Huckleberry Finn Ending

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn concludes in a way that does not provide the reader significant “closure”. The novel primarily features Huckleberry Finn, who is traveling down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim. Towards the end of the novel Jim and Huck are separated when Jim is sold to the aunt and uncle of Huck’s friend, Tom Sawyer. Although Tom was introduced in the beginning of the book, he did not play a major role until the end. Huck appears at the house of Tom’s aunt and uncle with a secret plan to save Jim. Tom’s aunt and uncle mistake Huck for Tom, yet Huck plays along. His charade works until the real Tom shows up, but Tom agrees to help Huck in his attempts to save Jim. This is where the novel takes a turn. Tom

When Huck and Jim were going down the river, Huck treated Jim with respect and dignity, and looked out for him. In return, Jim protected Huck’s innocence, for example, when Jim prevented Huck from seeing his father 's dead body. In the book, Jim’s character was made into a father figure for Huck, who as the book progressed, began to admire the company of Jim and looked out for him so that he wouldn’t get sold back into slavery. To Huck, Jim was the only adult figure in his life that was a good role model, and therefor Huck wanted to make sure that Jim was safe. When Tom showed up, Huck was already trying to free Jim, and had come up with an easier plan to free Jim from Tom’s aunt and uncle. Huck’s moral progress ends at this part of the novel, and Huck becomes influenced by how Tom acts, and reverts back to how he was before he went down the Mississippi with Jim. Instead of looking out for Jim’s best interest, Huck begins to play along with this new “adventure” and consequently toys with Jim 's life. Huck loses all the morals he had acquired in his time on the river, which not only causes the reader to dislike the character that had been created, but to feel as though the ending is an unsatisfactory closing to the