Huck and Jim, poor white boy and African slavery
The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is an important novel in American literature history. The protagonist, Huck, in the novel has been a controversial figure concerning his personalities, behaviors and unique friendship with Jim, and by creating such a figure, Mark Twain depicted a poor white kid and redefined the term “hero”. This essay, by looking at the novel from the perspectives of a non-American reader, will analyze Huckleberry Finn and Jim in comprehensive but a new way and focus on the character setting with moral perspectives.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a very classic American literature which is highly praised and widely read in all over the World. This book has already translated …show more content…
Tom Sawyer is a brave and imaginative kid, who has high estimation among the gang team and offers wild ideas for Huck Finn. Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas Phelps are typically America Catholic people, wo are kind, providing cares and love out of the goodness of their hearts. However, Jim is just a Miss Watson’s big black slave, the poverty belonging to Miss Watson. Different from many other millions African slaves, Jim wants to become a free slave is because he heard that Miss Watson is going to sell him. Mark Twain basically didn’t depict Jim’s personalities and facial characteristic; as a matter of fact, in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, being a black slave is the only identity that Jim has, instead of a person who has unique personality and independent thinking ability. I believe Mark Twain wants his readers to realize slavery is a horrible thing through Jim; but Jim doesn’t represent free slave at that time, nor other slaves.
Twain used a lot of details to describe Huck’s metal activities in order to depict Huck’s mental growth; however, there is not enough mental activities description about Jim. Jim’s behavior barely changes in the whole story, from the beginning to the end of the story. Although this is a book related to slavery history, the real purpose of setting Jim, the slave character, is to act as foil …show more content…
I owns myself, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wish I had de money, I wouldn’ want no more” (58). Even Jim considers him as an object instead of a independent person. when Aunt Sally askes if anyone dies because of cylinder-head, Huck says, “No’m. Killed a nigger” (230). And Aunt Sally answered, “Well its luck, because sometimes people do get hurt” (230). Through this conversation, it’s obvious that white people didn’t consider black people as people at that time. It is unclear whether Huck is simply role-playing—mimicking the attitudes of an average white Southern boy in pretending to be Tom—or whether he still retains some racism with which he has been brought up. Sally, however, is inarguably stubborn, which is also called racism, in her response, saying that it’s fortunate no one was hurt when she has excluded African American as people. Mark Twain condemns this kind of automatic, offhand racism throughout the novel, but his criticism is at its most apparent here. So, we can imagine how difficult it is when Huck make decisions to free
The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is an important novel in American literature history. The protagonist, Huck, in the novel has been a controversial figure concerning his personalities, behaviors and unique friendship with Jim, and by creating such a figure, Mark Twain depicted a poor white kid and redefined the term “hero”. This essay, by looking at the novel from the perspectives of a non-American reader, will analyze Huckleberry Finn and Jim in comprehensive but a new way and focus on the character setting with moral perspectives.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a very classic American literature which is highly praised and widely read in all over the World. This book has already translated …show more content…
Tom Sawyer is a brave and imaginative kid, who has high estimation among the gang team and offers wild ideas for Huck Finn. Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas Phelps are typically America Catholic people, wo are kind, providing cares and love out of the goodness of their hearts. However, Jim is just a Miss Watson’s big black slave, the poverty belonging to Miss Watson. Different from many other millions African slaves, Jim wants to become a free slave is because he heard that Miss Watson is going to sell him. Mark Twain basically didn’t depict Jim’s personalities and facial characteristic; as a matter of fact, in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, being a black slave is the only identity that Jim has, instead of a person who has unique personality and independent thinking ability. I believe Mark Twain wants his readers to realize slavery is a horrible thing through Jim; but Jim doesn’t represent free slave at that time, nor other slaves.
Twain used a lot of details to describe Huck’s metal activities in order to depict Huck’s mental growth; however, there is not enough mental activities description about Jim. Jim’s behavior barely changes in the whole story, from the beginning to the end of the story. Although this is a book related to slavery history, the real purpose of setting Jim, the slave character, is to act as foil …show more content…
I owns myself, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wish I had de money, I wouldn’ want no more” (58). Even Jim considers him as an object instead of a independent person. when Aunt Sally askes if anyone dies because of cylinder-head, Huck says, “No’m. Killed a nigger” (230). And Aunt Sally answered, “Well its luck, because sometimes people do get hurt” (230). Through this conversation, it’s obvious that white people didn’t consider black people as people at that time. It is unclear whether Huck is simply role-playing—mimicking the attitudes of an average white Southern boy in pretending to be Tom—or whether he still retains some racism with which he has been brought up. Sally, however, is inarguably stubborn, which is also called racism, in her response, saying that it’s fortunate no one was hurt when she has excluded African American as people. Mark Twain condemns this kind of automatic, offhand racism throughout the novel, but his criticism is at its most apparent here. So, we can imagine how difficult it is when Huck make decisions to free