Huck Finn

"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead" (221). Mark Twain's, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," is a tale about a boy in search for a family and a place he can truly call home. Through his adventure, he rids himself of a father that is deemed despicable by society, and he gains a father that society hasn't even deemed as a man. This lonely and depressed young boy only finds true happiness when he is befriended with a slave named Jim. Although Huck Finn was born and raised into a racially oppressive society, it is through his personal growth that he realizes that the color of skin does not make a man, and he finds a father and true happiness in Jim.

Disparity and loneliness are the tones that Twain quickly sets for his character Huck Finn. Twain makes Huck's isolation from society apparent for the reader immediately through a comment made from a respectable and pious woman, Widow Douglas, who has brought Huck to live with her in her home. "The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son [...]. And called me a poor lost lamb" (220). Although Huck has a safe and pleasant place to stay with the Widow, he is still truly lonely as he describes his yearnings for death. "I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead" (221). Twain continues to show this tone of disparity as Huck unconsciously relates many things around him to death, and continues to tell the reader that he is lonely. "I heard an owl [...]. Who--whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was doing to die [...]. I did wish I had some company "(221). Although Huck gains companionship through his friend Tom and a group of boys, he still suffers from bouts of disparity as the boys isolate him. "Here's Huck [...] he hain't got no family [...]. They was going to rule me out because they said every boy must have a family [...]. I was most ready to cry" (224). This feeling of disparity and loneliness is reiterated to the reader because Huck will only be content as he befriends Jim.

Top of Page

Huck is raised in a truly racist slave state and through his ignorance, like the rest of society that surrounds him, he does not see black people as equals, and he refers to Jim as merely a piece of property. "Miss Watson's big [slave], named Jim" (222). Twain clearly implies Huck's view of superiority over Jim, as Huck complains that Jim is no longer a useful slave because he gossips too much. "Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance [....slaves] would come moles to hear Jim tell about it [...]. Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got so stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches" (223). Twain depicts this view from Huck, so the reader had a reference point for Huck's personal growth throughout the tale. He then continues to show the reader that Huck has no regards for Jim as Huck asks Jim to tell him his fortune, but he refuses to give Jim any money for it. "He said sometimes it [Jim's magic hairball] wouldn't talk [tell a fortune} without money. I told him I had an old [...] counterfeit quarter [...] I reckoned I wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got from the Judge" (230). This is a significant point made by Twain because in the beginning of the tale the reader is told that Huck has plenty of money, and it signifies that Huck has no feelings for Jim as a human nor does he care about Jim's well-being. "Tom and me found the money [...] and it made us rich. [...] Judge Thatcher, he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us up a dollar a day a piece, all year round more than a body could tell what to do with" (220).

Top of Page

After Huck escapes from his father, Twain introduces another stepping block of personal growth--Huck's new found independence. "I went exploring [...] through the island. I was Boss of it; it all belonged to me, so to say, and I wanted to know all about it" (243). Huck has escaped from his father, has a new found independence on the island, but he still finds himself lonely and depressed, proving that his independence has not solved his problem completely. "I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling satisfied; but by and by, it got sort of lonesome, [...] and [I] counted stars [...] and then went to bed; there aint no better way to put in time when you are lonesome"(243). When Huck discovers that Jim is on the island with him, it is the first time in the novel that he does not feel lonely. Twain deliberately waits for this moment of Huck's complete isolation because he wants to foreshadow to the reader that Huck will never feel content until he befriends Jim. "I was ever so happy to see Jim. I warn't lonesome now" (251). Once Twain expresses that Huck is no longer lonely, he begins to show that Huck is content with Jim as Huck tells Jim how much he is enjoying himself. "'Jim, this is nice' [...] 'I wouldn't want to be no where else but here'" (249). Twain now gives Jim the first opportunity to express his feelings for Huck. Implying to the reader of Jim's parental role, Jim discusses how Huck would not be safe and dry if it wasn't for him. Jim's feelings for his own children are replaced as he has the opportunity to care for

...