The underlying moral dilemma in The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn is the question of how to relate to and treat black
people.
Varied characters within the story have their own
viewpoints regarding the slaves in their midst and act accordingly in their dealings
with them. Huck's opinion evolves through the course of events, changing
from:
He was
thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick;
because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared
just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n. It don't seem natural, but
I reckon it's
so.
to:
somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to
harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of
his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when
I come back out of the fog; ... and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the
men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old
Jim ever had in the word, and the only one he's got
now
So Huck, who would be
looked down upon by many of the characters in the story because he was unschooled and
poorly clothed and had no family or refinements of social upbringing, determined that he
would go to hell if that was what happened but he would not allow his friend to be sold
back into slavery.
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