Jim and Huck Relationship
In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Jim who was a slave of Miss Watson played a vital role in the life of Huck as he accompanies Huck in all his adventures. As story of the novel moves, the relationship between the two became stronger. They had similarities in the situation that made them to exile from the country. Jim escaped from Miss Watson, as he did not want to be sold to the plantation where he might have to meet cruel treatment, while Huck escaped from his father who tortured him like a slave. In the beginning, their relationship started merely as companions. It grew up along with the plot, and at one stage, Jim became everything to Huck and Huck started giving equal importance to Jim as a human being and not a property. Jim saved Huck from many chaos and Huck too saved Jim when he was about to become a slave again. There is no doubt that Jim has taken up the role of the father or even more to Huck by providing all comfort and protection and he gets it back from Huck when he had hardships as he was an escaped slave.
Jim, a Father Figure to Huck
When Huck’s natural father, Pap, failed to love and care about Huck, Jim filled that space and provided love, safety, and comfort throughout their adventure. To every child, the father is the role model. Likewise, in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim acted as a best example to Huck to follow him. At the beginning, Jim was portrayed merely as a companion to Huck and latter he had taken up the position of his father, as his birth father did not act as good father to him. Jim was not merely a father figure to Huck, but also more than a father and a true friend to him. Jim loves and cares Huck at all times and never fails to forgive him when he treats Jim as a property as he belonged to the society where slaves were considered as properties and not human beings. However, Huck changed his view on Jim and considered him as an equal human being. Jim protected him from all the hardships they had on their way and worries about the sufferings of Huck. He did not allow Huck to see the corpse, which they found in the raft, as it was Pap’s corpse. Thus, he cared for Huck. Huck too accepted Jim as his father as it was evidently seen when he saved him from a group of men who were looking for escaped slaves by telling lies and in his act of saving him from the clutches of Phelpses.
Huck’s Relationship with Pap and Jim
Even though Pap was the natural father of Huck, he failed to behave as a father; instead, he tortured him. However, Jim had taken up the position as his father by protecting and loving him at all stages even though Huck feels as if he was with the escaped slave. The characters Pap and Jim were incomparable, because Jim played the role of a father to Huck, which Pap failed to do. Huck and Pap had blood relationship as son and father, but Huck and Jim had true relationship as son and father, friend and friend, etc.
Huck’s Treatment and His Evolution of Perception of Jim
As Jim was a slave, Huck thought Jim did not have any knowledge to thing or learn. He thought like that because he belonged to the period and society where they considered slaves merely as properties to hold. Later, he changed his view and idea about Jim and started giving him equal importance, as he is also a human being and not a property. At first, Huck gave ill-treatment to Jim and threw pranks at him. Finally, their relationship made him to understand that Jim has white in his heart. He gives away this statement openly as follows: “I Know’d he was white inside.” Jim’s love towards Huck changed his idea about the slavery and started considering them as human beings.
Huck and Jim Relationship on Shore and Raft
Both of them were escaped from their own problems and met on an Island. Even though Huck did not want to roam with an escaped slave, the situations made them to bond together. Jim built the raft again when it dashed against a steamboat and damaged, which lead them to separate. Here he not only built the raft but also the relationship of them. They had peaceful days when they are in their raft. Jim saved Huck from the storm and wild waves and give protection to him. In raft, Huck saved Jim from the hunters who were searching for the escaped slaves. Raft played a vital role on their journey as it helps them to liberate themselves from the slavery.
In the novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the relationship of Jima and Huck is noteworthy as they had a kind of father-son relationship and even more than that. Jim played the role of a friend to Huck like him he never met one. In the beginning, Huck treated him as slave and finally he himself he accepts Jim is more than a father. Jim is not only the father to Huck, but he becomes everything to him when the story grows. The death of Miss Watson and Pap brought freedom to Jim and Huck as they had a fear for future if they caught. The whole novel revolves around the life and adventures of two. It explains how Jim fills the space of Pap in the life of Huck by being with him at all stages.
Works Cited
Railton, Stephen. Jim and Mark Twain: What Do Dey Stan' For? N.p.: Virginia Quarterly Review 63, 1987. Print.
