was mustered into slavery. Huck Finn is a young white boy who does, at first, seem unaffected by the institution of slavery. He lives with a woman named Widow Douglas because his Pap is a drunkard and abusive. Jim is a older black man who is enslaved by a woman called Miss Watson, who happens to be Widow Douglas’ sister. This is the first relationship of Jim and Huck. It is not until Pap captures Huck and Huck is forced to escape from him that he meets Jim for real. Huck escapes from his abusive father to Jackson’s Island where he finds Miss Watson’s runaway slave Jim. At first sight of Jim Huck was glad to see him for he did not want to be lonesome anymore. Then Huck is faced with the first and everlasting dilemma of their friendship. Jim was not a person he was a slave and slaves were property; therefore, he should be returned to his rightful owner, Miss Watson. This is a moral dilemma for Huck throughout the whole novel. When Huck finally decides he is not going to tell and return Jim it is his first opposition to society, he realizes how he would feel about himself knowing he turned Jim in. Huck has been brought up in a society where blacks are hated and not people; therefore, helping him to runaway is a sinful thing on Huck part. In this episode you feel how Huck’s innocence and inner feelings can come above the bad and wrong of the society; thus, leading him to do the correct thing. It would not be morally correct to bring Jim back for he would be enslaved once again and that was an inhumane institution. Huck’s other major dilemma is to realize that Jim was human. This is the underlying factor in this novel. Huck is brought up to believe Jim not human and if he can overcome this idea society has taught him then he would not be brought to his other dilemma, if he should turn Jim in. The whole novel develops the idea and ultimately Huck realizes that Jim is human who cares just as much...
