Huck is disconnected from society, Huck recognizes Jim as a human being, and even aids in giving him his freedom, but he never recognizes himself to be a hero. The acts that he commits simply comfort his own consciousness at the end of the novel. This is the backbone to Huck’s existence. Mark Twain, in the end, still proved Huck to be true to his instincts, without compromising the characteristics that make Huck…Huck.