Moral Compass Of Huckleberry Finn

Huck Finn’s Moral Compass
In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn, a teenage boy, runs away from his abusive home to find a new life on the Mississippi River. Along with runaway slave Jim, he journeys downriver, encountering a motley assortment of figures that guide his own sense of morality. Frances V. Brownell’s “The Role of Jim in Huckleberry Finn” details his argument that Jim is a “moral catalyst” who helps further the growth of Huck’s morality. Jim is indeed the paramount “moral catalyst” for Huck, who, through his indisputable humanity, allows Huck to better understand the world and develop his own principles
Initially, Huck mostly accepts the social order imposed by Southern society. “Jim said the witches bewitched
“And got to thinking over our trip down the river... [Huck reminisces about his journey with Jim]... and then I happened to look around, and see that paper” (Twain 242). Huck’s memories clearly prove Jim’s role in his moral growth. Where once Huck had been determined to atone for his sin of helping a slave escape, and return Jim back into slavery under his old master, the experiences he has shared convinces him what is right is not necessarily what society says. Jim’s presence has led Huck to realize that even black slaves are human, and worthy of compassion and help. “It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself, ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’–and tore it up” (Twain 242). With this resolution, Huck decides that he would rather give Jim a chance for the freedom he so covets, by attempting to free Jim himself, rather than return Jim to certain slavery. In fact, he resolves to free Jim despite knowing that, according to what he has been taught, he would be sent to hell for helping an escaped slave. By this point, Huck realizes that he values Jim as more than just a traveling companion, but as a friend with whom he has shared the experience of rafting downriver. Huck demonstrates that by this point he considers the life of a black man about as important as his own, as he is willing to risk going to hell to free a slave, even though the values he has been taught warn him he will go to hell for his actions. “It is when he is alone with Jim in the secure little world of the raft drifting down the Mississippi that Huck hears a voice of love that makes sense in a world of hatred, and can reply from his own heart with his apology and with his famous moral victory: ‘All right, then,