Huck Finn Jim and Huck: A Relationship Essay

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Huck Finn

Jim and Huck: A Relationship in Spite of Race

As Leslie Gregory points out in "Finding Jim," Twain used the "minstrel mask" as a stereotypical platform upon which to base one of the central characters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And yet behind the "mask" is a very human and humane man, who, in spite of a tendency towards superstition, acts as a kind of father figure to Huck, revealing to the boy the proper path to manhood -- just as Huck promises to take Jim on the path to freedom. This paper will show how their relationship is symbiotic though charged with racial tension at times.

Huck begins the novel with a "misconception" of Jim's personhood (Gregory). Although this misconception is not as cruel as Tom's (Tom has no scruples about playing tricks on Jim), Huck's conscience is informed by his society (and certainly by his Pap). For instance, Huck recollects one of Pap's sayings, "Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell" (Twain 123), when struggling over what to do with Jim. Sayings like these are among the reasons Huck feels like he has to turn Jim in to the authorities when he learns that Jim is a runaway slave.

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Huck shows, however, that he is conflicted with regard to Jim -- for as he goes to inform on Jim, he realizes that what seems right in the eyes of society isn't always right and that what seems wrong to some might just be right according to a higher law. Huck draws this conclusion in a comical way when he states, "All right, then, I'll go to hell" and determines to free Jim from slavery once more (Twain 297). Huck believes that by freeing Jim he is damning himself according to society's law, but the voice of his conscience is clearly guided by a higher moral code and it is this moral code that Huck ultimately adheres to. It steers him away from his early misconception.….....

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