In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the liberal world on the raft contrasts the restrictive social world of the shore. The main character, Huck, experiences the evils of civilization on the shore, but he is freed and renewed each time he enters the life on the river. The complexities of slavery, the restrictions of society, and the subsequent bond of Huck and Jim throughout the novel differentiate the life with society and the freedom on the raft and river.
The novel explores the complexities of slavery as it displays the contrast between the life on the river versus the life on land. Jim, the main character and a slave, reveals the humanity of slaves and expresses the complication of human emotions and struggles of his life. To prevent being sold and forced to separate from his family, Jim runs
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I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn’ want to, but she could git eight hund’d dollars for me” (Twain 47). After hearing Miss Watson’s intentions, Jim escapes from the shore to obtain his freedom. The liberal world on the river allows Jim to procure his freedom. Growing up under racist influences, Jim assumes that he is worth eight hundred dollars: “Yes—en I’s rich now come to look at it. I owns myself, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’ want no mo” (Twain 47). The slaves are poor in the novel because they have no freedom. But Jim achieves his liberty once he flees from his cruel owner to the river. On the raft, racism and slavery disappear as Huck slowly perceives Jim as a human being like him. One foggy night, Huck, in the canoe, splits up from Jim and the raft, and lies about the separation when they are reunited. Huck sees that Jim was extremely anxious about Huck being killed: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards,