The dark side of uhckleberry finn - Essay Example

The dark side of the story and of Huckleberry Finn himself is the central dilemma for Finn regarding what he should do with the escaped slave and his friend, Jim. Slavery and the ownership of one man by another was an accepted fact in the times and Huckleberry Finn is actually troubled by the concept that he is aiding and abetting an escaped slave (Bennett, 1974). His conscious is bothering him since civil duties and civic responsibilities ask him to return his friend to the master so he can be punished for his behavior while loyalty asks him to continue to help his buddy get to eventual freedom.

Huck discusses this dilemma and debates it with himself when he says: “I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscience up and say, every time: ‘But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody (Wikisource, 2006).” Further on in the passage Huck says: Conscience says to me: ‘What had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word?

What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean? I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead (Wikisource, 2006).” Huck is placed in the same dilemma again when he learns that Jim wants to steal his wife and children as well. Of course we can certainly appreciate the motives of Jim since he wishes to have his family with him and be free from the bondage of slavery but again Huckleberry Finn asks himself if he is doing the right thing by taking another man’s property (Bennett, 1974).

While Finn is not above petty theft, he draws the line when it comes to real valuable property i.e. slaves, inheritance and entertainment money which belong to someone else. Essentially, it had