The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a satirical novel written by Mark Twain that exhibits Twain’s views on racism and slavery. The book is set in the deep South during the pre-Civil War era of slavery, about 1835 to 1845, and it tells the story of Huck, who is running away from his abusive father, and Jim, who is running away from his owner so he wouldn’t be sold, traveling to the free states of the North. As they ventures together through the Mississippi river in their raft, Jim and Huck encounter many people and experience many events, each of them bearing a lesson about the fallacy of racism and slavery. Huck starts the novel as someone who is indifferent to slavery, but as the novel progresses, Huck matures and gains a more moral view towards blacks, who were constantly discriminated against by others during the time. Twain’s opposition of slavery and racism is very evident in Huck’s metamorphosis, and the various events that occur throughout the novel.
The novel’s protagonist is Huck, but along with Huck is Jim. Jim is a slave that is owned by Mrs. Watson, and he runs away from Mrs. Watson to prevent being sold and separated from his family. In the beginning of the novel, Jim appears to be a one-toned, stereotypical black male, but as the novel continues, Twain reveals the multi-dimensional characteristics of Jim and uses them to demonstrate the hypocritical view that society has towards blacks. The first impression that one gets of Jim is that he’s an illiterate, stupid, superstitious, poorly-spoken “nigger”. Jim believes in many weird, superstitious things for example, “Jim had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do magic with it. He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything (P. 16).” The events that Huck and Jim go through together contradict many of the impressions that these traits donate to Jim.
Huck and Jim meet each other on Jackson’s island, and decide...