The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Essay Example

Adversities and Odds of Attainable Freedom for a Runaway Slave

Freedom had been America’s abiding subject throughout the nation’s history; it has also been one if its deepest problems (Lawrence 15). It has been said that one cannot fully understand the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” without fully understanding its historical contexts. The time Twain had written the novel, slaves were already emancipated since the Civil War was over. This means that the novel is not in any way promulgating the continuation of slavery, nor was it an abolitionist work. It was completed during the 1880s, this was the time of the Reconstruction of the South; also the time when the federal government sought efforts to provide opportunity and equality for slaves; however were failing miserably at it. Twain’s depiction of slavery in his novel could be seen through the the interaction between Huck, a free white southerner, and the story’s second major character, Jim, a runaway slave. Twain had used irony, satire and subtlety to make his points on slavery known, without risking the sales of his novels (Lawrence 6). The novel was a direct attack on slavery as well as racist southern attitudes. Jim was seen as a father figure to Huckleberry, even when the main character could not see this all too well. He was capable of love and compassion, even risking his life to save that of Huckleberry’s. Through the character of Jim, Twain shows how the unfair slavery laws of the time dehumanized slaves and how, upon getting to know them through a personal connection, the attitudes and beliefs of southerners could change. It also criticizes the unfair laws at the time, under-which a slave had little hope of every escaping their slave status.

Missouri was considered a national controversy during the 1800s as congress debated over the future of slavery in the area through the Louisiana Purchase (Pinsker 644). What was known as the “Missouri Compromise” had allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state. To balance this out, Maine was kept a free state, this was a compromise in the Congress for some form of “equality”. Even though Missouri had entered as a slave state in 1821, the Compromise had outlawed slavery in the remaining areas of the Louisiana purchase, this was done in the northern parts of Missouri’s border (Pinsker 644). This statehood had come in pair with new laws regarding blacks; this included the 1825 low which prohibited a “free negro or mulatto, other than a citizen of some one of the United States to come into or settle in this state under any pretext whatever” (Laws of the State of Missouri 600). If African Americans failed to produce any type of certificate which proved their citizenship, they would be forced to leave the state; additionally, they were to pay a $10 fine, the law also allowed up to twenty lashes after the year 1845 for those who would violate it. This law did not affect free blacks at that time or those who were employed. Jim, under these constricting laws, would have been in a very unfair situation as a runaway slave. If caught,either in Missouri or Illinois, he would be returned to his master and face severe penalties, including beatings and fines. There were slave patrols which attempted to control the slave community using fear and force.  Jim, as a runaway was a slave with Huck, was more than twenty miles from his home, meaning that if caught, he would be then sent to jail, after which he would be sold. During the year 1840, the “runaway slave” section in the law was amended and a reward system was added (Pinsker 645).  Jim’s character brings a reality to the people who suffered under these harsh and inhumane laws, the slaves themselves. Through Jim, we see how a southerner, Huck, changes his attitudes about slaves when he actually takes the time to know one, not as a slave, but as a friend. The humanness that Twain brings out through the character of Jim shows how miserable the laws, and the beliefs of slave holding southerners, made the lives of the very human slaves.

Mark Twain was criticized for his language in referring to African Americans as “Negros” (Emerson 9). This had made his book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” one of the most controversial texts in the United States during its time. Twain was seen as a racist who had negative views towards the African American community and had a dark perspective on slavery. However, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is actually a satire of the southern society at that time and Twain himself was not  a racist at all, as can be told though the character of Jim, who Twain portrays with the utmost of respect. Through the character of Jim, the runaway slave, Twain shows how the laws of that time dehumanized slaves, who were real people, with feelings and emotions, not like animals, which is how they were often treated. When Huckleberry Finn first encounters runaway Jim in the story, he has a very typical southern attitude toward the slave, which is racist and disdainful. Yet, as the two continue to get to know one another, his attitude begins to change. Jim has runaway to avoid being sold downriver by his owner, Mrs. Watson, Huck’s aunt, to a plantation where he would be treated even more harshly. Yet he is trying to reach the state of Illinois, which, although a Free State, did not have  particularly friendly attitudes toward ex-slaves. Jim knows that his life will be harsh no matter which path he chooses, north or south. He risks being sent back to his master if caught, which was the law at the time (American Anthropological Association). Only already free slaves were protected in the north, not runaway slaves. Jim is caught in a world where is not offered safe harbor anywhere, a very sad state to which Huck becomes increasingly sympathetic.  Through the characters of Huck and Jim, Mark Twain expresses the views that people of the 1850’s Unites States had toward slaves. In his memoirs, Mark Twain spoke of slavery, referring to how he believed his mother saw it during the time:

“Kind-hearted and compassionate as she was, I think she was not conscious that slavery was a bald, grotesque, and unwarranted usurpation. She had never heard it assailed in any pulpit, but had heard it defended and sanctified in a thousand. As far as her experience went, the wise, the good, and the holy were unanimous in the belief that slavery was right, righteous, sacred, the peculiar pet of the Deity, and a condition which the slave himself ought to be daily and nightly thankful for” (qtd. Paine 65).

Jim’s love for his family, and fear of permanent separation from them had prompted him to escape (Lawrence 3). This love had resounded in the novel and portrayed Jim’s family as one of the few functional families in the novel. Jim was portrayed as someone who was sincere and tender; however, during that time, African Americans were not seen to have human feelings, even in the novel, it seemed as though Huckleberry was not aware of this; Twain presents irony in Huckleberry’s perspective of Jim:

“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 never done me no harm. I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him,” (Twain Chapter 16).

As a runaway, Jim would not have survived the laws of the South. Huckleberry was seen to as a racist character, and his Aunt Sally was seen to comment in chapter 32 of the book that the death of an African American was not important (Lawrence 17). Twain presented Huckleberry’s views on Jim as that of a confused child, he had tried to help Jim escape however he could not see past him being an African American. This was how the South was during the time when the novel was set. The laws did not regard African Americans as anything more than slaves, and they were not seen as humans who were capable of emotion (Pinsker 6450). One might feel his conscience break for such cruelty, however at the end of the day, the white man knew that slaves were there for their convenience, and they did not want to change their standards of living. Jim had very little chances of gaining freedom, in the contexts of the book. During the time, slaves were being bought, sold, hunted down and lashed and forced to work all day for the white man. It was because of the perspective for African Americans during the time, which was racist and inhumane which left no chance for freedom for this community.

Works Cited

Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography: The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912).

American Anthropological Association (2008) “1800’s – 1850’s: Expansion of Slavery in the U.S.” MSNBC Online Web. Retrieved 19 November 2010 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24714472/ns/us_news-gut_check

Everett Emerson, The Authentic Mark Twain: A Literary Biography of Samuel L. Clemens (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984).

Howe, Lawrence. “Property and Dialect Narrative in Huckleberry Finn: The “Jim Dilemma” Revisited.” Mark Twain Annual. 1.7 (2009): 5-21. Print.

Laws of the State of Missouri. 1825, pp. 600.

Ron Powers, Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain (New York: Basic Books, 1999).

Sanford Pinsker. “Huckleberry Finn and the Problem of Freedom.” Virginia Quarterly. 77.4 (2001): 642-650. Print.