Friendship Between Jim and Huck

Nanase Koike
Friendship between Jim and Huck

In Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, Huck and Jim, characters of different races, ages and status, move from relationship of just knowing each other to a close friendship. Most of the development of their relationship to each other comes in the beginning of the book. Last half of the book is where the author shows how Huck starts to have a heart to trust Jim. When Huck decides that he will free Jim and declares, "All right, then, I’ll go to hell," (pg. 206) he bases that decision on events that have brought the two closer during the trip, such as the foggy night and the time Huck saved Jim by saying he had smallpox. These are most likely to be the two of the most key events in the story as it relates to the relationship between Huck and Jim. Because of these events, it have made Huck not be able to follow his “conscience” and turn Jim in to the bounty hunters because his relationship with Jim has strengthened and deepened.
It is the first event, the foggy night that brings about a major change in Huck. He risks his life trying to navigate the river in the fog in order to get reunited with Jim. When the raft first drifts off, Huck could have stayed on the shore and been safe, but he doesn’t even think of not following Jim. He apologizes for mocking Jim, thus acknowledging really for the first time Jim’s humanity and equal standing to himself. He remarks, "I done it, and I wasn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither," strong words for the time in which the novel was set and the time it was printed.
The second event is one of the big tests of the relationship between Jim and Huck. Jim is so close to freedom he can taste it and Huck’s conscience is torturing him for helping Jim. Huck has been brought up to view the abolitionists who helped slaves escape as evil, immoral people. It is also clear in the beginning of this scene that Huck is still prejudiced against Jim. He is truly shocked that Jim would steal...