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Huckleberry Finn Symbolism Essay

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Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is an extremely controversial novel. Huckleberry Finn begins with the protagonist, Huck, escaping his father’s cabin out in the woods. He goes on adventures with an escaped slave named Jim. Together the two meet new people, go on adventures, and visit new places. Symbolism is evident in Huckleberry Finn. The King and Duke, the Mississippi River, and the relationship Huck has with Jim are all symbolic in one way or another by representing different parts of society and life. The King and the Duke are two very important characters in Huck Finn. They are two con artists who commit crimes and trick people into paying them money. The King and the Duke symbolize everything that is evil. The two are extremely greedy …show more content…

Their relationship represents purity, friendship, and the breaking of racial standards. At the beginning of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim first have a race based relationship with Huck on top. At the beginning of their travels we see Jim acting a bit as a guardian for Huck. “‘It's a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked, too. He's ben shot in the back. I reckon he's ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan' look at his face—it's too gashly.’” (Twain p.52) A slave wouldn’t treat a young white boy the way Jim treated Huck. He cared about him and soon began to form a friendship where they could casually communicate with each other. “‘Pooty soon I'll be a-shouting' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de ONLY fren' ole Jim's got now.’” (Twain, p.)A black man at the time would never have said anything even along those lines to a white man during that time period. But because they saw each other as equals, they broke racial boundaries. They see each other as friends. Something like this is completely sacrilegious for the, yet, they still become friends. This symbolizes a sort of odd man out where they are the people going against the crowd, in a positive way. Jim ends up getting taken in by the Phelps’, a family related to Tom Sawyer. At the Phelps Farm, Huck is tasked with saving Jim. “‘I know what you’ll say. You’ll say it’s dirty, low-down business; but what if it is? I’m low down; and I’m a-going to steal him, and I want you keep mum and not let on. Will you?’”. Huck is willing to go to the lengths of potentially harming himself to save his best friend. His freidnwhip with Jim represents the racial stereotypes that have been broken. This also follows the theme

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Huck has always seen Jim as a slave until they crossed paths while going down the river. The two develop a friendship and Huck starts to care about Jim and his well being. Although Huck views Jim as someone he cares about, he still sees him as a slave as well. “ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write that nigger’s owner and tell where he was,” ( Document E). Huck is in a continuous battle with his inner self when it comes to his views on Jim.

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Throughout the novel, Huck symbolizes the eternal struggle between pre-established communal expectations and moral consciences. Jim: A runaway slave with a mission to avoid eternal separation from his family,

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Jim then ends up in New Orleans on a farm owned by Silas Phelps. Huck, trying to be the helpful, brainstorms a plan to better Jim’s life. As Huck goes through this process, he becomes the epiphany of Confucius’s character quote; “Earnest in practicing the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them, if, in his practice, he has anything defective, the superior man dares not but exert himself; and if, in his words, he has any excess, he dares not allow himself such license” (ReligFacts.com). At first Huck delineates a plan to write a letter to Jim’s former slave owner, Miss Watson, and tell her where Jim was. But he concluded that Miss Watson would probably have been angry with Jim and sell him off into slavery, so he decided not to.

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is widely considered the most important novels in recent history and is often called the basis for all modern American literature. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place in pre-Civil War Missouri, and the book is about Huckleberry Finn and his adventures. He fakes his death to get away from his abusive father, and when he was running away he found the runaway slave, Jim. He and Jim continue to go down the Mississippi river on a raft, to try to get Jim to freedom. Along the way, they encounter many people, such as two con men who ride the raft with them, and Huck gets involved in a family feud.

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While on the Mississippi, Huck developed into a heartwarming and courageous character. He learned many morals on the way that brought him to a well matured young man, with a strong personality. When Huck is pondering whether to write Miss. Watson he thinks a lot about Jim and says, “and got to thinking over our trip down the river, and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time (Twain 161). Huck’s transformation helped him realize how much Jim truly means to him.

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He wasn’t used to having a father figure in his life because his actual father was an alcoholic and was abusive. “Would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was,” (Document E). This shows that not only did Huck care about Jim, but Jim also cared about Huck’s well being, too. Having a father figure was very important to Huck because his actual father wasn’t really a father figure to him at all. Since someone actually cared about him and treated him with respect and care, it meant the world to him.

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So, when Huck picks up Jim, a recently escaped slave, and heads up the Mississippi River, he gets nervous when Jim begins to talk about how he will soon be free and plans to buy, or even steal, his wife and children. This was during a time where Huck would be committing a crime by helping a slave escape. He has a difficult time deciding to be loyal to his friend and let Jim continue up the rest of the way up north so that he can be freed, or to turn Jim in as an escaped slave. Huck fears getting in trouble, but he also is very torn because of the relationship that he now has with Jim. Huck’s askew sense of sympathy and morality are conflicting each other.

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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

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Huck Finn, the main character, is a literary device developed by Mark Twain to alleviate racism in the 1800s. Huck has been adopted by the widow Douglas. She wants to save Huck because his mother is dead, and his father is the town drunk. Huck’s friend, Jim, is Miss Watson’s runaway slave. Jim’s plan is to sail a raft up the Missisippi, and over to the Ohio river toward the northern abolishionist states.

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In this moment of reflection, Huck is therefore able to remove the stigma society places on him being friends with Jim because of their races; he is able to think for himself without the fear of society’s influence or thought on his choices. When Huck wakes up in the

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In the novel written by Mark Twain and released in 1885, he tells the story of a two characters named Huckleberry Finn and Jim. Huck is a white boy raised in a racist society and Jim is a slave in the area where Huck Lives. Huck has a father named Pap who disrespects Huck and treats him horribly. He runs away and meets Jim who has tried to escape slavery. They adventure down the mississippi river in hopes of freeing Jim, and encounter many different events and people along the way.

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Huck thinks about Miss Watson and how he is betraying her by helping Jim escape. Huck encounters slave catchers and he is internally whether to tell about Jim but decides not to and says, “They went and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don’t get started right when he’s little ain’t got no show -- when the pinch comes there ain’t nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat” (Twain 102). Then later in the novel Jim is sold by some con men for $40 which upsets Huck and causes him to realize he cares about Jim and says, “All right, then I’ll GO to hell” (Twain 225). Huck is defying society’s laws by deciding to help captured Jim. Huck is maturing significantly because his perception of Jim has changed.

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“I’s a free man, en i couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn’ ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had!”P88. When jim says this it makes huck rethink his decision. He decided that he could never backstab anyone no matter who they were (as long as they are good people). This also shows Huck that jim can show emotion and

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Despite Huck’s constant teasing and mild abuse, Jim exhibits unconditional kindness towards Huck. Jim also proves to be a father figure, disciplining Huck and protecting him from seeing Pap dead in the floating house. He is not clueless and loving like a dog; in fact, Jim is one of the most intellectually and emotionally consistent and whole characters in the novel. Huck’s inability to express his care for Jim further reflects the stigmas held toward interracial relationships in the South and the flawed nature of the narrator, Huck. Jim and Huck’s existence on the raft provides a refuge from society, from the chains that bind Jim and separate him from Huck.

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