Theme: the theme of slavery in the novels of m. Twain contents

2.3.2. Jim
Jim is one of Miss Watson‟s slaves; he is superstitious, sometimes sentimental and intelligent. He becomes Huck‟s friend after they meet in Jackson‟s island and they travelled down the Mississippi river.
Jim was separated from his wife and children. He misses them terribly and this was the main cause for his running away. He decides to buy his family freedom
“would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the two children” (Twain 92). His friendship with Huck and Tom proves that humanity has nothing to do with race. Jim considers Huck to be his loyal friend as he keeps his promise and saves him from the slave hunters who are running after five slaves “Well, there‟s five niggers run off tonight up yonder, above the head of the bend. Is your man white or black?” (Twain 93). In this situation Huck tells a lie for the sake of saving his friend Jim, he tells the band that the man on the raft is a white man and he is his father (Pap) who is having the small-pox.
The fact that Jim is a black slave makes him at the mercy of all the characters of this novel and always forced to ridiculous and degrading situations. For example, he is sold to the Phelps‟s for forty dollars with no mercy and Huck keeps searching for him “they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars” (Twain 215). In this case Twain is focusing on the issue of slavery and how can some people such as the King and the Duke make money by selling the black slave Jim even though Jim and Huck have helped the two to run away from many troubles.
Jim takes care over the young boy Huck as he provides for him shelter, food and protects him from many horrors that they encounter in their journey down the river, and he always chooses the right path for him. Jim is superstitious “Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain” (Twain 47). At the beginning, Jim appears to be foolish to believe so trustily in these kind of signs and omens, it turns out curiously that many of his beliefs do indeed have some basis in reality “Pretty soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so, the birds was right about it. Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, too, and I never see the wind blow so” (Twain 51). So, they find a cavern in the island where they hide their things and it protects them from the rain. Huck at first considers Jim‟s superstition as silly but he comes to appreciate Jim‟s knowledge of the world.
Jim proves his fidelity when he risks his life and stays in the swamp waiting for Huck and even when Jim gets the chance to be free at the end of the novel he stays by Tom Sawyer‟s side.