Preview

Huck Finn Escape Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
239 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Huck Finn Escape Analysis
As Huck and Jim grow closer to Cairo, Huck realizes that he has helped an African American escape. His conscience is telling him that he has made a huge mistake because Miss Watson, Jim’s owner, has not done anything cruel to harm him; she has only helped by teaching him to read. Huck is about to turn around the canoe and head home when Jim starts to tell him,”I’s a free man, en I couldn’t ever ben free ef it hadn’t ben for Huck.”(95) Jim conveys that Huck is now his best friend. Huck now would feel terrible if he turned around because Jim has so much faith in him, so he continues on his adventure. During the night, people stop Huck and ask if the person in the raft is white or black. Now that Huck has decided to proceed with the plan, he tells

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    From chapters 14 to 16, Jim’s most notable qualities such as his gullibility as well as his loyalty to Huck come to light. The effects of his enslavement and his lack of a formal education also become evident, as most of his thoughts and actions from these chapters stem from a sort of innate practicality in thinking that Huck seems to lack. For example, in chapter 14, when the two are talking about how King Solomon threatened to cut a baby in half, Jim thinks that the king really is not so wise, saying, “En what use is half a chile?” (88). Jim, not hearing the whole story about why the King was actually wise, views the Solomon’s threats as just plain useless, and not beneficial to anybody. This practicality, although it sometimes makes Jim…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck finn's character has changed throughout the book in major ways. From the beginning Huck Finn has always been an outcast and is the son of the town drunk , he allows his friends to influence him and he never realized that slaves deserve to be treated like humans. Over time Huck Finn learns valuable lessons and his character changes. Well make a band of robbers can call it Tom Sawyer's gang(17). In the beginning Huck Finn was a very mischievous boy, but he didn't know any better because he'd grown up thinking that his actions were okay because he'd had a father who was the worst character in the book. The band of robbers shows how Huck Finn's character was in the beginning. We dropped the things we stole(71). In the beginning Huck believes…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Does Huck Finn Escape

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When Huck’s father comes back, he kidnaps Huck to a cabin located across the river from St. Petersburg's. Huck’s father constantly leaves the house, locking Huck inside, and comes home drunk. When his father comes home drunk, he would hallucinate and try to beat Huck for no reason. Huck was tired of the beating and confinement that he planned and executed his escape. Huck fakes his death by killing a pig and spreading its blood all around the cabin. He runs away in a canoe toward Jackson’s Island and hides.…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    And at its attendance, Huck 's one last dim vestige of pride of status, his sense of his position as a white man, wholly vanishes (Trilling.1950, p.35-38)." "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I wasn 't sorry for it afterwards either (Twain, p.95)." in this one act, Huck has become a heroic character. "When, in the urging of affection, Huck discards the moral code he has always taken for granted and resolves to help Jim in his escape from slavery. The intensity of his struggle over the act suggests how deeply he is involved in the society, which he rejects (Trilling.1950,…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Constantly feeling pressured to give Jim up and return him to his owner, Miss Watson, Huck writes a letter to his previous owner, making sure to include Jim’s location. However, the guilt he would experience for surrendering his friend causes him to tear it up, as he would rather “sin” than destroy Jim’s freedom. The protagonist was shown to experience an ethical predicament, in which he would have to decide whether to stay true to his friend, or to the whitewashed opinions created by the culture surrounding him. In the course of the novel, Huckleberry is fighting an internal conflict on how he views Jim and other characters of African descent. These beliefs and opinions formed by Huck are tested at this stage in the story, allowing him to decide between what is legally right, and what is morally right. His ability to withhold these unforgivable actions allows the reader to see how greatly Huck’s character has matured throughout the novel. As the nineteenth century progressed, it was very difficult for a slave to become a free man or woman. Many slaves became free through manumission, the voluntary emancipation of a slave by their owner (United States History, n.pag). If Huck were to turn Jim in, it would completely extinguish his likelihood of obtaining the status of a free man at any point of his life. Furthermore, the author shows the reader how…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Censorship in Huck Finn

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young boy named Huckleberry Finn runs away from his life and travels down the Mississippi River with his friend Jim, a runaway slave. The story follows Huck 's moral growth and maturity throughout his many adventures and experiences. The major turning point of the book is when Huck realizes that Jim cares about him, and that he cares about Jim in return. As a child, Huck is taught that Jim isn 't a person because of his skin color and that he does not deserve respect, but Huck discovers that Jim is a person and deserves more respect than most people Huckleberry met on his journeys. He comes to this decision because Jim cares for him and treats Huck better than his own father. Huck says “All right, then, I 'll go to hell.” when he decides to go against the racist teachings of his childhood and help Jim get his freedom (Twain 216-217). The book was written to show what life was like in the 1840s and successfully revealed the way people viewed each other and people of other races. In the beginning of the story, Huck treats Jim poorly because he is taught that…

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twain realized this problem and felt the need to speak out against slavery and the offshoot of prejudice that followed, making him write The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. During their adventure, Huckleberry Finn decides that it would be funny to play a trick on Jim when they get separated in the fog one night. Huck sees how much his trick hurt Jim and feels awful about it. Huck apologized to Jim and thought to himself, “I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither” (Twain 65). This powerful scene in the book shows Huck, a white boy, apologizing and feeling awful about tricking a black man. During the time of the stories release, it would not have been common for a white boy to apologize and explain himself to a black man. The scene where Huck rips up his letter, one of the most powerful scenes within the book, also has a major abolitionist tone. At this point, Huck can not decide between turning in Jim or not doing anything and leaving the situation alone. After days of…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck does not consciously think about Jim's impending freedom until Jim himself starts to get excited about the idea. The reader sees Huck's first objection to Jim gaining his freedom on page 66, when Huck says, "Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I could get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way." Huck is hearing the voice of society at this point, not his own. He does not see a moral dilemma with Jim being free; he is opposed to the fact that he is the one helping him. This shows Huck misunderstanding of slavery. Huck does not treat Jim like a slave when they travel together, this shows the reader that Huck views Jim as an equal in most ways. Huck sees having a slave only as owning the person, not actually being a slave to someone. Therefore, when he helps Jim runaway it would be like stealing. This conscience is telling him that Miss Watson, Jim's master, never did anything wrong to him and that he shouldn't be doing a wrong to her by helping Jim escape. This is a totally different view of Miss Watson from Huck's perspective. Huck always disliked Miss Watson, but now that this society voice plays a part in Huck's judgment his views are changed. This society views allows Huck to see Jim, a friend, only as a slave and Miss Watson, almost a foe in his young views, as a dear friend. Twain is showing the reader the gross injustices of slavery in this little incident, as well as his moral opposition to slavery. Twain…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huckleberry Finn: Racism

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Mark Twains' The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the main character Huck, makes two very important decisions. The first one is how he treats Jim when he first meets him at Jackson's Island and the second is to tear up the letter to Miss Watson because he cares deeply for Jim. When Huck first runs away from Pap he goes to Jackson's Island and thinks that he is the only person there. He soon finds out that this is not true, and that "Miss Watsons Jim"1 , is taking crap there as well. Many people would hate to be alone on an island with a "nigger"2 , but Huck is happy to have someone to talk with. At first Jim thinks he sees Hucks ghost and is scared. Huck gets Jims feelings by changing the subject and saying "It's good daylight, le's get breakfast"3 , showing that Huck is not only real but he does not mind that Jim is black. Jim feels that Huck might tell on him for running away, but he then decides that it will be okay to tell him why he ran away from Miss Watson. Jim keeps asking Huck if he is going to tell anyone about his running away, and Huck say's "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum but that don't make no difference I aint gonna tell"4 . Hucks response truly shows that his ignorance has no showing over his kindness. When taken into consideration good decisions are much more important in the long run than being the smartest person. After traveling with Jim for quite some time Huck begins to feel bad about harboring a runaway slave. He decides to write a letter to Miss Watson explaining the whole story, because Jim had been sold and he does not know where he is. Huck was indeed confused about what he should do so he dropped he dropped to his knees and began to pray. He felt by helping Jim he was committing a sin, but he later realized "you can't pray a lie"5 . Huck saying this shows that he feels what he has done for Jim is not wrong; instead what others had done to Jim is wrong. Still not sure of what to do about the…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn River Analysis

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As Huck and Jim make their way down the river, they come across two white men looking for slaves; Huck begins to feel guilty because he is letting Ms. Watson’s property escape, but he knows he would also feel bad for giving up Jim. For this reason, Huck creates a lie that he has smallpox and the men go away, but he still feels like he did the wrong thing, “Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free⎼and who…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "There are many humorous things in the world: among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages."(mark twain) Twain uses this passage to highlight the differences between social levels. Using the reactions of Jim and Huck towards each other's actions, Twain effectively stretches the lines between white and black.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn Racism Quotes

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When Jim is sold by one of the con artists, Huck decides to go against societies orders, as he shouts, “Alright then, I’ll go to hell” as he goes out to find Jim and free him. Going against societies orders, proves that Huck’s compassion and care for Jim is genuine, and he is willing to risk his own life for a black person. Ironically though, when Huck and Tom manage to find Jim, Tom forgets to mention to Huck that Jim was free the entire time, and they were the ones keeping Jim enslaved. This comes to a shock for Huck because he actually believed Tom would risk his own life as well to help “free” Jim, but Huck still struggles with the idea that he thinks all “good people” obey to societal values, and that he himself thinks is bad because he does not obey to those…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Huck Finn Escape

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages

    First of all the two authors wrote their books in different times and their ideas of escape will differ, for example Huck was written in the late 1800’s when slavery was still rife in many of the southern regions of America the idea of escape has a literal meaning. Alternately to this Catcher in the Rye was written in the 1940’s and depicts the societies of the then modern America. The ideas of escape were mainly within Holden’s head and not literal forms of escape. Huckleberry also wants to escape the adult control he has experience, he wishes to have a life in which he is a wanderer and regards all the things that society believe as right as oppressive and evil. Similarly to Huck, Holden wants to flee the world of expectations set by his parents and his private boarding school. He leaves school early before Christmas and experiences a sequence of unforeseen problems and in consequence his ends up in a psychiatric home with no hope left of his wanted freedom.…

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Huck originally ran away from society as he knew it, he unknowingly ran into Miss Watson’s slave Jim. He was torn between choosing to turn Jim in or staying alongside him and escape with Jim. Later on, they are separated out of panic and later happen to meet again. Huck then thinks “Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead. I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn't lonesome now. I told him I warn't afraid of HIM telling…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim then warns Huck not to look at the man's face, which allows Huck to have the motivation to continue his adventure thinking that his father is not dead. Jim continues to stay with Huck and provide him with moral support on the river, serving to develop Huck’s moral development along the way. An example of this moral support is where in Chapter 16, Huck makes up a story to preserve Jim's freedom and then Jim remarks he will never forget Huck's kindness. Huck later experiences a coming of age when he is faced with the ultimate moral dilemma of reporting Jim at the Phelps Farm to Miss Watson. Feeling conflicted about stealing “property” from Miss Watson, he writes a letter which he then crumples up after fully understanding that his letter would harm Jim, who he then realizes is a human being. This incident evokes feelings of regret in Huck, and shows that Huck is the one good person in the novel.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays