Are a young white boy and an adult black slave really that different? In Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, readers are given two characters who physically are opposites of each other, but are alike on the inside. Huck - a poorly educated (and now homeless) white child collides with Jim, a runaway slave disobeying his captors and putting his life on the line to reunite with his beloved family. The racial boundaries set by late 1800's American society are broken by Huckleberry Finn as he learns through adventure, that a man is nothing but a human with feelings, despite their skin color or role in society. Both Jim and Huck met whilst running from their "overseers" and thought adventure create a bond that could only exist with trust, just morality, and endurance.
Bigotry in the south was fairly common during the books setting in the late 19th century. Africans weren't treated as humans, thus it was a societal norm to mistreat blacks. Huckleberry Finn struggled with societies teachings of how to treat a “negro”. Huck, in his heart, wants to treat Jim as a human being, but society has engraved prejudice in his conscience to the point where he's never seen a black man being treated as such – a man. In chapter 16, Huck is found saying “It was according to the old saying, "Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell." Thinks I, this is what comes of my not thinking. Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm.” It can be inferred that this aren't exactly Huck's beliefs, but what society taught him to believe; hence the use of “according to an old saying” - which most likely, like many "old sayings" was a common belief of the population. However, when both Huck and Jim are confined on an island, society can't enforce their beliefs on them or judge them. With...