Huck and Jim

Jim and Huck form an unusual friendship for the time period and area they are in. I think this is mainly possible because of Huck’s deviation from being ‘sivilized’. As the story goes along, Jim becomes Huck surrogate father. When they first meet, Jim has the know-how and makes sure they both eat. As the story continues, Jim protects Huck from seeing a dead body while on the island. All this being said, Huck still struggles with what is the right thing to do. It isn’t until the end, when Jim puts Tom Sawyer’s health above his own freedom that Huck realizes that Jim should be free because ‘he is white on the inside’. This looks like a racist statement at first, but I should be interpreted as we are really all the same on the inside. Huck knows that there is so much good inside Jim just like other white men (like Judge Thatcher).