Julius Lester’s article, “Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is an analysis of Huckleberry Finn through the views of the Racial and Cultural Lens. Lester ha shared some of his experiences with racial inequalities himself. As this is relevant to Huckleberry Finn which deals with racial problems and being treated unequally to others we can receive a different view on Twain's decisions to compare Huck and Jim being enslaved and the role of that Jim and Huck play in Huckleberry Finn.
Lester criticizes Twain’s comparison in the enslavement of Jim and Huck. Lester explains that Huck being enslaved by his drunken father and being locked up in a room for a long time compared to Jim's enslavement of being owned and the property of another person isn't the same. Lester says that Twain tries to cover the real horror in slavery although being held captive by a drunken father isn't the same as being the property of another human being showing that Twain did not take slavery and black people seriously. In agreement to Lester's that slavery wasn't taken seriously with comparing it to a boy that had the ability to leave that compared to a slave that wasn't able to leave slavery is something that is different but they had the same wishes of reaching their freedom which for Jim was slavery and for Huck being free from his father and starting over.
Lester also describes Twain's portrayal of Jim in the novel. In the novel Twain describes Jim, according to Lester, as being childlike instead of being a grown man with children. Twain plays around with black reality when Jim had escaped and fleeing deeper in the slave country rather than to free states. In contrary when Jim is sold Huck and Tom, in their plan to free Jim, Tom get shot and Jim comes out of hiding knowing he will be recaptured in trying to help Tom. Which is why I disagree with Lester that Jim is childlike because he was able to give his freedom away in trying to help a friend survive.
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