The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn correlates very well with novels like The Catcher in the Rye as it illustrates the profound and omnipresent difficulties that characters like Huck and Holden struggle with as they grow up. In Huck's particular case, he seems, from the beginning, to be conflicted about whether to conform to social norms or live according to his own preferences: "The widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and let him become civilized." me... so when I couldn't stand it anymore, I left... and I was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer hunted me down and said he was going to start a gang of thieves, and I could join if I wanted to go back to the widow and be respectable. So I came back" (70-71). As revealed by this quote, Huck has already made the fundamental decision to separate himself from the corruption he sees in society (e.g. Pap's abusive alcoholism and excessive racism); he therefore sets about journey down the Mississippi River, hoping to leave behind (perhaps permanently) those social defects he had identified and found unacceptable. Unfortunately, no matter how fervent and sincere these efforts at nonconformity may actually be, the filthiest and basest defects of the society (the same types Huck is trying so desperately to avoid) always seem to get to him. The optimistic reader can argue that Huck matures during his time on the raft with Jim, making changes to the racist and prejudicial opinions and behaviors that were his. been inculcated by society. Society always ends up prevailing and Huck's efforts therefore prove useless and in vain. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the first few days that Huck spends with Jim on the raft, the reader can observe that he still displays some tendencies that society has bred in him. him. He reflects the traits instilled in him by Tom when he plays several pranks on Jim. For example, he places the corpse of a snake in Jim's blanket "and curled it up at the foot of Jim's blanket, so naturally, thinking there would be some fun when Jim found it there" (115). That night, the dead snake's companion comes to Jim's blanket and bites his heel, nearly killing him. On another occasion, Huck decides, modeled on Tom Sawyer, to board the Walter Scott and bring some criminals to justice, once again putting his and Jim's lives in danger when they are almost caught and killed. On one of many occasions, demonstrating the influence Pap had on Huck, "he slipped into the corn fields and borrowed a watermelon, or a mushmelon, or a punkin, or some new corn, or things like that Dad always said it wouldn't hurt to borrow things if you were going to pay them back sooner or later" (125). Eventually, Huck comes to show signs of change as time passes. He comes to admit that Jim "was almost always right; he had an uncommon level head, for a Negro" (134). Even though this statement is still full of prejudice, it represents the fact that there has actually been some progress and change in Huck's opinion of Jim. In another case, the reader is able to witness a greater change. Huck and Jim were separated by the fog for a night, but Huck decides to trick Jim into thinking it had all been a dream. When he discovers the prank, Jim feels extremely hurt, saying that he was genuinely concerned for Huck's well-being. Huck realizes his mistake and apologizes to Jim: "It took me fifteen minutes before I could bring myself to humiliate myself before a nigger, but I did it... I never did it again"bad jokes" (142). Once again, Huck's statement demonstrates that he has not yet shed his innate racism; the apology, however, shows that Huck recognizes Jim as a human being, something that any other white person in his positionwould have been quite difficult to do. Yet another event, when Huck observes that Jim is remembering and regretting the fact that he unknowingly beat his deaf daughter Huck thinks to himself, "I think he cared about his people as much as the white people for their people. It doesn't seem natural, but I suppose it is so" (210). In this double statement, Huck has once again failed to shed his innate racism; he recognizes that Jim is a good father to his children, a worthy quality that is lacking to many white men (Pap, for example, could never be able to match Jim in his ability to care for and love his children). Finally, towards the end of the book, when Jim is willing to risk his own freedom for Tom to see a doctor for his injured leg, Huck states, “I knew he was white inside, and I thought he would say what he said” (305). This last observation about Jim shows that Huck cannot accept that Jim could be a real man as he is: a black man; instead, Huck recognizes that Jim is a real man but, in effect, turns Jim into a white man to explain Jim's actual ability to be an ideal man. This action, in itself, can be seen as a negation of all the effort that Huck and Jim put into their escape from society. By turning Jim white to validate his ability to be a "man," Huck is, like all the other white racists he ran from, unable to recognize that a black man can actually be a human being. The reader can also observe that escape from white society for both Huck and Jim is, in most cases, impossible. Even though Huck and Jim have their raft and are traveling peacefully down the Mississippi River, they often find it necessary to contact and even interact with the abominable white society (e.g. for supplies/supplies or guidance/instructions). However, Huck and Jim are actually influenced by white society to a much greater extent. White society is still able to extend its chains of corruption in the form of the "king" and the "duke", who get on the raft and completely dominate Huck and Jim simply because they are white men, holders of power. figures in their society. Thus, they essentially transform the raft, Huck and Jim's "refuge," into a new extension of white society. These two white men then use the raft as a tool for their fraudulent schemes, effectively holding Huck and Jim as prisoners on the raft (especially Jim, who must be bound and gagged to simulate the image of a captured runaway slave). which they exploit as they please. After many failed plans, these men end up selling Jim into runaway slavery. After Huck finally manages to free himself from the king and duke in search of the now imprisoned Jim, white society bonds him and Jim even more, through the form of Tom Sawyer, the epitome of white culture. Even though Tom knows full well that Jim has been freed by the late Mrs. Watson, he does not alert anyone to this critical fact so that he can enjoy "freeing" Jim, who then intends to pay for all his "troubles." " Furthermore, although Tom's plans are ridiculously long and excessive, neither Huck nor Jim dare to say a word against Tom because Tom, a representative of white society, has read white novels and knows how to help Jim "escape" the " correct way". ." Due to Tom's grand plans, the three are almost killed; Jim ends up captured and nearly lynched. Even after Jim's freedom will be.