Huck realizes that society teaches to treat people poorly because of their skin color. Huck has morals and knows that the man that people judge would sacrifice his freedom for him. Jim is more of a parent to Huck then Huck's father is. Huck knows how to make ... ... middle of paper ... ...taking in slavery and racism. It discusses the racial issues and how doing the wrong thing is characterized as right or as being civilized.
To society, Jim is nothing more than a property that is worth $800. Jim running off means a monetary loss to Miss Watson. Huck feels as if he is stealing from Miss Watson who has not done him wrong. There are times when Huck thinks that he must do the right thing and turn Jim in. However, he wants to do it anonymously because society does not tolerate people who decry slavery, “people would call me a low down Ablitionist” (Twain 55).
Even though his father is an appalling man and an alcoholic, Huck respects him and avoids lying to him by selling Ju... ... middle of paper ... ...e to Miss Watson (224). Huck’s own morals replace the belief society gave him and convince him that turning in Jim would be wrong. As a result, he resolves that he will set Jim free again, and continues helping him. While Huck’s constant lies while narrating the novel makes the authenticity of certain events doubtful, it serves a much greater purpose of allowing the reader to indirectly see the continued improvements and declines of Huck’s moral judgment. At some points, he serves only himself; at other key events in the story, he creates elaborate lies that help others.
Although he believes that he is doing wrong and that people and god will look down upon him, he is actually doing what is morally correct. At the beginning of the story Huck runs away from his friends and family to Jacksons Island. On Jacksons Island he is confronted by Jim who is a runaway slave. Jim being an African American is looked down on by society. When Huck is faced with the decision of choosing to rat on Jim or keep his secret Huck has a hard time.
As Huck feels responsible for the rattlesnake, he reveals how much he cares about Jim. Also, that Huck blames the rattlesnake for Jim’s encounters reveals Huck’s desire to get rid of his bad luck (Robinson 221). The quote explains how Jim seems fated to living an unhappy life. Slavery has left him with a sense of hopelessness. Jim does not understand why he cannot live the free life he deserves.
“People would call me a low-down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum, but that don’t make no difference”(43). Huck new it was wrong to help Jim escape, but that was his friend and he did not care was the other people thought. “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”(214). Huck decides that he doesn’t want to give up Jim’s locations so he decides to rip up the letter that he was going to send to Jim’s owner Miss Watson, even if it meant that he would go to hell for committing what he believed was a sin. “I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now”(214).
I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way." (pg.85) Turning Jim in would be difficult, since he was a benevolent and amiable man. It was not righteous that he should be hurt, but if Huck helped Jim run away, he would have to turn his back on his own people. He would be saying slavery, and everyone who believed in it, was wrong. Huck came to the decision to tell someone about Jim that will force him back into slavery.
In the beginning, Huck starts out seeing Jim as a worthless “nigger”, but he gradually defies the Jim Crow South by valuing and admiring the escaped slave. One sees Huck following his moral instincts when he battles social customs and accepts his ideas to help Jim in many dire situations. Regardless of feeling the pressures of having the social obligations to turn in a runaway slave, Huck remembers “how good [Jim] always was” (214) and is internally faced with the dilemma of trying to do what he perceives as right. More than once, Huck comes to the resolution, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (214), because he sees Jim as more of a father and friend than anyone he has previously encountered. For Huck, his time on the raft is where he truly receives his moral education because that is
Huck knows that helping a runaway slave gain his freedom is against the law, and morally unjust. Huck has many opportunities to turn Jim in, but is never able to because his conscious won’t let him. Through his adventures, Huck learns that he doesn’t always have to agree with the views of society, but rather by his own mind. As Huck is in pursuit of escaping Pap, he comes across an African-American man named Jim. At first sight, Huck makes Jim believe that he is a ghost, and when Jim admits to Huck that he is a runaway slave, many controversies fly through his mind.
As abolitionists, it is our duty to do something about slavery. Although, as abolitionists, we have a history of disagreements among us, it time to put a stop to our arguments and start fighting for something we all believe in - to abolish slavery. While the growing cotton economy has made slavery more attractive than ever before to most southern people, slavery has to be abolished based on these reasons: first, because slaves are treated inhumanly; second, because it makes southern white society savage and cruel, and third, it turns southern whites into greedy and lazy people. One of the main reasons that slavery should be abolished is because masters treat their slaves inhumanly. Masters disregard the idea of family among slaves.