Huck Finn Moral Issues Essay

654 Words3 Pages
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is a novel full of racism and poor treatment of slaves. During the time of Huckleberry Finn, the African Americans were slaves and were not given the same benefits as the whites. Huck had been raised to look down on the slaves are not to help them. He becomes close friends with a slave named Jim. Huck faces moral dilemmas when he has feeling for Jim and needs to help him which is not what a white person would do for a slave at that time. There are two situations in which Huck faces troubles with his conscience and moral challenges in chapter 15 and 16, the first moral challenge Huck faces is having to apologize the Jim who is a slave and the second challenge is helping Jim out and being his friend even though his conscience is telling him to turn Jim in. Huck experiences trouble with his friendship with Jim. Huck lies and says that Jim dreams about what had happened with the fog. When Jim sees the debris and the water he knows Huck lied. Jim is hurt and says that he cried when he was not with Huck and that he cares for him. Jim is disappointed with Huck…show more content…
Huck knows he is not supposed to help a slave but he makes the choice to help Jim anyways. Originally, Huck decides that helping Jim is wrong and that he has turn Jim in. His opinion changes when Jim says, “Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de only fren' ole Jim's got now” (Twain 119). Huck decides that he should not turn Jim in when Jim says Huck is his only friend. Huck is given the opportunity to turn Jim in when he is questioned by some men but he lies to them saying he has smallpox so they would not look for Jim. This shows how Huck's conscience has good in it. Not everyone at that time was
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