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Why is Jim Huck’s “true father”? I think it’s very simple. If you think about it, Jim is really the one who has taught and guided Huck through most of his struggles. From the day Huck and Jim discover each other on Jackson Island and decide to embark on their journey together, Jim is constantly looking out for Huck and acting fatherly toward him. He uses many phrases throughout the book which reveal his fatherly attitude toward Huck, such as on page 115 when he says "Laws bless you, chile, I 'us right down sho' youse dead again.” His fatherly attitude is the most evident in three main examples in the novel: when he protects Huck, scolds him, and opens Huck's eyes to the horrors of racism. First, Jim protects Huck from seeing his father, dead on the abandoned houseboat. He wants to keep Huck innocent and unaware of the things that occur in the world around him, much like any parent who desires to protect their child. Secondly, and most importantly, in chapter 15 Jim scolds Huck when he discovers that Huck has lied to him. Jim, a runaway slave, scolds Huck and makes him own up to his mistake by saying, "Dat truck dah is trash." then, after about 15 minutes, Huck, a formerly racist white boy, realizes his mistake and apologizes to Jim. Finally, Jim is a father in that he teaches Huck about how to strip away his racism. Through forming a relationship with Huck and sharing with Huck his own family story, Jim teaches Huck that racism is wrong---and Huck eventualy decides to save Jim. Although Huck seems to come up with this idea on his own, it is Jim, his father figure, who plants the seed of anti-racist thought in Huck's head and this is the most fatherly wisdom Jim could ever give southern adolescent in the mid-1800s like

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