Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

            “I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the nighttime, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing.  But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind.  I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and suchlike times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.

            It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

            ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’—and tore it up.” (Twain 227-228)

            This passage is a strong turning point in the novel where Huck is finally realizing what his relationship with Jim means to him.  Throughout the novel Huck denies his feelings for Jim, by always referring to him as a “nigger” or “my nigger” around other people.  This is the way the relationship goes in society, but over the course of their adventure, Jim becomes more than just “a nigger” he becomes Huck’s friend.  The first time we really see this relationship twist is when Huck plays the trick on Jim by pretending they never got separated in the fog.  He tells Jim he’s crazy and is making it up, partly because he doesn’t want to admit his feelings that he missed Jim, and the other part because admitting their relationship is a friendly one is not the way of things.  The two encounter many changes on the raft and live a supposed “free life,” that is, free from society’s restrictions.  No religion, church, or “right way of living” for Huck, and no slavery for Jim.

            Jim opens up to Huck about his family too, a strong moment where he tells about his daughter being deaf and dumb and him feeling badly.  Hearing Jim talk about his family and open up about his life, makes him more real to Huck.

            Getting to this passage, when Huck finally loses Jim he begins to truly see how important Jim’s relationship is to him.  He reflects, “and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me…” (Twain 228), and sees the paternal relationship and amount of care Jim had for him as a friend.  Huck debates between praying and changing his ways to be like the good folk, in order to pray for his friend, or continuing with his normal life and go to hell by doing the opposite of what society expects of him.  Being at a low point, where he has no control of his friends fate, and seems like he has no other option but to pray and change causes him to question his morals and beliefs.  He challenges himself and his character for the sake of his friend.  In the end, he ends up to go on like he always does because even though that’s not the “good way,” its his way and its what he believes is honest to himself.  “I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger’s owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie—and He knowed it.  You can’t pray a lie—I found that out.”  Huck realized any attempt to change or pray wouldn’t be honest of his character, and even if he’s not an honest to good person in society’s standards, he was at least honest to himself. 

            As Huck learns more about himself and has revelations like these, he begins to understand who he is and what matters most to him.  This passage gives us as readers a good insight into what’s in Huck’s mind and the way he thinks and grows.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  New York:  Penguin, 1985.