Ruiz Diaz, 1

Ruiz Diaz, Jordan

Mrs. Love

Honors English

24 October 2024

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

After analyzing the revealing novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark

Twain, we see the countless adventures exemplify themes in the plot. We see the adventure of

Huck and Jim going with the King and Duke to the small island, affect the plot by developing its

themes of racial inequality, moral development and showing the truths about society during its

time. When Huck and the rest of the people on the raft (Jim, King and the Duke) arrive at the

small town we see how Jim, a slave, gets reduced to socially nothing. The reader can also see

Twain create intricate contrast between the runaway duo of Jim and Huck, and the conmen the

King and Duke. At the small island in Arkansas, Mark Twain shows how society is strongly

based in trust of authority figures using characters like Sheriff Shernburn to show this. Finally

we see the author use juxtaposition to create an image of contrast between where Huck ran away,

the wealthy Grangerford estate, and the town they ended up in, a small island in the countryside.

The reader gets introduced to the wildly racist nature of society, very quickly. In the

opening lines of Chapter 20 in Huck Finn. Twain writes, “was Jim a runaway nigger? Says I:

“Goodness sakes! would a runaway n***er run SOUTH?” (...) Pa was pretty poor, and had some

debts; so when he’d squared up there warn’t nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim.”

In this excerpt of text we see the King and Duke ask if Jim was a runaway slave, this may seem

insignificant but when we use the context of the story it is. As the reader has been informed, the
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King and Duke are both conmen. Conmen in the 1800’s were considered bottom class

individuals and were criminals who took advantage of vulnerable people. For these two people to

ask in such an appalled manner if Jim was a runaway slave, it shows how racist society was.

Although Jim had done nothing wrong to them, it would be, in their eyes, an extreme disgrace to

associate with a runaway slave. We also know that this is ingrained into society because Jim is

quick to defend his friend by pointing out how ridiculous it would be for Jim to be running south.

Only when the King and Duke are informed that Jim is owned, do they relax into the questioning

of Huck.

Another very fascinating part of chapter 20 in Huck Finn is when Twain points out how

different the two pairs of characters are. In paragraph 10 of chapter 20, Twain writes “I should a

reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that a corn-shuck bed warn’t just fitten

for me to sleep on. Your Grace ‘ll take the shuck bed yourself.” We see the selfish behavior of

the two con men as the two men start discussing where they should sleep, completely

disregarding Jim and Huck, the owners of the beds. After this the King tells the two to, “ told us

to both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke crawled into the wigwam

and turned in for the night” again the author shows us how even when a storm was “cleary”

coming, the two con men decided that they would sleep and the others would watch instead of

coming to an agreement. Twain builds on this contrast in the next paragraph stating “I had the

middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by that time, so Jim he said he would stand the

first half of it for me; he was always mighty good that way, Jim was.” During the adventure of

making it to the small island, Jim shows his empathy and compassion for Huck by watching the

raft while Jim and the conmen sleep. The contrast between the two parties is extremely evident

in the opening scenes in the chapter and point out the character's development from Huck
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originally being portrayed as a deviant no-good kid to showing deep care for Jim and being

appreciative of what he is given.

Moving onto the next chapter in the novel, we see the author point out societal structures

in the 1800’s. The town the characters of the novel are staying at is different from they were

prior, this town seemed to be messy, rustic and chaotic as Huck describes in chapter 21, “There

was considerable whisky drinking going on, and I seen three fights. By and by somebody sings

out:“Here comes old Boggs! – in from the country for his little old monthly drunk; here he

comes, boys!” ” Boggs is a key character in this adventure, he is known as a very forward, but

non-violent character. He is known for threatening people but not actually following up with any

of his very aggressive threats. We then get introduced to Sheriff Shernburn, a man quite opposite

of Boggs, he is very sincere in the way he will do what he says he will do. In the story we see

Shernburn tell Boggs that he will deal with antics until 1 am and after that he will “deal with

him” We see the trust people put in Shernburns words in this article of the text “ Some men

crowded around him and tried to get him to shut up, but he wouldn’t; they told him it would be

one o’clock in about fifteen minutes, and so he MUST go home – he must go right away. But it

didn’t do no good. He cussed away with all his might.” Using these two articles of text we can

see how the author wanted to show how Shernburn was very key in the town's society. We know

from the reading that people believed that the Sheriff would kill Boggs if he didn’t stop talking

and when Boggs didn’t listen to his demands he got publicly killed. Again establishing his

position of authority.

In conclusion we see the author use the countless adventures to exemplify themes in the

plot. We see the adventure of Huck and Jim going with the King and Duke to the small island,
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affect the plot by developing its themes of racial inequality, moral development and showing the

truths about society during its time. In this time during the 1800’s the story of Huck Finn shows

racial inequality by showing how Jim, a human being is reduced to nothing in Chapter 20. We

then see the moral development of Huck when we watch him go from a deviant teenager to an

empathetic young adult who is appreciative of his friend with a completely different background.

We then also get shown the truths of society by showing the authority figure of Sheriff Sherburn

get shown as an all ruling force in the town. In all, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an

amazing revealing novel that shows in the adventures of a young boy and runaway slave the

flaws in society and the unjust nature of it.