FREE ESSAY ON HUCKLEBERRY FINN: RACISM

HUCKLEBERRY FINN: RACISM

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 Jim1 , is taking crap there as well. Many people would hate to be alone on an
island with a nigger2 , 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 breakfast3 , 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 tell4 . 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 lie5 . 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 whole situation Huck writes
the letter to Miss Watson, thinking he will be cleaned of sin6 and not feel so bad about
what he is doing. After writing this letter of confession to Miss Watson, Huck starts to
reminisce about the times he had with Jim. As he is thinking he comes across the times
Jim would be standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me so I could go on
sleeping7 . Huck begins to realize that he would not be able to strike no places to
harden me against him8 , showing that he realizes that Jim has done nothing but good for
him. Huck looks at what he is doing and feels ashamed. He takes one final look at the
letter before saying all right then, I'll go to hell9 and then rips up the letter of
confession. The fact that Huck looked back at his times with Jim before deciding to tear
up the letter shows that the decision was obviously made conscientiously through his
decisions. Hucks decisions have a major efect on the way he treats Jim at Jackson's
Island and in his decision to tear up the confession letter to Miss Watson. The way that
these decisions are made shows that Huck does indeed have a good set of morals, which he
uses to make his decisions. 
With Huck being only a young kid and Jim being much older, I think that it is easy to say
that Mark Twain grew up in a area that was just like that when he was a young kid and
also I believe that he was against slavery. It was probably something to do with someone
he knew or something like that, he probably made friends with a slave and realized that
they have lives to.
Bibliography
got it from http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/1585.html