- You should address the different experiences of the shore vs. the river in relation to Jim's and Huck's experiences.
- You should also include a discussion of the minor characters that they meet.
How do the fictional characters in Huckleberry Finn express the challenges facing America at the time?
11 Comments
Anthony Doerfer
2/25/2015 02:31:16 am
There are various challenges and troubling events that America is being faced with that is exampled in the Huckleberry Finn novel. I think for example how in the story, people can just be murdered in their homes and robbed, and nobody would even know for days at a time or even at all “He’s ben shot in de back. I reck’n he’s ben dead two er three days” (pg. 60) Huck and Jim find a dead man in a cabin up the river that’s been there for a while. How it was so easy to get away with crimes, and how for example, Huck Finn could just be kidnapped by his father and kept for a long period of time with no one questioning his father or rescuing Finn when everyone knew how his father was like. Another issue would be how colored people were treated, they were undermined to less than human, and that’s a huge issue which constantly caused problems such as the civil war, which America was still recovering from in the time period Huckleberry Finn takes place.
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Alberto L.
2/27/2015 03:37:46 am
The different characters in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reflect and express the challenges facing America at the time of the story. Jim, of course, represents the issue of slavery and the treatment of African Americans. He represents the bad treatment of African American, regardless of status. The shore and the river represent the individual vs. society, with the shore being the individual, and the river being society. By using Huck and Jim’s experiences as a point of reference, we notice how the river is where they always meet people, or get in trouble, while on the other hand the shore is where they relax, sleep and are safe from everyone going up and down the river during the day. The numerous experiences and people they meet on the river are a reflection on the experiences and people an individual meets in ‘society’ (the river). When the two are on the shore, they are safe and do not have to worry about the river (society) and the people.
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Jasmin Church
2/27/2015 03:49:19 am
These fictional characters throughout Huckleberry Finn is slavery. Jim is a old African American slave. Which because challenges are difficult for others to persuade and to contain information. Racism was also one of the main parts through out the novel and it took place in most of peoples hearts. Easily, things can get distracted for some slaves and times passes by slave owners see how the slaves try to escape and kill their owners. They try to escape and get on a boats and go to other places.
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M. Lid
2/28/2015 06:20:42 pm
When Huck and Jim decide to travel down the river, they are both running from difficulties society has put on them, like not doing anything to keep Huck’s dad away from Huck, and allowing Jim to be sold wherever his owner pleases. Traveling down the river is a dangerous journey, and so the river symbolizes the adventure, but also the hazards that come with it. An example of this is when Huck wants to go aboard the steamboat wreck, arguing that it will be an adventure, but Jim is against the suggestion, saying the risk that comes with the “adventure” is too great. Jim ends up being right, because the steamboat was full of murderers and thieves. While the river leaves the two runaways very exposed to danger, the shore serves as a safer place to hide. When Huck is trying to pretend to be dead, the townspeople look for him in the river while he is hiding on the shore, watching them. In Huck’s favor is that at the time there was no technology to search for bodies in water, or to identify the owner of the blood he had smeared out at the “crime scene”.
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Seren G
3/1/2015 01:04:16 am
Huck and Jim decided to travel down the river to escape from the town. So Huck escaped from his alcoholic father and Jim escaped from Miss Watson because Jim didn't want to be sold to someone else. As they travel down the river, they notice that traveling down the river became became dangerous and brings hazards to them. For example, the stemboat was full of robbers and murderers which led to a seperation of Huck and Jim. Jim felt very scared and weak without Huck. Huck struggled to not leave Jim alone. Another risk traveling down the river was fog which caused troubles. Traveling down the river had negative impact for the fictional characters because it had many risks. The shore was a safe place to relax, sleep. As Huck swam to the shore, after there were no any rafts or canoe, he met a helpful family, named Grangerford, who gave Huck food, and clothes.
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Trent W.
3/1/2015 06:36:06 am
Some of the challenges that the characters face during that time were slavery and racism. They did it through slavery by showing how they treated their slaves and what they did to them. He shows the racism that Jim is put through and also how he was a slave, ran away, and then was put back into slavery. The store shows how racism was while the river leaves the two runaways very exposed to danger, the shore serves as a safer place to hide. The various people that Huck and Jim meet, represent the struggle between individual vs. man. Most of the time the people they meet cause more trouble then good in the story
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Ida-Kristine H. Aukan
3/1/2015 11:57:50 pm
The different characters in this story reflect and express the challenges facing America at the time of the story. Jim, the slave, represents the major issue of slavery and the lack of equality for African Americans. Jim also represents the awful treatment of slaves when disobeying their owners. The river and the shore represents individuality vs. society, where the river is the individuality and the shore is society. I believe the river is individuality because the minute Huck left the shore from his fathers cabin he became free. The same when Jim started swimming down the river to escape from his owners he became free. The way Huck and Jim has survived after leaving homes represent strength and independence from society. When Jim and Huck enters the shore society is what matters because then they have to sneak around or they'll get caught and sent back. Through their journey Huck and Jim meets a lot of new people which influences them both in different ways. Mostly these people causes trouble for them, but Jim and Huck manages to fight their way by it like Man vs. society. Cause the river is freedom (independence) and the people are obstacles(society).
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Michael Y.
3/3/2015 05:10:14 am
The fictional characters in Huckleberry Finn express the challenges facing America at the time by giving a look into the life of a poor boy who escapes his father and lives on his own. Huck’s befriending Jim, who was Miss Watson’s slave, and traveling with him was unusual and led to many events that gave a look into life during this time period. The different people they met up with, such as the duke and the dauphin (con men) or the Grangerfords (people feuding with one another), let us see how others lived in the many places they visited as they traveled down the river. On the river, they were challenged to keep safe from others traveling on rafts, boats or canoes. They had to keep Jim hidden so that slave hunters wouldn’t capture him and take him back for a reward. At night, the river was safer for Jim. It was dangerous for them to travel during the day, so they went to the shore and would hide the raft and rest. Only Huck would go into the towns and Jim would stay near the raft. In this way, he was still a slave because he couldn’t move about like Huck.
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Dylan N
3/5/2015 02:30:24 am
The Characters in Huckleberry Finn depict troubles of the time. Throughout the book they meet several criminals on the river. This gives the idea that the river is freedom as the characters turn to it for their troubles. The idea that civilized people live on the shore and the criminals want the freedom of the water is created. The criminals show how desperate certain people are, for example the criminals on the boat wreck who are going t kill the man that would likely tell. Pap also shows some of the problems people had. The times were changing away from slavery and pap was of the group that did not agree with this. People of the time had problems in that they were rapidly changing times and a person had to put in effort in order to have a good life for themselves and their children.
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Evin P.
3/10/2015 02:02:49 am
The people in the book face many challenges that were faced in the 1800s. Jim and Huck have many experiences. They have to deal with the slave hunters coming to find Jim. Jim and Huck later in the book have to deal with the King and the Duke when they have the deal with the scams. Huck also has to deal with the reality of everything. He at the beginning was acting like a kid when he was falling for things with Tom. Later he matures thru the, in his words, “adventures” that he has with Jim. At the end of the story he meets up with tom and Tom is still his usual self.
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Natasha A.
3/15/2015 11:33:28 pm
America today has been put front line with many troubling scenarios, most are repeats of past events. Huckleberry Finn has also portrayed some of the occurring relevance. The characters of Huckleberry Finn represent the difference between the shore and the river. For example in chapter 22, we met Sherburn, who shot a man who did not pay his due and was to be lynched on his own property. This showed man vs. society, how quick the townspeople were to jump aboard the bandwagon and also their hypocrisy. Sherburn tells the crowd how cowardly they are and reflects back to them their own actions and makes them look foolish. Twain depicts a satirical lesson in this chapter of, again some of the troubles Huck and Jim faced in the novel.
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