Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells the story of Huckleberry Finn and Jim two characters living in the pre-Civil War south. Huckleberry, or Huck, is a young, white boy who fakes his death to escape his abusive father. Jim is a runaway slave trying to escape to freedom. Most of the novel takes place on a raft as both characters try to make their way to Illinois. The novel is famous for its portrayal of race and slavery during the antebellum period in the South. While Twain’s novel calls out and shows disdain for bigger instances of racism, Huck’s casual racism is never challenged and he never faces the consequences of it. By allowing Huck’s racism to stand the novel perpetuates the racism of the post-Civil War society …show more content…
The way that Huck thinks of Jim and the way that the narrative treats Jim is constantly dehumanizing him. Very rarely is Jim treated as more than a plot device meant to further Huck’s character development and when Huck and Jim aren’t together it’s almost like he doesn’t exist at all. Little is known about Jim as a character and one of the few times where something about him is revealed Huck’s reaction shows that he views Jim as less than a person. After Jim tells him about his wife and daughter and how bad he feels about the way he treated them Huck thinks, "I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n"(158). This shows that prior to this Huck didn’t view Jim as someone who could really feel or care for others. In Huck’s mind only “white folks” really care for others this is despite the fact that his own father who was white didn’t really care for him. While it could be argued that he only feels this way because he is a child that has only been exposed to white people his whole life, the narrative does nothing to challenge this viewpoint but merely lets it stand as if it is a valid opinion rather than Huck’s prejudices …show more content…
Once Huck and Tom inform Jim of the plan to rescue him Jim sees the faults in this plan Huck says that “he couldn't see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him” (250). Huck who also saw the flaws in the plan has decided to ignore them and blindly follow Tom, even though Jim, the only person who fully understands the gravity of the situation is against the plan. Despite the fact that Jim is older than both of them, and has repeatedly been shown to be wiser Huck places whiteness above that and finds Tom and himself to be smarter than Jim simply because they are white. He refuses to acknowledge Jim’s opinion because thinks that his race means that he’s less intelligent. Once again Jim is stripped of his agency, and his life is left in the hands of two little boys playing an adventure game that they don’t fully understand. Making things worse is the fact that by now Miss Watson had decided to free Jim, a fact which Tom knew, yet he insisted on still putting Jim through all that. While escaping after rescuing Jim, Tom is shot and needs medical attention. Getting a doctor means putting Jim’s life in danger; however, after he insists on getting help Huck finally realizes that Jim is a good person and says, "I knowed he was white inside” (278). The only way that Huck can rationalize Jim