Summary: Tom plays a trick on the sleeping Jim, Miss Watson’s black slave, at the expense of the latter. Albeit a lighthearted one, Tom’s trick calls to attention the relationship between him and Jim. Even though Jim is older, he is a black slave, an identity much inferior to that of Tom, a white boy. Symbol: Jim’s hat is one of his few possessions. Tom slipping off Jim’s hat while Jim is asleep is reflected in many a white man’s systematic exploitation of blacks and disregard for their property or welfare in this book. Though Tom does not appear to necessarily deprive Jim of his wellbeing, this small gesture is testimony to the implicit racism and prejudice that existed in the minds of many during this time.
Summary: Huck finds living with
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Much to the chagrin of his onlookers, the king cares not for the wellbeing of the enslaved family, and instead coldly separates it. Symbol: The slave traders symbolize the institution of slavery that had allowed thousands of families to be shattered. The king symbolizes extreme moral corruption and vice. Aside from having blatant disregard for the slave family the king breaks up, Twain attaches to the this character such qualities as greed and selfishness, letting his reader at the time implicitly associate racism with other moral flaws that are perhaps more widely shared by a white, Christian, southern reader. Summary: During a night on the river, a heavy fog sets in, separating Huck and Jim. The next morning, the fog clears up and Huck finds a sleeping Jim. Huck decides to wake him up, but decides to play a mischievous game with Jim and acts as though the previous night was only a dream. Eventually, Huck apologizes to Jim, and Jim reveals that he had thought Huck actually died and was brokenhearted. Through the dialogue, the two start to notice a bond of friendship and brotherhood …show more content…
Had Huck been a white extremist, he may have utilized the chance to kill Jim. However, the good-natured protagonist does not do so, and instead shows to the reader his playful personality when he jokes around with Jim as a friend. At first, Huck’s prank on Jim may seem like an act of implicit racism or discrimination, but his words appear to be genuinely cheerful and light-spirited. Twain uses this example to further Huck and Jim’s whimsical friendship that develops throughout the novel.
Summary: Sherburn, a hardened, no-nonsense man, is approached by the drunkard, Boggs. Boggs threatens Sherburn, and the latter eventually retrieves a pistol and kills the former. An angry lynch mob quickly arrive at Sherburn’s house and shout cries of fury. Later, it turns out that no one in the mob actually dares provoke the man alone. Symbol: The lynch mob symbolizes a groupthink phenomenon where no individual member of the mob actually has the will to carry out what the mob mentality wishes to carry out. Although the mob appears ferocious and deadly, Sherburn’s words cause the individuals within the mob to realize that none of them have the courage to kill