AP Huck Essay - 873 Words

Alejandra Vazquez
Mr. Bonaccorso
AP Literature and Composition
28 October 2014
Morally wrong but consciously right In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, one can see that Huck plays a pivotal character. Huck is a child that travels with a runaway slave after he lied about himself being dead. He is very literate, however he finds himself doubting his morals. At the time racism was still alive and slaves were present. Slaves were considered property, not humans. Huck grew up looking at slaves as property, but after spending several days with Jim in the raft he finds himself questioning his own morals. Huck’s perspective on what is good and what is not changes overall. His debate within himself is crucial in this book because it provides a better understanding to the readers of how the book could’ve changed if Huck decided to do what society says. Huck’s view on morals change according to what he feels towards Jim. After Jim gets sold to Silas Phelps its easier for one to see how much Huck actually cares about Jim. “Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he’d got to be a slave…” (247). Huck is clearly upset by the fact that Jim was sold. One could see Huck’s affection towards Jim when he basically states that as long as Jim was still a slave he’d rather have him as a house slave. Huck does not want Jim to go to a plantation because he knows that he would suffer. He knows that it would be painful for Jim to go to a plantation picking up cotton all day, and this would be worse than dealing with Ms. Watson’s mistreatment. Huck’s care for Jim is what one could argue is the first cause of Huck’s battle within himself. Jim is more than a slave, he is a good person. Huck is not the only person that comes to realize that Jim is more than what society thinks. “Don’t be rougher on him than you’re obleeged to, because he ain’t a bad nigger” (329). The doctor sees that Jim is not a bad person when he sees him come out of hiding to help him save Tom. After this scene Huck’s mind clears and he realizes that he made a good decision of going to look for Jim after he was sold by the King. At this point Huck has developed what one could call a friendship. Perhaps Jim is older than him, but Huck shows that he cares about him and decides to go on and look for him. Huck feels protection coming from Jim. One needs to keep in mind that even though Huck is a well-educated child, he is still a child and could be afraid of many things. In this case, one thing Huck is afraid of is getting killed after he covered up Buck’s face. He is scared of death. “My souls, but I was scared… It was Jim’s voice – nothing ever sounded so good before” (136). Huck is a child, and perhaps he is too mature for his age he can’t deal with adult emotions yet, such as dealing with the loss of a friend. Huck clearly sees Jim as an adult

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