Huckleberry Finn Essay
Freedom is a very complex topic that is the main idea that represents our country. Freedom
gives you the power to say, and act as you will. It also gives you the power to live freely and without
worry of being profiled, monitored or make you do something against your will. However freedom has
two faces to it. It has a positive side along with a negative side. It is very easy to loose your freedom
and make wrong descisions with it. It is also easy to use the concept of freedom to your advantage. An
example I am going to use is driving. As a teenager having a car symbolizes one part of your freedom.
Giving you the opportunity to go wherever you please, or meet whomever you want, at any time. But
once you turn those keys, your freedom lies in your hands. Then you must choose to use the good side
of freedom or choose the bad side which could cost you your freedom. An example would be if your
mother asked you to go out and, get her medicine. You could drive out and do that, or you could not do
that and do something else. The right use of your freedom here would be to do what was asked, and the
wrong use of freedom would be not to do it and do something else.
Another recent example of the right and wrong aspects of freedom would be the gun ban
debate in D.C. Our constitution allows us to keep and bear arms, however over the past years this has
proven a fatal choice. We are free to possess arms, but the next step is to decide how to properly use
this freedom . So far we have shown we are not worthy of the freedom to keep and bear arms. People
began becoming more violent and it showed. An example of this would be at least one person being
killed in Washington D.C a night. Also Baltimore became a deadly target and suffered a year of
homicides. This is to me, a great example of freedom gone wrong, and misused. Just because you have
the freedom to do something, you still have to use it wisely. With freedom comes great responsibility is
the smartest saying I have ever heard.
Mark Twain also discusses freedom in the book The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. Now, the
question regarding whether Huck is more free than Jim shifts from one to the other in the story. In the
beginning after Huck faked his death, him nor Jim were free.Huck was being hunted by people looking
for his body, and jim was still enslaved. Huck was no different than a runaway slave at that time.
However as the book rolls along the hunt for Huck becomes a cold case, and his only problem now is to
hide Jim. The freedom shifts to Hucks side, and leaves Jim nothing but fear. A quote from the part that
Huck almost lost his cover was on page 59. “Come on now, whats your real name?” This was the part
when he happened apon a lady while disguised as a woman. So this part shows in the beginning Huck
also had no freedom. Which was why he was in hiding and constantly in fear.
However, as mentioned before towards the middle of the book Huck gained the freedom to
walk around towns. Thus granting him the option of meeting the duke and his friend. But Jim still had
no freedom. There are three reasons why Huck comes out to be more free that Jim. The first one being
mainly color. This played a big role during the time period the book took place. If you were white you
were a free man. If you were an African American you were on a farm doing hard labor, and in an
overseers custody. Since Huck was white he was able, after the hunt for him, to go to towns down the
Missouri river and explore. But since Jim was a African American he was assumed a runaway almost
directly. So he had to constantly stay hidden in the raft and out of view.
Another reason why Huck was more free than Jim was due to Hucks knowledge of survival.
Huck Finn may be seen as a stupid human being, but he is actually a pretty clever one. The way he
planned out his escape, and how to elude people looking for him took a lot of thought. It is this kind of
thinking that kept him more free throughout his escape down the river. He used survival knowledge to
hide himself and Jim, find places to hide out, finding and using the raft to his advantage. Compared to
Jim who all he was taught was to work and obey commands given to him. Jim would have never seen
the face of freedom without Huck Finn.
The third reason that Huck Finn was free was because he had an idol, a somewhat of a teacher
by the name of Tom Sawyer. Huck idolized Tom Sawyer and in his mind wanted to be just like him. From
the beginning of the story when they assembled and decided to make a cult of thieves, Huck was taken
by Toms ideas. I belive that his survival knowledge came from Tom, which helped him become a free
man from the time of his escape to freedom.
For the conclusion I picked a quote pertaining to the three topics that made Huck more of a free
man than Jim. “ Why, they said he couldn’t be sold till he had been in the state six months, and he
hadnt been there that long yet (pg.27).” This quote describes the color aspect and the whole African
American versus white issue of freedom. “ But Tom Sawyer hunted me up and said he was going to start
a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respecatble. So I went back
(pg.1).” This quote deals with the idealization that Huck had for Tom Sawyer, which is were most of his
survival ideas came from. “ Say who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats ef I didn’ hear sumf’n (pg.5).” This
quote describes the knowledge that Jim lacks. One thing that disabled him from becoming a free man.
He cant even speak correct English, which if someone heard him speak would immediatley assume he
was a slave.