Huck's Friendship With Jim example essay topic

"He is sometimes slave who should be master; and sometimes master who should be slave". [Lat., Fit in dominate ser vitus, in servitude dominates.] Oratio Pro Reg Deiotaro (XI) by Marcus Tullius Cicero Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered to be possibly the Great American Novel by many scholars and is certainly the best known of Mark Twain's works. These scholars both powerfully praise and powerfully depreciate Twain's artistic judgment in relation to Huck's character, themes, and political statements, but Jim's place is often ignored or overlooked. Jim's character is very important in his roles in supporting Huck as a father figure, his example for Twain's portrayal of slavery and racism, and in his own right as a multifaceted, moving, and developing individual. Jim plays the role of the father by providing for Huck's physical, personal, emotional, and moral well-being. He begins by simply supplying necessary food and shelter for the "dead" boy.

Jim continues in this role throughout the novel. He seems to always be out hooking fish or cooking make-shift meals for Huck. He takes it upon himself to build 'a snug wigwam [on their raft] to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep things dry. ' (48). On the other hand, when Huck is at his real father's (Pap's) cabin, he has to stop up the holes 'to keep the wind from blowing through the chinks and putting the candle out' (18-19).

Jim also advises Huck about his personal life. From the very beginning of the novel when he sees his father's boot prints, Huck establishes a precedent of going to Jim for advice. Despite the slave's fearful superstitions, his advice is mostly sound, as seen when he advises against boarding the Walter Scott and against looking at "Pap's" face. Huck's physical well-being is consistently under Jim's protection. He passively protects Huck from the villains and nice old ladies of civilization and town meetings by keeping the raft always ready to dash back to the protection and solitude of the might Mississippi river. By lying to the King and Duke for him after they catch up with Huck on the river and threaten him, Jim actively risks himself to physically protect Huck.

Where Huck had no one to shield him before, now he has big Jim to advocate him against people that are like Pap or the King and Duke, as a father should. Although Jim's ability to defend him is limited because of his status as a runaway black slave, he guards over his adopted ward to the best of his abilities. Jim's concern for Huck's emotional well-being is also shown. He showers Huck with verbal and physical affection. One of the memories that causes Huck to stick with his decision to help free Jim is that of how Jim would 'always call [him] honey, and pet [him]' (161). This was a welcome change to the lonely boy who had only what is in this day and age considered very dreadful child abuse from his real father, boring and self-gratifying lectures from Miss Watson, and tears of pity from the widow.

Jim gives Huck more; He gives Huck friendship. Before Jim, Huck never had any true friends. Although Tom comes the closest, he consistently degrades Huck and puts his ideas down. When Huck tries to 'be his true friend' (176) and discourage him from freeing Jim and embarrassing himself and his family, Tom replies by 'shut [ting] [him] up, and say [ing], 'Don't you reckon I know what I'm about? Don't I know what I'm about?' ' (176). Again, when Huck has a sensible idea regarding how to free Jim, Huck puts him down with, 'Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you, I'd keep still' (182).

In spite of their age and social differences, Huck has free, amiable, and easy conversations with Jim. Another one of Huck's memories at a critical dedication point is of when he and Jim were 'a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing' (161). Huck can speak very freely of more intellectually based topics, such as history, nature, and ethics, to Jim. While Pap considers his education 'n foolishness' (15), Jim eagerly listens to him when he 'read considerable... about kings, and dukes, and earls, and such' (57). This opening up of himself is an important development for a boy who has little conversation recorded previously. Despite the fact he narrates the whole story, Huck does not talk much at all except for when he is with Jim.

Indeed, there is no reason for him to talk. Whenever he tried, his father abused him, Miss Watson scolded him, and Tom mocked him. It's even more important for Jim. This is when Jim learns that he can indeed learn and he can outwit a white boy in arguing over Frenchmen. Lastly, Jim plays the role of the father by providing for Huck's moral well-being.

Jim provides the moral rule against which different situations are measured. Jim's integrity sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison with the dishonesty of the world beyond the protective boundaries of the raft. His honest remorse for striking his daughter who was "plumb deep en dumb" is shared just previous to Duke posing as a deaf mute to get the Wilks' money. The gentleness and guilt Jim shows for his behavior towards his daughter underlines the duplicity and greediness of the King and Duke as even more contemptible.

It is 'through Jim's sensitivity [that] the entire Wilks episode is thrown into much more precise focus' (Cox 73). Even so, Jim has more meaning just than filling a role. Jim is Twain's representative of slavery and proves all judgments the author has against the practice. Twain has been accused of being unrealistic in his portrayal of slaves by having Jim be treated fairly well by all of those who owned him or had custody of him throughout the novel. There is a reason that Jim is not beaten or physically injured by a master; the purely physical brutality of slavery is not its horror. Even the breaking up of families is not truly the greatest evil of slavery, though it is the one Jim can best feel and put forth an argument against.

The single greatest evil and horror of slavery is the conscious and authorized circumventing of one person's free will by another person or persons. "The right of a nation to determine its own form of government does not include the right to establish a slave society (that is, to legalize the enslavement of some men by others). There is no such thing as 'the right to enslave. ' It does not matter, in this context, whether a nation was enslaved by force, like Soviet Russia, or by vote, like Nazi Germany. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). Whether a slave society was conquered or chose to be enslaved, it can claim no national rights and no recognition of such 'rights' by civilized countries...

". (Rand 108). Twain demonstrates through Jim that slavery is wrong not because of how any given slave is mistreated, but because of how every given slave is mistreated. "Consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest of happiness. ' The words of John Adams still ring true. Even in the house of the Phelps, even with Uncle Silas being a respectable pastor, Jim is being wronged by having his rights to his own free will denied him in his innocence.

Jim's superstitions are used to as a counterpoint for Twain to point out the folly and dangers of organized religion as well. His superstitions and those of the poor whites and slaves in the novel are reminiscent of Judean laws regarding the washing of hands. Both have a purpose and are generally helpful, but neither are understood for the tangible results they produce in their times. They are therefore considered merely ritual. Organized religion on the other hand is obviously indicated as a danger on a small scale by the King, but there is a deeper underlying concept as well. Michael Hermann stated a historic truth when he said: 'Organized Religion is like Organized Crime; it preys on peoples' weakness, generates huge profits for its operators, and is almost impossible to eradicate.

' Slavery is made possible in the South by organized religion. Without some generally accepted reason a "civilized" nation ca not rationalize slavery, in the case of the pre-Civil War American South that reason was that African-Americans were to some degree subhuman. This idea was endorsed by the local organized religious faiths and clergy, and thus deemed morally fit and proper. "Real religion should be something that liberates men. But churches don't want free men who can think for them self and find their own divinity within. When a religion becomes organized it is no longer a religious experience but only superstition and estrangement".

(Fellini) It would be remiss of me not to mention that to some Jim represents an unconscionable "Uncle Tom" character. This has always struck me as rather silly overall, as Jim's character exhibits the more strength, courage, valor, gallantry, and loyalty than any other character in the entire novel, espousing these ideals and principles while searching for his freedom and the freedom of his family. That for that reason and for the use of the word "nigger" in a 1800's poor white Missourian dialect, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is now considered by some to be racist and unfit for educational use is frightening. After Twain spends the entire book writing on the repulsiveness of slavery and bigotry, he is now plagued with focus groups and local government officials an editors trying to make themselves names. He's probably doing merry flip-flops in his grave. "There is more than one way to burn a book.

And the world is full of people running around with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italia/Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist, Zioninist / Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib / Republicans, Matta chine / Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme". (Bradbury 149). Jim is a moral compass for Huck who has been utterly failed by his authority figures in that area. Jim ensures that Huck gains the knowledge to effect good decisions.

Twain portrays Jim's judgment of situations as the correct moral view. It is Jim that exposes the meanness of Huck's joke after the night of the fog. It is once again Jim that sees that the Duke and the King are 'regular rapscallions' (116). Huck's reaction to Jim being sold by the Duke and the King reveals the depth of their friendship. Instead of being relieved at not having to make the moral decision of whether or not to free Jim, he 'set down and cried.

' (159). Adams argues that 'Jim's function... has been to test... Huck's growing moral strength and mature independence' (Adams 92). When Huck mockingly asks Jim to interpret the meaning of the trash on the raft, 'rather than taking each item of debris and divining its meaning as Huck requests, Jim takes each act of kindness and concern he has shown Huck Finn over the course of their journey and defines for the boy, perhaps for the first time in Huck's life, the meaning of friendship, loyalty, and filial or family responsibility. ' (Chadwick-Joshua 56). By then "humbling himself to" Jim Huck was not only accepting Jim as his friend, but he was also accepting a different set of ethical values.

It is Huck's friendship with Jim that 'makes possible his moral growth' (Cox 73). Jim's comment, 'you's de only free' ole Jim's got now' (67), when Huck is paddling off to turn him in, stops Huck and forces him to decide in favor of Jim. The memory of Jim's friendship keeps Huck on the right track. When Huck remembers their friendship, he realizes he will not give up his friend 'and couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me [Huck] against him, but only the other kind' (161). At this point Huck fully gives up his belief in the rightness of the beliefs Miss Watson gave him, and now only believes in their righteousness.

Jim's character shows a great deal of growth in the final chapters, despite Marx's statement that the ending 'jeopardizes the significance of the entire novel' (Marx 54). He doesn't fight or wail and complain (other than about the snakes and extra work of escaping.) Jim is brave in his less than glorious getaway and the sacrifice Jim is willing to make in order to help Tom Sawyer, a boy who has caused Jim nothing but trouble, is an amazing testament to the loyalty and faithfulness of the slave / free man. That Jim forgives Tom his cruelty in leaving him "a prisoner" is hard to wrap one's mind around, but very true to Jim's character. Over the course of the book, Jim goes from being a respected man among his fellow slaves, to a respected man among all men, because he is an esteemed and noble friend who has earned that respect. At the emotional climax of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck says one of the most moving lines in all of literature, seven words that hold so much mass and volume, "Alright, then, I'll go to hell". (162).

I cried the first time I read that line, I cried the second time I read that line, and I've cried every time I've read that line since. Coming from a Christian background, I can sympathize with the difficulty of that decision and I don't know that I'd make the same one. Once again though, I found that Jim's distance education role was largely ignored in this scene. Directly before making the now famous statement, Huck was writing a letter to turn in Miss Watson's slave. He ripped up that letter, not because he had a sudden epiphany or a sign from God, not because an authority figure counseled him, and not because he reasoned through all of the potential moral ramifications concerning slavery in his country.

He ripped that letter because Jim proved his humanity and because Jim had shown himself to be an equal. Huck ripped up the letter and rejected salvation because Jim was his friend. Jim is the driving force in this work. He is the support that keeps Huck alive and physically, personally, emotionally, and morally healthy. He is the catalyst through which Mark Twain can put forth his ideas on the subject of slavery. Jim is an exceptional character and a role model for which to strive.

He is 'the true visionary center of the novel' (Chadwick-Joshua xx). ANNOTATED

Bibliography

Mike Hermann -- Federico Fellini, interview, Harry Reasoner, 60 Minutes (1981) Adams, Richard P.
The Unity and Coherence of Huckleberry Finn. ' Marks 82-94. As the title indicates, Adams focuses on the unity of the novel as a whole. He defines the theme as 'the growth of an individual personality' (94), namely Huck. According to Adams, Huck Finn is separated into three distinct units by Huck's decisions to help free Jim. Adams also discusses different themes, such as the rebirth pattern, and how they support the unity of the book. This selection is an excellent source to help understand the work as a whole. Unfortunately, it does not contain much on the actual character of Jim. Chadwick-Joshua, Jocelyn. The Jim Dilemma. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1998.
Net Library. 1 April 2003.
Cox, James M. 'Remarks on the Sad Initiation of Huckleberry Finn. ' Marks 65-74. This essay discusses the significance of the role Tom Sawyer plays in the novel. Cox analyzes Huck's initiation into society, comparing and contrasting it to Tom's initiation into society in Twain's previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Cox finishes the essay by discussing the role of Jim in relation to Huck's moral values and emotions. This source offers valuable insights into the role of Jim as 'the central figure of the book' (73). Marks, Barry A. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Boston: D.C. Heath, 1959.
Marx, Leo. 'Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling, and Huckleberry Finn. ' Marks 53-64. Trilling, Lionel. 'The Greatness of Huckleberry Finn. ' Marks 44-52. Trilling discusses the greatness of the novel in its 'truth of moral passion' (45). He places a great deal of importance on the river as a god. He also emphasizes Huck's moral virtues. The only negative comment is about the length of the ending, but other than that, Trilling gives a whole-hearted endorsement of Huckleberry Finn. This essay provides a few good observations regarding Huck and Jim, but on the whole, it lacks a critical edge. Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Dover, 1994.