5 quotes

“It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way.”
When Huck tricks Jim that it was all dream and that none of it was real, he feels bad when Jim finds out and feels bad afterwards. While it takes Huck some time he eventually apologizes to Jim for what he did wrong even though he’s black. Due to society at the time, a normal white man wouldn’t have apologized to a black man but since Huck due Jim well he cared for him and knew that he should apologize to him for what he did wrong. This shows that Huck does have feelings for Jim and that he is willing to go against society for those that he cares about. The fact that he has no regrets about it only shows stronger how the ties of friendship and caring can override societal pressures.

“We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.”
Even though he had lived in a proper home for most of his life he still finds the raft more comfortable even though it doesn’t have the normal standards of comfort that we all look for. The free and easy feeling that Huck has ton the raft is due to being away from society and on the river alone with a friend. This gives him more comfort than all the money and things could buy him. While he is away from society he is able to experience paradise and not be “cramped up” by society.

“It was a close place. I took . . . up [the letter I’d written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right then, I’ll go to hell’—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.”
When the Duke and the Dauphin sells Jim Huck plans to write to Miss Watson in order to get Jim back to where he belongs thinking that he belongs there. But after writing the letter he thinks about it, and Jim as a person. While he believes that the moral thing to do is to return Jim back to his “rightful” owner, he feels for Jim and he doesn’t think that it’s the best for him. After considering this conflict he realizes that his love for Jim transcends the morals that have been instilled on him, and he makes the decision that he’s willing to take any punishment to save his friend. He knows that they are awful thoughts but he thinks them anyway and lets him do this because he wants to for Jim’s sake. It shows that societal pressures and awful race relations can be overcome though it is a hard process especially for those that try to do so.

"I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n."
After hearing about Jim’s children and getting to know Jim’s feelings about them Huck realizes that Jim cares for his children as much as white folks cares for theirs. While during the story Huck doesn’t believe that Jim really cares for his children and believes it to be madness that Jim would want to set them free from their owners, as “they hadn’t done nothing to him”, he finally realizes that Jim cares for his children just like the white folks do. The idea that Huck would think those first thoughts shows the strength of society and racism, and his reform shows how they can be reformed and how caring isn’t race specific. It should strike an extra cord with Huck has his dad didn’t care for him at all and only wanted the money that he could get from Huck.

"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work."
Huck tries to trick Jim with his superstition earlier in the book by putting a rattlesnake skin by Jim’s bed, which is supposedly bad luck. Jim finds this out when he’s actually bitten by a snake, which shows the bad luck of what happened. However Jim feels that he still is cursed to bad luck even after that incident. Considering all that happens after the incident to cause turmoil on the once happy raft, it can be said that maybe Jim was right about the bad luck, even though in the end he does get what he wanted in the first place. Still it shows how the idea of superstition actually can effect in their lives.