Theme Of Betrayal In Huckleberry Finn

Assistance is defined as the action of helping someone with a job or task; betrayal is defined as to be unfaithful in guarding, maintaining, or fulfilling. Most people think this terms are very different. However, in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, you can see that assistance and betrayal go hand in hand. Whether or not a character is aware of the risks and consequences of their actions, they cannot assist themself or others without betraying someone else.
“They won't ever hunt the river for anything but my dead carcass...I can stop anywhere I want to. Jackson’s island is good enough for me…”(34) Huck Finn staged his own murder so he could run away from Pap. He is assisting himself by running away because when …show more content…
you said you wouldn't tell, wouldn't tell, Huck… People would call me a low-down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum…”(43) After Huckleberry Finn escapes Pap he travels down to Jackson’s island and he finds out that he is there with Miss Watson’s slave Jim; Jim tells Huck that he has run away and makes Huck promise that he won’t tell anyone. While Huck is assisting Jim by not turning him in, he is betraying himself and many others. Huck has been taught throughout his life that black people and slaves don’t deserve the chance to live a free life. By not telling anyone about Jim, Huck is going against his moral beliefs that he has been taught his whole life. Huck can’t tell anybody about JIm because he had just faked his own murder and if he were to turn Jim in he would have to go back to his old town and face Pap, Miss Watson, the Widow Douglas, and everyone else he hurt. However, if he doesn’t turn Jim in and gets caught assisting Jim run away, people would be very upset and angry with …show more content…
This causes Tom to not tell anyone Jim is free until after he has escaped and been recaptured. “Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and she set him free in her will”(289) Tom is assisting himself because he loves big and elaborate plans so when he gets the opportunity to have some ‘harmless’ fun he does it. Tom betrays Jim and Huck by letting them think that Jim is free and putting Jim through the hard process of feeling free and then having to go back to his makeshift jail cell. He also caused injury and pain to not only Jim, but himself too. Tom is also betraying his family; Aunt Sally nearly goes crazy when items start disappearing from the house and that makes everybody else in the house