In the next episode, we see that although Huck is beginning to respect Jim, he is still skeptical about his superstition. As Huck and Jim go through the loot they found on the floating house and find among other things, eight dollars in silver. Huck is pleased with the haul and announces to Jim:
Now you think it’s bad luck; but what did you …show more content…
Jim responds by saying he does not need any more of this kind of “adventure” (93). Jim tells Huck when he saw that the raft had left the wreck; he assumed that the journey had ended for him. He was sure that he would be, as Huck refers to it, “sold south” (93) to hard plantation labor. Huck agrees with Jim’s assessment and acknowledges that “he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head, for a nigger”(93). This is the first time that Huck acknowledges Jim’s wisdom, albeit in a backhanded way, and it foreshadows the growing affection Huck has for his friend in the coming …show more content…
First, as they discuss Solomon, he establishes that he is the one of the two speaking from personal experience as a father. Although the emotion he feels for his own children heavily colors his opinion, he argues with enough vigor to overwhelm Huck’s logical assertion that the Solomon fable was not actually about cutting a child in half. Jim’s position comes from the day-to-day life of having and providing for children. Huck never gets to an explanation of the fable. Considering his comments at the end of the chapter about Jim’s stubbornness, he could have avoided challenging Jim’s fatherly authority out of simple civility. This implies that Huck sees Jim as a friend he accepts, foibles and all. Secondly, Jim is willing to challenge accepted wisdom on the basis of personal experience that ran contrary to it. This is reinforced by Jim’s affection for his own children, but the center of this assertion is based on experience. This also foreshadows the challenge of convention that Huck must face later in chapter thirty-one, when he weighs helping his friend against enduring the social ridicule of helping a runaway slave. Finally, Jim shows that he is better at arguing than Huck. His easy deconstruction of Huck’s bad language analogy proves that he has the skills to hash out an issue and argue from a solid position, like one based on first-hand experience. He also establishes that despite the fact that Huck has more