In the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain it can be
argued who the central character is. The conventional approach to the book is that Huck
is the main character. But in this essay I will be discussing why Jim, the slave, could be
considered the central character. Mark Twain gives different hints throughout the novel
that Jim, not Huck, could be the main character.
Huck is a fourteen year old rebellious boy who fakes his death and runs away
when his pap kidnaps him. He shows signs of smartness but does not like it when Ms.
Watson tries to educate and civilize him. In the article Huck Finn and Gerald Graff by
Sanford Pinsker he is quoted saying “what Huck finally seeks is that greatest of all
American dreams: freedom without responsibility, which is to say, a perfect endless
boyhood.” Because the book is told through Huck’s point of view, it is presumed that he
is the central character. Throughout the book Huck goes though many different things
and does not change who he is. Even though people might say certain things are wrong
Huck always does what he thinks is right.
Jim is a slave who is owned by Ms. Watson. Once he finds out that Ms. Watson
has sold him to a man he decides to runaway to a free state and make some money so he
can buy his family out of slavery. While Jim was never educated, he is a very smart man.
From her Article “Debating Huck Finn” Barbara Jackson says, “Jim also has an intuitive
understanding of people and situations not evident in most of the superior whites.” The
reason people do not think of him as the main character is because he is a slave.
I feel that Jim is the central character in the novel because he is the reason they
head down the Mississippi River. Also, while they are on their adventures Jim teaches
Huck that he should do what he knows is right in his heart and that slavery is wrong. In
the novel it says, “We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to
keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on
our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it
warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle.”`(pg. 67) This
shows that the two of them become close through their adventures. Jim is the
central character because he in every adventure they find themselves in he is the one
they always end up helping. The reason we read the book is to see if Jim gets his
freedom and when he does at the end that leaves a feeling that the book is complete.
The first time a person reads the book they will automatically think that
Huck is the main character. But if they read it again and pay attention to the
situations I think they will see that Jim could in fact be the central character.
Hopefully I have given enough examples of why Jim is the main character and not
Huck.
