Huckleberry Finn Essay

Stephen Simmons AP English/Mr. George 9/25/09
The Correction of Races

People express their likes and dislikes, their hopes and fears and support and prejudice about people. Some use the media like television to advocate for their positions or their views about certain groups with a fancy suit and an American flag standing in the shadows. Others use other means to reach their audience through writing, through stories or through song and dance. However, it is not the medium you use to speak your mind it is the message that you are transmitting through this medium that is the most important. Mark Twain in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, uses his gift for storytelling to speak out about the people of the antebellum south. He uses the characters as well as inanimate objects in the novel to critique antebellum society and paint a new picture of what life should have been like in the old south.
One of the most important characters, when discussing Twain's method of critiquing the society, at that time through different characters in the novel, is Jim, and more importantly the relationship between Huck and Jim. The character of Jim in the novel represents a dividing line between Huck and the other ideal antebellum people of the south at that time. When Jim is first introduced into the novel, he is introduced as a slave, a man that works for a white family and waits on them hand and foot. After claiming to have "magical powers" and escaping from his masters, the character Jim, becomes something more than a slave or an un-free black American, he becomes a friend and a human in the eyes of few. During his adventure with Huck Finn, Jim is required to disguise himself to prevent people from basically telling on him and Huck, and as a result returning him to slavery. Although there was a large reward put out for the missing African American slave, Huck surprisingly did not turn him in or uncover his whereabouts, because he himself had a bounty on him and was being sought because he had escaped and framed his father for his fake murder. Many people say that when one is on a journey, or in the war with others that one grows closer to their "brothers" even if they hate them with the passion. It took him a while, but Huck Finn, after contemplating his assistance in helping a black slave escape, realized that they were basically equal, and would die or get into an abundant amount of trouble together. He realized that it isn't what is on the outside that makes someone worth your time, but the kind of person they are on the inside. Huck saw that Jim was something other than a worthless slave, but a good friend who desired something of equal value that Huck took for granted, freedom.. Mark Twain uses the character Jim to portray that blacks should not be treated like dogs and be forced to work their whole lives, but that society has made a mistake, and the people that society seems to despise the most, are people who should have the same rights as all.
In every person, there is some characteristic, some attribute that separates them from the rest. There were many slaves before the civil war all around the world, especially in the South. However, Twain used one character to tell a story to show the laws and ideals that the people of the antebellum south were living under. Jim escaped, did not get caught and was able to gain the trust of a white male, Huck. Huck had grown up under the suspicion that blacks should be slaves and that there was a place in society for them and a place for people like Huck. Jim also made people believe that he had magic powers. His personality speaks for itself. Although, Huck was taught to despise the African American race, he found more comfort in Jim, than those in the society that he grew up in and was a part of. It was the first time in Huck's life from the readers understanding that he really felt like he was at home and that nothing from the outside world could touch him:
“I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t.you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” (Twain 128)
Twain, like the characters in his novel, also used this idea of the raft being more of a home than the one they left not too long ago. The raft symbolizes Twain's attempt at correcting the wrongdoers, the people of the antebellum south, by stating that there is something wrong with the way people live if a small raft freely floating down a river is more comforting than what should be home. In connection to the society-proof raft explained in the previous quote, the character of Tom Sawyer was used to portray a similar separation like the raft, between society and himself. The role of Tom sawyer in the novel is one to simply set an example for the people of the antebellum south. In his later appearance in the novel, Tom agrees to help free Jim from slavery and devises many very sophisticated plans to do so. Even though his terminal and complicated plans could potentially lead to the death of Huck, Tom, and Jim, Tom insisted on helping, and doing it with style. Twain used the character Tom to critique how we should all be living and acting. Tom is a very free person, coming and going whenever he pleases, sacrificing for the life of someone else, especially when that someone else was hated by the majority of the South’s population. He seems like he is not restrained by the expectations of his society but rather a free thinking spirit. “Here was a boy that was respectable, and well brought up…he was bright, and not leather-headed; and knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind[…]”(246) He teaches us to live lawlessly and to see beyond skin and fear and past the outcomes of life, even if those outcomes are death. Mark Twain in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses the protagonist, Huckleberry Finn and many other characters to critique or speak out against the corrupt society of the antebellum south. He used different characters, not as an attack against the people of that time, but as a guideline, and a message, stating that people can change, like Huck, and Jim, and that changing would be in the best interest for all. Although he was not completely altered by his incredible adventure, Huck realized that life without all of the racism, discrimination, and all of the other negative happenings of the South at that time was a good life and better than the one he had. As metaphorically stated by Twain, life is better without all of the negative additives.