How Does Jim Change In Huck Finn

The book, The Adventures of Huckleberry and Finn, plays with many different controversial topics such as slavery, racism, abuse, and religion. The topic most talked about in this book is slavery/racism because of Huck’s relationship with Jim, a runaway slave. Throughout the book Huck struggles with how he should treat Jim and if he should stick to his morals and what his conscience is telling him or if he should stick to his heart and do what he personally believes is right. He can either turn Jim in back to his owners and into the slave trade, or he can continue to travel with him and help him gain his freedom. Because of this struggle, Huck’s view of Jim changes based on where he is and who he is associating himself with and these factors

This was mainly due to Miss Watson’s strict way of life for him. According to his religion and Miss Watson, helping out a slave or treating them as equals was an unholy act and would automatically result in you going to hell. Of course, going to hell is not something that many people strive for which is why Huck became tentative about helping Jim, who was and would always be a runaways slave. Huck was also worried about what other townspeople would say and do to him when they heard that he helped a slave escape. In document E, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”, Huck says, “everybody naturally despises an ungrateful n---, and they’d make Jim feel it all the time...And then think of me! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a n--- to get his freedom…”. This quote from the text shows how worried and scared Huck was about helping out Jim. This also shows that during this point in the novel, all Huck saw when he looked at Jim was a

After getting to know him and traveling for quite some time, Huck and Jim become close friends despite the fact that Jim is a slave. Their friendship got to the point where Huck sometimes forgot that Jim was a slave and that their friendship was unusual and basically forbidden. Although they were very close, it did take time for Huck to trust Jim and not picture him as the disgusting, monster that most people told Huck slaves were his entire life. Huck describes how nice Jim has acted towards him by saying, “I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n,stead of calling me so I could go on sleeping…I was the best friend Jim ever had;” (Document E). By looking at this quote you can tell how grateful Huck was for Jim and he he treated him. Huck also refers to Jim as one of his only friends. This shows how close of a friend Huck viewed Jim