Huck Finn

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not treat a slave with the same respect that they would to white man. When he says, “I warn’t sorry for it afterward”, Huck shows how he has no regard for what society has taught him to do. Jim is a person with feelings and ideas just like everyone else, and he should be treated the same and not like he is inferior. If Jim was a white man, Huck would not have thought twice about making amends with him. However, Jim has a darker skin color and the hypocritical society that they live in has embedded the idea that men like Jim are beneath him and should be treated as if they were merely the scum of the Earth. The simple fact that Huck felt the need to say he was not sorry for apologizing to Jim suggests that he knows society would lose respect for him for “[humbling]” himself to Jim since in their society slaves are unworthy of apologies.

Mark Twain’s biggest theme is that in order to be truly free, we must be a “little less ‘sivilized’. Not being subjected to a hypocritical society is the only way to be truly free, one must not be afraid to follow their own beliefs. When Huck decides to tear up the letter he had written for Miss Watson explaining that Jim had run away, is when Huck became his own person. In his mind Huck thought this was the wrong course of action because society has instilled those thoughts in brain, but we as the readers know that this is the morally right choice. Huck does not know that he is having De Las Casas moment. Huck is before his time, he chooses the path of righteousness of protecting a slave as De Las Casas was before his time when he chose to protect the native americans in the 15th century.

If we were to be free in our modern western society, one would have to slay their apathy to take control of their life and rid themselves of their desires for materialistic things. The society that we have created in America is only about materialistic things. A person’s rank in society is dependent on the things they have. A guy with a sports car like a Lamborghini is going to gain the respect of others only because he has something most people cannot obtain. On the other side of the spectrum, a guy with a busted up car will go unnoticed by many because they are able to get what he has. In the novel Jim has gained his freedom, but Huck may not have. Huck had to become a fugitive in order to help Jim. Law would have Huck arrested maybe even killed if people found out he helped a runaway slave. Huck is more free at the start of the story because he does not have to carry around the guilt and experience of helping Jim escape slavery. However by joining in Jim’s endeavor, Huck was able to escape the shackles of society that he has been caged by his whole life. Freedom to do what you want is worth every bit a pain, sweat and tears that one goes through to earn it.