Mississippi River In Huckleberry Finn

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the travels of young Huck and a slave named Jim are accounted for as they travel down the Mississippi River in search of freedom. Some of the most descriptive scenes in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn occur on the Mississippi River that Huckleberry Finn and Jim traveled down. By examining this journey and its importance, one can gain insight into how society worked as a whole during this time, it is on this journey that Huckleberry Finn and Jim go on that the significance of this novel as a whole is revealed.

Huckleberry Finn is one of the most controversial novels of its time due to the fact that it is based on the topic of racism and has carefully chosen diction in order

By joining Jim on a trip down the Mississippi River, the theme of friendship and man versus society are advanced because Huck must choose if he wants to be a true friend to Jim or if he should follow societal norms and turn Jim over as a runaway slave. Huck often questioned himself when he thought that Jim was getting closer to freedom in one case he even asked himself “what had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word”(Twain 93). Huck tries to reason with himself in order to determine what the right thing to do is. Should he tell someone about Jim, a runaway slave, or should he keep quiet and live with the choice that he has made even though he has always known it to be the wrong choice? On this journey, Huck and Jim became the best of friends because they had a common goal which was achieving freedom. In the novel Jim even tells Huck that he is “de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now” (Twain 94). Even though Jim sees this as a term of endearment it only makes Huck’s choice harder for him. In the end, friendship prevailed over societal norms and Huck did not betray Jim by telling anyone that he was a runaway