Huck Finn

Tim Rezendes
AP English
Mr. George
August 25, 2009

Journey to Knowledge

In a time period where racial bigotry was considered to be the norm Huckleberry Finn’s journey can be looked at as a groundbreaking one. Huck’s journey enables him to overlook the color of one’s skin and look deeper into the personality. Huck is able to realize that a person’s skin color does not determine the type of person they are. Huck and Jim even become friends towards the end of the novel. Huck Finn is able to disinherit the bigotry that enveloped the south by escaping society that is fixed on the resentment of anything different, Huck is able to get to know Jim on a personal level, and through hard times Jim and Huck always stick together.
Huck’s journey down the river was most likely the best thing that has ever happened to him. Through his journey he is able to realize the bigotry is not right. Huck’s journey down the river brings him away from society and the stereotypes that are embedded in it. Huck does not have to face the pressure to be a racist no matter what his personal opinion is. In escaping from society Huck Finn is able to form his own opinions of black people, opinions that have always been within him but have never had the opportunity to surface because of society. Huck would have never been able to see the truth had he not escaped. In the beginning of Huck’s journey he is nervous about helping Jim due to the fact that he is a runaway slave; he is nervous due to the

fact that society does not find it acceptable to help a runaway slave. Society was the ultimate cause of racial bigotry in the United States; this is proven due to the fact that when Huck is away from society he is able to realize that black people are the same as white people. Another reason for Huck’s change in opinion is because Huck is able to get to know Jim on a more personal level.
Huck is able to eliminate his feelings of bigotry because he learns more about Jim and begins to understand him. In Huck’s time period white people had relatively no way to get to know black people and culture except on a slave to owner basis. White people did not know that there was not any difference between white and black people besides the skin color. Huck and Jim begin to become friends after they get to know each other; Huck is able to realize that there is no difference between Jim and himself. Towards the end of the story Huck even puts his life on the line to free Jim from Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle. A white man risking his life for a black man is unheard of but a friend risking his life for a friend is not something that is uncommon. Floating down the Mississippi River in a raft with Jim gives Huck the opportunity to learn more about Jim and realize that the stereotypical ways of white society are ridiculous. Huck and Jim become a team and they would be willing to risk their lives for one another because they depend on and trust one another completely. Huck and Jim are able to set aside their societal differences in order to realize that they have more in common than they expected. Another sign that Huck has disinherited the bigotry of society is that Jim and Huck stay together through all their hard times.
Jim and Huck not only get over their differences to learn more about each other, they actually become friends and are willing to do anything for each other. Jim and Huck are

separated a few times throughout the story but they always seem to find a way back to each other because they are friends and depend on each other for survival. Huck is almost reduced to tears when he finds out about Jim being sold to Silas and Sally Phelps. Huck decides that he cannot lose Jim and when Tom Sawyer shows up they hatch an elaborate scheme to free him. This scheme could have killed Huck but that did not matter; Huck was willing to do anything to free his friend.
Huck’s journey down the river is a journey to greater understanding; Huck is able to realize that black people and white people are more similar than society thinks. Huck is able to disinherit society’s bigotry by escaping society, getting to know a black person on a personal level, and he sticks together as friends with Jim. Huck’s journey allows him to experience things he never would have imagined in his wildest dreams. Huck is a revolutionary character in a revolutionary story.