“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” written by Mark Twain talks about a boy, Huckleberry Finn, going on an adventure of the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, Jim. This story is presented from Huck Finn’s viewpoints, a teenager who tries to escape from his abusive, alcoholic father, Pap Finn. One day, Pap takes Huck to a secluded cabin in the woods and abuses him. Huck escapes one more time on Jackson Island. He stays there for a while and is able to fake his own death. Huck embarks on an adventure down the Mississippi River with Jim, Miss Watson’s slave. During the adventure, Huck and Jim encounter various characters and face many moral dilemmas. In this novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, the theme of freedom plays a central role in shaping the characters and driving the plot. The author Mark Twain explores different perspectives of freedom. Let’s talk about freedom in terms of physical freedom, mental freedom, and the interpretation of freedom through the eyes of Huck and Jim.
Physical freedom allows individuals to make decisions about their own lives and actions based on their own preferences, values, and goals. Physical freedom refers to the ability to move, act, and make choices without being constrained by others, empowering individuals to shape their future, pursue their dreams, and take responsibility for their choices. Huck wishes to escape trivial manners and social values. He wants to escape his abusive father, who even imprisons Huck in a cabin. Perhaps most importantly, Huck wants to be free so that he can think for himself and do what his heart tells him to do. He asks Miss Watson whether Tom Sawyer is going to Heaven or Hell. When Miss Watson says he’s going to Hell, Huck is glad, because that means he and his friend can be together. The place where Huck and Jim go to find freedom is the natural world. While nature presents the pair with new limitations and dangers, including what Huck calls "lonesomeness," the feeling of not being protected from meaningless death, nature also provides escape from society and even a safe haven from its own danger, like the cave where Huck and Jim live. Physical freedom is a fundamental human right which is essential for individuals to lead self-determined lives.
Mental freedom enables individuals to freely express their thoughts and emotions as well as identify themselves without conforming to societal ideologies. Mental freedom involves the ability to express one’s thoughts independently without being influenced or limited by others. Jim is a very poor slave that he knows is his birthright to meet his own children and wife. While slaveholders profit from slavery, the slaves themselves are oppressed, exploited, and physically and mentally abused. Jim is inhumanely ripped away from his wife and children. However, white slaveholders rationalize the oppression, exploitation, and abuse of black slaves by ridiculously assuring themselves of a racist stereotype, that black people are mentally inferior to white people, more animal than human. In the past, there was no freedom for slaves and they were granted less rights in the north too. So, this freedom comes into question for a lot of African American people, including the novel Jim. In this way, slaveholders and racist whites harm blacks, but they also do moral harm to themselves, by viciously misunderstanding what it is to be human, and all for the sake of profit. At the beginning of the novel, Huck himself buys into racial stereotypes, and even reprimands himself for not turning Jim in for running away, given that he has a societal and legal obligation to do so. Mental freedom is vital for effectively managing stress and coping with life’s challenges.
Huckleberry Finn presents two main visions of freedom as it explores the question of what freedom means and what price, if any, a person must pay to be truly free. Just as Huck and Jim escape from different types of bondage, they also have different ideas about freedom, which raises the question of whether there is a universal definition of the idea. For Huck, being on the river is freedom. For Jim, he hopes to follow the Mississippi River to a free state along the Ohio River, which is a road to freedom. As long as he and Huck sail the Mississippi River, Jim remains a slave, his life remains in danger, and his personal freedom remains compromised. The freedom Huck seeks is more symbolic than literal, since no one really "owns" him and he has enough money to live independently. Jim's vision of freedom seems far more modest by comparison. In escaping slavery, he hopes to make enough money to reunite with his family. Because Jim is reminded every day that he is another person's property, the freedom he seeks is both literal and figurative. Everybody has their own interpretation of freedom, but there is a price to pay for it.
Freedom is an important aspect of Huckleberry Finn. When HUck and JIm escape to Jackson's island, they all want freedom. However, their thoughts of freedom differ from one another. Alone on their raft, Huck and Jim have complete autonomy. Being on the river at night, invisible to the world while moving swiftly through it, brings Huck a profound sense of calm: “You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” For Huck, being on the river is freedom. However, for Jim, his freedom is more literal and figurative. The Mississippi River is a route to freedom, so while slave hunters are trying to catch Jim, he cannot be discovered. Thus, his freedom is limited. JIm wants to escape bondage and meet his own family, while HUck just wants to escape trivial manners and feel restrained in other ways.
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