Kastoori’s Reviews > The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn > Status Update

Are you able to decipher Jim's dialect? His language is the toughest, and he's also the most honest, genuine, decent, and, actually, intelligent character in the novel. Typical for Twain, the people that society would consider the least honorable turn out to be the most honorable, and the people society would consider the most "civilized" turn out to act the least "civilized," and vice versa.

Yes, it isn't too hard once one reads Chaucer'es English. He seems to be a clumsy fellow in the initial chapters but as the novel progresses, he becomes increasingly individualistic. He is a very honest, genuine character. I suppose Twain really tried hard to subvert the prevalent ideologies of America during his era. It is a very sensitive, humorous and dark novel. I really enjoyed reading Huckleberry Finn :)

Jim is "clumsy" in places, and some critics have suggested that he is being depicted as stupid, which was consistent with the stereotypes of blacks during the 1800s in the US, though there are places where he's definitely more clever than Huck and others. Still, during that period, it would have been dangerous for blacks to have revealed their intelligence and knowledge around most whites for fear that they would be "put in their place" by the whites. To me, the most wonderful part of the book is when Huck debates with himself about whether he should return Jim to his owner. Society and Christian leaders had taught Huck that blacks are not really human, that they have no souls, no emotions or feelings, etc., and that it's a sin to be in possession of "stolen property." But after spending so much time with Jim, Huck realizes that society was wrong, that Jim and blacks have feelings and emotions "just like white people," as Huck says. He is "unlearning" what society has wrongly taught him. Then, at the moral climax of the book, Huck decides that he won't turn Jim in and that he "will go to hell," which he meant, by the way, literally and not figuratively. According to the Christian ministers at the time, to not turn in a runaway slave to its rightful owner was an unforgivable sin. Huck thought he was going to hell, but this was a price that he was willing to pay for not betraying his new friend.