Huck Finn and the Analysis of American Character
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s opinion of slavery changes from unquestioning acceptance of Miss Watson’s opinion that slaves are inferior to independent revelation through personal experiences with Jim that slaves are human also. ... But after Jim’s speech in the excerpt, Huck realizes that Jim was not a burden to him, but a human being that had feelings and cared deeply for him. Jim’s speech stimulates this change in Huck’s character and helps it occur. ... The separation in the fog reveals a pivotal point where Huck begins to respect Jim by not playing tricks on him, Jim becomes an independent person rather than a dependent slave, and the two begin a constant friendship. Even though Huck does not make a radical change of character just because of this incident, he does begin to reform on his actions by not playing any more tricks on Jim. ... This in itself is a change because it shows that Huck does not consider Jim as a slave anymore, but rather as an equal.