Huck finn essay

A good friend

by: Osamah Elhams

Hidden in the fine ink of the pages, a cultural collision takes place. Such a collision can call a character’s sense of identity out to question. In this case, it would be the uniqueness of a young white adolescent born in the deep Confederate south. The name of this fictional character is Huckleberry Finn. In this particular novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the main characters, Huckleberry and Jim are in a constant moral battle between right and wrong. Discreetly escaping the Confederate territory, Huckleberry Finn, referred to as “Huck” in the story, finds a wooden raft drifting along the Mississippi river; they commence on a long journey through the Deep South and encounter many dilemmas along the way.

Huckleberry is interpreted as a courageous, vigilant and a brilliant young character in the story. Huck always takes the initiative. He is very rebellious against the Confederacy and sees the idea of slavery in a different light. Jim is much older than Huck and is of African descent; a slave who is always anxious to leave the horrible South behind and wants to set forth to freedom. Huckleberry Finn want to help Jim seek freedom from the Southern Slave laws, despite the fact that he is violating the law. The entire story is evidence of this. When huck frightens way the pursuing slave hunters as Jim cowers in a small shack. Later on towards the end of the story, they encounter the two con artists, the Duke and the Dauphin. Hackberry justifies the behavior of the Duke and the Dauphin by stating that history has shown that nobles often lie, cheat and steal. Even so, Huck rescues the Wilks sisters from becoming victims of the Duke and the Dauphin. There are some situations when Huck is always rescuing Jim for whatever reason.

In the story, Huck resists being as he calls it, “sivilized”. Widow Douglas is kind of like Huck’s tutor. Despite her best efforts, Huck rejects her influence and teachings. He runs away from the Widow Douglas who tries to give him a Sunday school education. Huck and his extremely abusive and drunken father don’t have a normal father to son relationship. Feeling extreme hatred for his father, Huck runs away from his only family, Pap, his alcoholic father. He also lies to the Phelps family, in the novel, about being Tom Sawyer so that he can help help set his friend Jim free. Once Jim realizes he’s a free man, Huckleberry decides to head West instead of staying with Aunt Sally and rejoin the society.

Jim, the slave, violates the slave laws in the South by becoming “a runaway slave”. Jim hates living and working under horrible conditions in the South and is wants to begin a new peaceful life with his family. He does not want to be sold off and separated from his family so he befriends Huckleberry. He shelters Huck Finn in an attempt to help him hide from his loathsome father, Pap. He doesn’t reveal to Huckleberry the fact that that the dead body they found in the shack was really his dad’s corpse. When they encountered the two con artists, Jim goes along with the dishonest antics of the Duke and Dauphin because he is afraid that they might turn him over to the authorities as a “runaway slave”. Even thought he risked being captured, Jim returns to help Tom after he takes a bullet to the leg during the escape attempt.

In conclusion, this essay exemplifies the constant moral battle between right and wrong that these characters encounter throughout the novel. Every single walk of life is a constant battle of morality for Jim and Huck but goodness prevails.