FREE ESSAY ON OPPOSITES ATTRACT

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons
attempting to find a moral will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will
be shot - By Order of the Author," (Twain 1) reads the "Notice" before The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Twain claims that he wrote the entire novel purely as an
adventure story, and had no intention of creating a deeper statement about the human
condition. On the contrary, Twain creates an insight into humanity that the reader hardly
expects from the author's impractical notice. He does this by using the two main
characters in the novel, Huck Finn, an uneducated boy running away from civilization and
Jim, the runaway slave. As these two misfits float down the Mississippi River on a raft,
Twain uses the character of Jim and his interactions with others to defy the white
perception of the Negro and to ultimately demonstrate his place in American society.
Twain does this by showing how Jim does not form to the mold of the stereotypical slave,
has real emotions just like anyone else and is an example of the Negro's social standing
at that time.
In the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain introduces Jim by
describing the stereotypical Negro. Jim represents the ignorance and superstitions that
most white believed to be the slaves persona. As seen through the eyes of Tom Sawyer and
Huck Finn, Jim personifies the stereotypical characteristics of the carefree and often
ridiculous Negro. This is demonstrated when the reader first meets Jim, as Tom and Huck
attempt to sneak out of the house. Jim, hears the boys moving and decides to wait until
he hears it again but promptly falls asleep. Tom moves Jim's hat by hanging it on a tree
limb. "Afterward Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him
all over the state, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to
show who done it," (Twain 6). This ignorant and illogical explanation illustrates the
stereotypical white opinion of Negroes in America. Later in the novel, Huck goes to Jim
for help in conjuring the future. The reader sees the ridiculous side of the typical
Slave classification. Jim's prized possession is a hairball that was taken from the
stomach of an ox. "He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed 
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everything," (Twain 17). Jim rolls the hairball around the floor a bit and then claims to
see into Huck's future. After this incident, Jim not only seems ignorant, but absurd, for
using a hairball as an oracle, further showing the illustration of Jim's character as the
carefree and superstitious image. Finally, Twain uses Jim's superstition to round out
this categorization of all Negroes. After Huck fools his father and the town into
thinking he was murdered, he escapes into the wilderness of Jackson Island and
unexpectedly runs into Jim. Upon seeing the boy he assumes was dead, Jim exclaims, "Doan'
hurt me-don't! I hain't ever done no harm to a ghos'. I alwuz liked dead people, en fone
all I could for 'em...doan' do nuffin to Ole Jim, 'at 'uz alwuz yo' fren'," (Twain 41).
Instead of the seemingly logical conclusion to which most would jump, that Huck was not
really dead, Jim's ignorance combines with his superstitious belief in ghosts to form the
opinion that the vision he saw before him did not consist of flesh and bones, but the
ghost of Huck Finn returned from the dead to haunt him. Twain uses this combination of
ignorance, absurdity, and superstition in Jim to give the reader the false idea that Jim
personifies the stereotype of an empty-headed being who is content being in bondage and
not suited for any other form of life. 
Throughout the rest of the novel, Twain makes every effort to eliminate this
misconception by showing Jim's kindness, sensitivity and tenderness toward people. The
stereotype is almost immediately contradicted when Jim runs away, because the
stereotypical Negro would not have done this. The stereotypical slave is perceived as a
"servant," who wouldn't want to leave his home. After this point, Twain continues to
unveil Jim's true colors throughout the story. The most obvious way in which Twain
accomplishes this unveiling is through Jim's feelings about his family. One day, as Huck
woke up to hear Jim "moaning and mourning to himself...[Huck] knowed what it was about.
He was thinking about his wife and his children...and...he cared just as much for his
people as white folk does for their'n," (Twain 155). The idea of slaves loving other
people presented a very foreign idea to most whites. The 
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black man's mind was inferior and unable to feel the same emotions, like love and
loneliness. As Huck compares Jim to "white folks," it is one of the highest compliments.
Huck shows his admiration for Jim in the only words he can, using the perceived
difference between blacks and whites to relate that Jim's humanity was that equal of any
white man. Jim's image also changes when he relates to Huck the story of his daughter,
Elizabeth, who loses her hearing after a severe case of scarlet fever. Before he realizes
that his daughter cannot hear, he punishes her for disobedience, not understanding that
she does not hear his demands. Once this realization occurs his guilt overwhelms him. "Oh
Huck, I bust out a-cryin' en grab her up in my arms, en say, 'Oh, de po little thing! De
Lord God Amighty fogive po' Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive hisself as long's he
live!'" (Twain 156). Guilt for his own actions and the compassion he feels for his
daughter are two more "white" emotions that Huck realizes Jim also feels. Throughout Huck
and Jim's journey down the Mississippi River, Huck views Jim in a different light,
realizing that he is not completely the ignorant, ridiculous creature he was once thought
to be. Jim is actually a human being capable of feeling the entire spectrum of emotions,
disputing the classic view of the Negro. Not until the end of the book is Twain's
expression of Jim's humanity is indisputably upheld. As Jim voluntarily stops his escape
in order for Huck to fetch a doctor for the injured Tom Sawyer, an action that saves
Tom's life, while jeopardizing his own, Jim's humanity is demonstrated. This action also
eventually leads to Jim's recapture and near hanging by an angry mob. Even though Jim has
full knowledge that he may be recaptured his selflessness causes him to insist upon
fetching a doctor. Again, Huck compares Jim to a white man when he says, "I knowed he was
white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say," (Twain 276). A second instance
takes place at the very end of the book, after Jim realizes that his freedom has come at
last. Huck worries about his father coming back to steal Huck's money. Jim quietly tells
him that Pap will never come back again. When Huck presses him as to why Jim says this,
Jim refers to an earlier instance in the story when the two had seen a house floating
down the river with 
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a dead man inside. "Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey wuz
a man in dah, kivered up en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you come in? Well,
den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat was him," (Twain 293). By not
allowing Huck to come inside the house and by keeping the true identity of the man
concealed, Jim believes his actions protect Huck from pain and unpleasantness. Because
Jim has a stable, loving relationship with his own children, he does not realize that
some fathers, Huck's white father included, do not love their children in this way. This
selfless action of Jim reveals more about his character than any other action in the
book. Not only does it speak of his love of his own children, but it also proves the love
and compassion that he develops for Huck Finn, proving that Jim, a black man, is as human
as any white man, contradicting the stereotype that Negroes are inhuman and unfeeling.
Along with defying the social stereotype of the happy-go-lucky, ignorant Negro, Jim also
serves as an example for the free Negro's social standing in 1884, the year of the book's
publication. After the Civil War, blacks were technically free men, but were rarely
granted their deserved rights and privileges equal to those held by the free white man.
Very often, Huck and the river raft's other passengers, the duke and the king, travel
onshore, leaving Jim alone on the raft. In order to protect him against slave traders who
might come upon him, the duke paints his face blue and dresses him up in absurd costumes,
leaving a sign that reads, "Sick Arab- But harmless when not out of his head," (Twain
156). Huck believes this disguise is meant to keep the people from recognizing Jim's
race, but when the disguise is put to the test, the people who come upon Jim simply see
that he is a "strange nigger dressed so and so," (Twain 211). This incident can be
compared to what happened to many free blacks during their migration northward, trying to
find jobs and prosperity. Many employers would not give them jobs, simply because of
their race. They dressed like white men, acted like white men, but were not granted the
privileges of white men. Likewise, Jim tries to disguise himself as an Arab, but still is
not treated as an Arab. Twain also uses the character 
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of Tom Sawyer to further the idea of the black social status. Tom Sawyer arrives at 
his Aunt Sally's home with the knowledge that Jim's owner, Miss Watson, set him free in
her will. Yet, Tom keeps this knowledge to himself, using the opportunity that Jim's
captivity provided for his own amusement, hoping for a "grand adventure." After the truth
is revealed, Tom confides to Huck that his plan "was for [Huck and Tom] to run [Jim] down
the river on the raft, and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell
him about his being free," (Twain 292). Likewise, Tom Sawyer continued the practice of
white men using black men to their own advantage. Tom showed great selfishness in not
telling Jim the truth and using the man's pitiable condition to his own advantage.
However, the biggest statement that Twain makes about social conditions of free blacks in
his era does not have to do with Jim's treatment by any character in the book, but simply
his condition near the end of it. A family by the name of Phelps, Tom Sawyer's aunt and
uncle, recapture Jim and put him in chains again, although his freedom has long since
been granted. Jim personifies the free black's condition after the Civil War in that he
was a free man, still wearing chains. The bonds that blacks wore were not those of
slavery, however, but those of racism. Former slaves were free and they were granted the
rights of citizens of the United States, yet they were still denied the chance to fulfill
their own dreams and pursue happiness because of the racism that shaded the opinions of
the whites who controlled society. By presenting Jim in such a manner, Twain's character
embodies the position in which free blacks found themselves after their freedom had been
granted.
Twain's novel is largely satirical, written in the tongue-in-cheek manner considered his
trademark. However, underneath the ridicule and the satire lies a far deeper meaning. The
author's statement about the perception of white superiority and the freed slave's
position in society is potent and powerful. After its publication, the book incensed many
readers because it dared to insult the preconceived notions and accepted beliefs about
the black position in slavery. This book proved to be an appeal to the white population
of the United States to recognize its hypocrisy in dealing with freed slaves. 
Bibliography
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn