Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| "Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky ... here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio – a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane – the awful- est old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me – I'll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that nigger – why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold? – that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now – that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger, and –" (6.11) |
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Thought: This little speech by Pap shows that he’s a blatant racist who treats African-Americans as though they are not at all human beings. The man from Ohio whom Pap talks about sounds like an interesting guy based on Pap’s description. The only reason Pap has a problem with him is race. This quote also sets up a foil between the man and Pap. The Ohio man sounds classy and educated, while Pap is drunk and openly hostile. The man stands proud against Pap’s belligerent actions. Does Pap see the hypocrisy in his rant? One of the most upsetting things about Pap’s point of view is how deeply embedded and unshakeable his racist convictions truly are. For more background on slavery, we suggest taking a look at Shmoop’s U.S. History "
Causes of the Civil War" and "
Antebellum American Culture."
Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' ... like a man. Is a cow a man? – er is a cow a cat?"
"No, she ain't either of them."
"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?"
"Yes."
"WELL, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he TALK like a man? You answer me DAT!"
I see it warn't no use wasting words – you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit. (14.53, 14.54, 14.55, 14.56, 14.57, 14.58) |
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Thought: Huck’s racism prevents him from seeing that Jim argues well.
| It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up ... to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way. (15.49) |
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Thought: Despite the racist environment in which he lives, Huck recognizes Jim’s human qualities almost immediately. It takes awhile for him to fully respect how awesome a guy Jim really is, but we know from this quote that Huck’s mind is open to possibilities that his upbringing didn’t instill in him. Also, check out the theme of "
Friendship" to get an idea of how seriously Huck’s takes his relationships with his friends, Jim included.
| It most froze me to hear such talk. He wouldn't ... ever dared to talk such talk in his life before. Just see what a difference it made in him the minute he judged he was about free. It was according to the old saying, "Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell." Thinks I, this is what comes of my not thinking. Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children – children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm. (16.8) |
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Thought: Huck is unable to recognize Jim’s children as belonging to a legitimate family because of their race.
| "Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), you fly around and ... get him something to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake up Buck and tell him – oh, here he is himself. Buck, take this little stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some of yours that's dry." (17.30) |
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Thought: Slavery is the common denominator in the otherwise very different families that Huck encounters.
| Each person had their own nigger to wait on them ... – Buck too. My nigger had a monstrous easy time, because I warn't used to having anybody do anything for me, but Buck's was on the jump most of the time. (18.6) |
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Thought: The wealth of the Grangerfords is illustrated by the number of slaves they own.
| When I waked up just at daybreak he was sitting ... there with his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself. I didn't take notice nor let on. I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n. It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I was asleep, and saying, "Po' little 'Lizabeth! po' little Johnny! it's mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!" He was a mighty good nigger, Jim was. (23.30) |
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Thought: Huck is able to edit his opinions and reject the racist values his culture and upbringing have instilled in him. Huck can truly think for himself, as we see here. What’s "natural" to Huck at first – that slaves don’t feel love for their families – is proven wrong when he sees how Jim behaves. It’s clear that Huck isn’t used to interacting with black people, and automatically assumes that Jim is unique among African-Americans.
| "Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; ... and first you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it?" (26.97) |
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Thought: The duke exemplifies prejudice by presuming that African-Americans have certain qualities. He implies that black people are inherently untrustworthy. In reality, slaves were often scapegoats in many situations. Whites in the South were more apt to believe that a slave would steal money, rather than suspect that a fellow white person would. The duke and the king both take advantage of this assumption to blame many of their schemes on blacks.
| So the next day after the funeral, along about noon- ... time, the girls' joy got the first jolt. A couple of nigger traders come along, and the king sold them the niggers reasonable, for three-day drafts as they called it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their mother down the river to Orleans. I thought them poor girls and them niggers would break their hearts for grief; they cried around each other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it. The girls said they hadn't ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold away from the town. I can't ever get it out of my memory, the sight of them poor miserable girls and niggers hanging around each other's necks and crying; and I reckon I couldn't a stood it all, but would a had to bust out and tell on our gang if I hadn't knowed the sale warn't no account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two. (27.13) |
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Thought: Although Huck sees the family of servants torn apart, it is only the crying of the white girls that bothers his conscience. That’s one view. Then again, you could also argue that the notion of a family being broken up is what bothers him here.
| The king sassed back as much as was safe for ... him, and then swapped around and lit into ME again. He give me down the banks for not coming and TELLING him I see the niggers come out of his room acting that way – said any fool would a KNOWED something was up. And then waltzed in and cussed HIMSELF awhile, and said it all come of him not laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be blamed if he'd ever do it again. So they went off a-jawing; and I felt dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't done the niggers no harm by it. (27.48) |
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Thought: Huck relies on the prejudice of the duke and king in order to blame the black servants for the missing gold.
| So she done it. And it was the niggers – ... I just expected it. She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't know HOW she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and the children warn't ever going to see each other no more – and then busted out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands (28.3) |
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Thought: Although Huck is not immediately able to recognize that blacks belong to real families, he recognizes that other white characters do.
"Well, I RECKON! There's two hunderd dollars reward on him. It's like picking up money out'n the road." (31.13)
Thought: Jim is repeatedly described according his monetary value rather than his personal characteristics.
| Once I said to myself it would be a thousand ... times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd GOT to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of ME! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't a-going to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday-school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you there that people that acts as I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire." (31.19) |
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Thought: Huck is unable to remove Jim and himself from their race-defined roles. This quote is a great example of how pervasive culture and society can be in a person’s mind. Although Huck can think for himself, he also can’t help but be swayed by everything he’s ever known up until this point. Racist ideas are deeply embedded in his mind and worldview. Religion is particularly difficult for Huck to leave behind, since he doesn’t really understand religious beliefs in the first place. His desire to "give religion a chance" overrides his own moral inclinations. He’s also afraid of what he doesn’t understand – namely, hell – and he’s more prone to waver on the safe side (i.e., obeying the church, and therefore not going to hell) than to believe in his own ideas.
Thought: Despite their friendship, Huck still sees Jim as property.
| "We never thought of that. Fact is, I reckon we'd ... come to consider him OUR nigger; yes, we did consider him so – goodness knows we had trouble enough for him. So when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke, there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch another shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a powder-horn. Where's that ten cents? Give it here." (31.37) |
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Thought: Just as the duke and kind seize a position of power on the raft, they also seize Jim, treating him a property.
"Good gracious! anybody hurt?"
"No'm. Killed a nigger."
"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. (32.19, 32.20, 32.21)
Thought: This quote shows how many whites are unable to see blacks as people just like themselves. We know that Aunt Sally isn’t a bad person, but she doesn’t comprehend the possibility that a black person could be equal to her. (See Aunt Sally’s "Character Analysis" for mor on her.) This offhand remark just shows how hurtful and cruelly apathetic someone can sound just by taking what society dictates for granted.
"JIM don't know nobody in China."
"What's THAT got to do ... with it? Neither did that other fellow. But you're always a-wandering off on a side issue. Why can't you stick to the main point?" (35.61, 35.62) |
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Thought: In using Jim for prisoner-play, Tom refuses to see him as a person.
| So he told Jim how we'd have to smuggle in ... the rope-ladder pie and other large things by Nat, the nigger that fed him, and he must be on the lookout, and not be surprised, and not let Nat see him open them; and we would put small things in uncle's coat-pockets and he must steal them out; and we would tie things to aunt's apron-strings or put them in her apron-pocket, if we got a chance; and told him what they would be and what they was for. And told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with his blood, and all that. He told him everything. Jim he couldn't see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just as Tom said. (36.54) |
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Thought: Jim's racist environment has affected him, convincing him that the prejudices against blacks are grounded in reality. Tom’s just using Jim for his own entertainment; he doesn’t seem to actually see the seriousness of the situation, or what’s at stake for Jim. On a side note: this part of the novel has been criticized quite a bit in recent decades, since Twain seems to have created a sort of "minstrel show" with Jim at the center. He’s created this scene for its humor, and in doing so, he’s made Jim look like a complacent, obedient fool. For all its preaching against racism, this part of the books seems to reinforce the novel's status quo. In this scene, the boys treat Jim in a degrading way, and he doesn’t seem to really mind. How do you interpret this scene?
"Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick ... miss'n."
"Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!" (37.20, 37.21) |
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Thought: Aunt Sally takes out her aggression on her black servant.
| So Tom was stumped. But he studied it over, and ... then said Jim would have to worry along the best he could with an onion. He promised he would go to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's coffee-pot, in the morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have tobacker in his coffee;" and found so much fault with it, and with the work and bother of raising the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and petting and flattering up the snakes and spiders and things, on top of all the other work he had to do on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, and things, which made it more trouble and worry and responsibility to be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook, that Tom most lost all patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they was just about wasted on him. So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn't behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed. (37.63) |
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Thought: Although Tom does have the racist qualities of his Southern environment, his desire to play prisoner with Jim stems from his yearning for adventure and has nothing to so with Jim’s race.
"NOW, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I ... bet you won't ever be a slave no more."
"En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck. It 'uz planned beautiful, en it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't NOBODY kin git up a plan dat's mo' mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz." (40.38, 40.39) |
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Thought: Because he has been convinced of his inferiority, Jim is unable to see that he was treated unfairly when he played prisoner.
| "Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, ... Huck. Ef it wuz HIM dat 'uz bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?' Is dat like Mars Tom Sawyer? Would he say dat? You BET he wouldn't! WELL, den, is JIM gywne to say it? No, sah – I doan' budge a step out'n dis place 'dout a DOCTOR, not if it's forty year!" (40.46) |
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Thought: Although Huck and Tom see Jim differently because of his race, Jim feels a closeness and equality to the boys, particularly in his responsibilities to them. Above everything else, Jim is determined to do the right thing in any given situation. And despite the boys’ mistreatment of him, Jim is aiming to act as their equal – to do what any good person would do in this situation.
| I followed the men to see what they was going ... to do with Jim; and the old doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom into the house. The men was very huffy, and some of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to all the other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be trying to run away like Jim done, and making such a raft of trouble, and keeping a whole family scared most to death for days and nights. But the others said, don't do it, it wouldn't answer at all; he ain't our nigger, and his owner would turn up and make us pay for him, sure. So that cooled them down a little, because the people that's always the most anxious for to hang a nigger that hain't done just right is always the very ones that ain't the most anxious to pay for him when they've got their satisfaction out of him. (42.13) |
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Thought: Huck understands very well the attitude toward blacks in the society in which he was raised.
| They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff ... or two side the head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes on him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to a big staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and both legs, and said he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to eat after this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because he didn't come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and said a couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the cabin every night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and about this time they was through with the job and was tapering off with a kind of generl good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and takes a look, and says: (42.14) |
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Thought: Although Huck and Tom took part in the rescue, Jim is the one punished.
| "Don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to, ... because he ain't a bad nigger. When I got to where I found the boy I see I couldn't cut the bullet out without some help, and he warn't in no condition for me to leave to go and get help; and he got a little worse and a little worse, and after a long time he went out of his head, and wouldn't let me come a-nigh him any more, and said if I chalked his raft he'd kill me, and no end of wild foolishness like that, and I see I couldn't do anything at all with him; so I says, I got to have HELP somehow; and the minute I says it out crawls this nigger from somewheres and says he'll help, and he done it, too, and done it very well. Of course I judged he must be a runaway nigger, and there I WAS! and there I had to stick right straight along all the rest of the day and all night. It was a fix, I tell you! I had a couple of patients with the chills, and of course I'd of liked to run up to town and see them, but I dasn't, because the nigger might get away, and then I'd be to blame; and yet never a skiff come close enough for me to hail. So there I had to stick plumb until daylight this morning; and I never see a nigger that was a better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he'd been worked main hard lately. I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars – and kind treatment, too. I had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he would a done at home – better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I WAS, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck would have it the nigger was setting by the pallet with his head propped on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was about, and we never had no trouble. And the boy being in a kind of a flighty sleep, too, we muffled the oars and hitched the raft on, and towed her over very nice and quiet, and the nigger never made the least row nor said a word from the start. He ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen; that's what I think about him." (42.15) |
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Thought: Despite pervading racism, Jim is recognized for his kindness and loyalty. On the other hand, the doctor still values him with a price attached; that is, as property rather than as a person.
| Then the others softened up a little, too, and I ... was mighty thankful to that old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was according to my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him. Then they all agreed that Jim had acted very well, and was deserving to have some notice took of it, and reward. So every one of them promised, right out and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss him no more. (42.18) |
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Thought: Huck misses the point; he congratulates the doctor on not wanting to lynch Jim rather than focusing on the fact that Jim has just sacrificed his freedom for Tom.
| "They hain't no RIGHT to shut him up! SHOVE! – ... and don't you lose a minute. Turn him loose! He ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur that walks this earth!" (42.45) |
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Thought: Although he has displayed racist tendencies, Tom is outraged that a free black man would ever be locked up. His adherence is strictly to what he knows as the rules.
| And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about ... old Miss Watson setting Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn't ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he COULD help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up. (42.57) |
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Thought: Even after Jim has displayed incredible loyalty and selflessness, Huck is still too embedded in a racist environment to believe that a proper boy could help free a slave.
Morality and Ethics
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