A Change of Heart One person can influence another person in multiple ways just through showing them care and love. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn runs from his abusive father and crosses paths with a runaway slave, Jim, who impacts his life in more than just one way. In Chapter twenty three, Huck, in his mind started to break his own racial stereotypes and realized his longing for a father figure in his life when he sees Jim “moaning and mourning”(158) for his family. Huck lived in a time period where racism was a common way of thinking. In the book the reader notices that Huck says many controversial statements. Such as, “It don’t seem natural” (158). through Huck’s comments you can tell he has been brought …show more content…
Pap, Huck’s father, is an alcoholic that is drunk out of his mind every day and takes Huck’s money to supply his addiction. Huck became very afraid of his father’s drunken state of mind due to how delirious he gets so he fakes his death and runs away and comes across Jim. Quickly, they develop a strong relationship and Jim becomes the father figure that Huck never had. Jim keeps the fact that Huck’s father had died until the right time, because he knew that seeing his father’s dead body would be traumatic and Jim wanted to protect Huck. “Doan’ you ‘member de house dat was float’n down de river, en dey wuz a man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn’ let you come in? Well, den, you kin git yo’ money when you wants it, kase dat wuz him”(294). When Jim was crying for his family, Huck not only thought, “It don’t seem natural,”(158) because he was a person of color, but that he had never experienced that sorrow for his own father. Huck had never seen a father care for his children in the way Jim does, this throws Huck off guard. Huck has a hard time comprehending this unnatural behavior. Through Jim, Huck is given a friend, father, and is introduced to a real