Jim

Jim’s relationship with Huck is the first place to start. Although it takes Huck some time to appreciate Jim as a person, not as property, Jim is compassionate and caring from the get-go. When the pair finds the dead man in the cave (who we find out later is Huck’s father), Jim shelters Huck from having to see it. When they are on the raft together, Jim does lookout shifts for Huck, letting the boy have the shelter and sleep. Of course, at the end of the novel, Jim makes the ultimate sacrifice – his freedom and very likely his life – to save Tom Sawyer. The story he tells about his daughter reminds us again that Jim has a lot to lose on this journey – likely much more than Huck.

While we can all admit he’s a pretty nice guy, it might seem at first that Jim isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. He’s superstitious, uneducated, and gullible. But it doesn’t take us too long to realize that his superstition isn’t terribly different than Miss Watson’s religion, that his being uneducated doesn’t preclude him from being incredibly intelligent, and that his gullibility is merely a symptom of his naiveté – an attribute more reflective of his environment than his character.

But enough abstract claims. Look at the scene in Chapter 14 in which Jim argues with Huck first about Solomon and second about Frenchmen. Sure, he misinterprets the story of Solomon, but his reasoning is soundproof. The idea of cutting a child in two works fine in theory, but practically it’s a pretty crappy solution if one of the women hadn’t caved. When Jim points out that it’s pretty stupid for Frenchmen to speak a different language than other men, we’re inclined to scoff, but the man has a point. As do we: Jim’s character is inherently the product of his environment; we have to look at him in light of his time, place, and surroundings.