The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThroughout the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck struggles to understand for himself what is right and what is wrong. is wrong when it comes to race and slavery. During his journey with Jim, he discovers that what people have always taught him may not be the right thing. Throughout his life, he was taught that slaves were property and that most people neglected to recognize that they were humans who had families, thoughts, and feelings. During this time, it was socially acceptable to view slaves as property rather than real people, as for many they performed work that others were unwilling to do. When Huck learns that Jim has run away, he is faced with the dilemma of whether to turn him in, which he has been taught is the right thing to do, or whether to help Jim on his journey to freedom. Huck's attitude changes towards Jim and shows the potential for greater acceptance of the race as a whole. Some might argue that this is not true and argue that his opinion of African Americans has not changed and that his opinion of Jim has only changed because he has gotten to know him better . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayHuck was born and raised in the American South during a time when slavery was at an unprecedented level and it seemed like everyone owned slaves. The women who raised him continually tried to "civilize" him because they said his unruly ways were inappropriate for a boy his age; Huck does what he wants, without worrying about what others think of him. At the beginning of the book, Huck viewed slavery as an integral part of life, never dwelling on the immorality of American practices. However, everything changes when Huck comes across Jim on an island where they are both seeking refuge from something they are each running from. When Huck learns that Jim has run away from Mrs. Watson, one of the women who care for Huck, his conscience immediately kicks in and he thinks he must return Jim to his owner. Yet once Huck learns that she was going to sell Jim for $800 and separate him from his family so he could be sent to a plantation in the Deep South, Huck decides to help Jim on his journey to freedom ( 8.37-38). He thinks about how people would look down on him for helping a slave escape, society had always taught him that this would be considered stealing someone's property. Huck decides that he doesn't mind breaking the rules and that he will help Jim on his journey to freedom. Throughout this journey, he takes precautionary measures to protect himself and Jim, such as disguising himself as a girl to try to gain information on whether or not people are looking for Jim. When Huck begins talking with a woman he meets while in town, he discovers valuable information that is vital to Jim's safety. “Niggas got away the same night Huck Finn was killed. So there is a reward for him: three hundred dollars..." (11.48). If Huck hadn't sneaked into town, he wouldn't have known that people were looking for Jim and that there was such a big reward for whoever found him. Although the change is subtle, Huck begins to show changes in his attitude towards Jim. Huck no longer only cares about his own safety, but also that of Jim. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have risked going to town to get information. A major turning point in the story occurs when Huck andJim are separated in the fog. When they finally reunite, Huck plays a trick on Jim and tells him that it was just a dream and that they had never been apart. This point in the story is extremely important to Huck's change in attitude, because Huck sees that Jim was worried about him when they were separated. Huck only makes up this dream because he doesn't want to deal with the emotions of himself and Jim after being separated. I don't think he wants to admit it, but he cares about Jim and just has a hard time showing it because it was such a new idea to him at the time. By lying, he avoids expressing relief that he and Jim have been reunited and that he is safe. However, Jim realizes that Huck lied to him and is visibly hurt; Huck immediately feels bad for lying to Jim. “It made me feel so mean I could almost have kissed his foot to get him to take it back. It took me almost fifteen minutes before I could train myself to go and humiliate myself to a *****- but I did it…” (15.73). Huck goes on to explain how he would never have lied to Jim if he knew it would hurt him. This is the first time Huck truly sees that slaves also have feelings and can be much more than just physically harmed by a whip. Until then, society had taught Huck that slaves were property, which dehumanized them and stripped them of all traces of emotion. Slowly, Huck realizes that Jim has feelings too and that they can be hurt just as easily as his own. At the end of Huck's adventure with Jim, he decided that he was tired of civilizing and did not want to follow the societal rules that he had been taught. Huck managed to achieve something that people still struggle with today. Some might argue that Huck's attitude has not changed toward the slaves and that he sympathizes with Jim only because he has gotten to know him. Up until chapter thirty-one, Huck's guilty conscience is something that bothers him because society would tell him that what he was doing was wrong. He fears doing morally incorrect things in many situations because he no longer hangs out with Jim casually, he helps him escape from Mrs. Watson. "My conscience began to excite me more than ever, until at last I said to it: 'Let me go, it is not yet too late, I will paddle ashore at the first light and I will say it. I immediately felt easy, happy and light as a feather. All my problems were gone. (4:75 p.m.). Huck had secretly decided that he would report Jim because what he was doing was not what society thought was right. He knew he would be in a lot of trouble if anyone found out what he had done. So Huck began to listen to his conscience and began paddling to shore soon after. However, something Jim says about Huck being the only white man to ever keep a promise stops him and he wonders what the morally right thing to do is. This shows that Huck has indeed changed his attitude towards Jim and that over time he might change his attitude towards other people of color. At the end of their adventure, Huck once again reflects on what society considers the right thing to do. He writes a letter to Mrs. Watson to tell her where Jim is and hopes that maybe everything will go back to the way it was before Huck's great adventure. However, he realizes that this is not the morally right thing to do and he tears up the letter, saying, "Fine, I'll go to hell" (31.179). By finally resisting the last ounce of society's guilty conscience, Huck is able to see that all this time he was wrong in thinking that slaves..