However, on the other end of the fiction spectrum is the fantasy fiction novel. The fantasy fiction novel’s lines are purposely filled with adventure and sometimes-unbelievable happenings. It gives the imagination a wild and amusing ride, but it doesn’t allow you to relate the plot to everyday life. What Twain has done in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is combine the two - real fiction and fantasy fiction - to assemble what many consider The Great American Novel. With its gamboling tale of Huck’s adventure and moral growth as he floats down the Mississippi River with Jim, and while it captures the excitement and the diverse parade that was the United States during that pe

There is a difference however, between Jim’s actions towards his previous owner Miss Watson and his services unto Huck. Jim worked and did the things for his owner because he had no other choice. He was a slave, but it wasn’t as though he ran because he was tired of serving the white lady. The only reason he ran was because he overheard her saying that he was going to be sold down the river. Being sold down the river meant being sold into an even graver situation for a slave. It was understood by the slaves in the book that if they were sold down the river it would be the beginning of the end for them. Slave owners in the Deep South were portrayed to be mean and vicious. They were depicted to be the worse kinds to work for and in the worse kinds of conditions. In the Deep South, or down the river? as Twain referred to it as, slavery was basically hell. As loyal of a man as Jim was, even he couldn’t fathom the thought of working for a slave owner in the deep south. It was an unbearable situation. Twain’s representation of slavery in the deep south according to the slaves themselves is the real fiction, whereas his rendition and adventures of how Jim stayed away from the situation by escaping could be considered fantasy fiction.

Jim looked out for Huck during their expedition for different reasons. He wasn’t obliged by law to serve or look after Huck. It shouldn’t have mattered if the young boy was fed or if he ever slept, but it somehow did to Jim. Jim was alone in the world. He had abandoned his wife and children and he was scared. Huck provided Jim with a friend in the world. He even told Huck that he was the best friend he had ever had. (Page 96) ...Huck, you the bes? fren? Jim’s ever had; en you de only fern? Old Jim’s got now. Jim naturally cared for Huck and it showed by the way he helped him throughout their journey. Twain’s portrayal of Jim’s selflessness was very real in the way that he showed how a slave was in fact very humane. However, the circumstance in which Jim was able to show his humanity throughout the journey was a little suspect in its possession of real-life drama.

Admittingly, the tale of young Huck Finn’s journey - between his brief stay in civilization at the Widow Douglas? House to his adventurous holdover with Tom Sawyer and Jim at Aunt Sally’s place - Twain takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride that throughout gives a number of opportunities to question the amount of realism involved. However, if Twain’s classic were to be truly appreciated as a real fiction novel, the book must be broken down into two separate ideals; the real and the fiction.

In the book, Twain depicts a realistic attitude toward slavery through Jim, the runaway slave, while simultaneously giving the reader a wild ride of the moral growth of the orphaned boy Huck. Huck, who is believed to be around 13 years old in the novel, realizes that the civilized world with the Widow Douglas is incapable of protecting him against his drunken father, nor is it in him to live that way. Growing up without a mother, who died when he was young, and having a father who constantly beat him, Huck is all alone in an unfamil

Some topics in this essay:
Jim Huck, South Twain, Huckleberry Finn, Deep South, Duke Page, Huck Jim, River Jim, Sally’s Twain, Widow Douglas, Jim’s Jim, real fiction, fantasy fiction, deep south, moral growth, sold river, huck jim, fiction novel, real fiction novel, slavery real, widow douglas, twain able, slavery real fiction, adventures huckleberry finn, jim runaway slave,