Jim's Role In Huckleberry Finn
When asked who the most important character in Huckleberry Finn is,
almost all people would say either Huck himself, or Jim, the black slave.
They are both essential to the story, though, and both give to the story an
alternate perspective. Huck is the outsider, the nonconformist who just
doesn't fit into society, and Jim is the runaway black slave, fearing for
his freedom, being persecuted only on the grounds of the color of his skin.
Jim is the representation of all slaves both stereotyped and in reality,
just as Tom is the representations of society, and civilization. Not many
people can ever really experience either person's situations, except
through this book and other's like it. ...
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traits. The first passage I'll
use is in chapter 11. This is the chapter where Huck finds out that some
people are going to see if there is anyone on Jackson Island, where Huck
and Jim currently are. After Huck tells Jim that men are coming, Huck
says this about Jim's reaction: "Jim never asked no questions, he never
said a word; but the way he worked for the next half an hour showed about
how he was scared." This confirms something obvious—that Jim values his
freedom greatly. Once he has experienced a kind of freedom, he understands
all the better what he has been deprived of, and isn't willing to go back
to the chains that slavery give him. It also shows that slaves were human.
If slaves could feel fear and understand the consequences of getting caught
running away, then it follows that they could feel other emotions.
Bronowski said, "Only human beings have…the existence of words or symbols
for absent things, all the way from ‘nice day' to ‘ultimate deterrent,'
enables ...
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wuz how you could make
a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what
people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes ‘em ashamed.
This is the first major dispute that Huck and Jim have. Huck has not been
a good friend, and like Tom, has tried to trick Jim into believing that he
has just had a dream about what has taken place, and that nothing has
happened at all. Jim figures the trick out, and reprimands Huck for being
so very inconsiderate to a friend. Cicero says, "We may admonish [our
friends], but we must not scold; we may reprimand, but we must not
humiliate…." Jim and Huck do just this, and are true friends. Huck, after
being admonished, then ...
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"Jim's Role In Huckleberry Finn." Essayworld.com. November 13, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Jims-Role-In-Huckleberry-Finn/92979.
"Jim's Role In Huckleberry Finn." Essayworld.com. November 13, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Jims-Role-In-Huckleberry-Finn/92979.
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