Huck Finn post 2 - Jim and Huck's relationship

                Jim and Huck have almost paternalistic feelings towards each other. Jim’s interest in Huck is clearly displayed by his concern over him after he thought he had disappeared in the fog, “when I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’… en when I wake up en find you back ag’in, all safe end soun’, de tears come, en I coul ‘a’ got down on my knees en kiss yo’ foot” (Twain 89). This shows how strongly Jim feels about Huck’s safety. He was extremely upset when he thought something had happened to Huck. Huck also reacts in a similar way to a child in response to Jim’s outburst about how his prank was mean spirited. He acted enormously sorry, and even thought, “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back” (89). Both of them act like one would in a father-son relationship, Jim in the paternal and Huck in the child’s point of view.  The opposite could also be said, though, in the thought that Huck sometimes acts fatherly to Jim.

                Huck has some parental tendencies around Jim. He tries to teach him things and protect him. An example of this is when the men on the boat want to go and make sure Jim isn’t a runaway slave, and Huck invents a story about his family being sick with small pox. Huck does everything in his power to make sure Jim remains safe. He tries to teach him about stories and such, for example when he’s telling him about kings, “So I went talking about other kings… I told him about Louis the sixteenth that got his head cut off in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that would ‘a’ been king , but they took and shut him up in a jail, and some say he died there” (82). This is a bonding moment for Jim and Huck, further illustrating the familial relationship they share. Huck cares deeply about Jim and Jim in turn cares about Huck, both in a way almost like a father loves a son. Jim is worried about Huck and Huck tries to protect Jim and maybe teach him a bit while they’re at it.