Huck and Jim's friendship exceeds petty differences in color and disobeys a society's teaching that is both thick-witted and shallow. By using Huck's ignorance and adolescence, Twain enlightens his audience on how simple the issue of slavery is; because all men are created equal, the superficial hierarchy created by southern aristocracy is an absolute prevarication. .
The immorality of "sivilization" was demonstrated by Huck (Twain 88). Twain characterizes Huck as an ignorant child, unable to read and do arithmetic like the other kids. However, this ignorant child is able to see past racial differences and is "courageous enough to stand against the moral conventions of his society" (Bollinger). The free-spirited Huckleberry .
Finn is often found opposing the set, accustomed society rather than accepting it. He rejects formality, like new clothes, because they "was too good to be comfortable, and besides [Huck] didn't go much on clothes, nohow" (Twain 131). Even when given the opportunity to blend in with conventional society, he exchanged it in place of raw freedom. .
Through his thick southern dialect, literal-minded train of thought.
and fatuous superstition, Jim appears to look stupid and oblivious. Twain uses Jim's dialect and intellect to ridicule the "language of finance used in the newspapers" during the time Huckleberry Finn was written (Briden). According to Briden, several New York newspapers had published the title "The Live Stock Markets" on the financial pages. Those columns reported market conditions and prices, railroad-car and cattle receipts, and cattle grades (14). In chapter 8, Huck asks Jim "what kind of stock" he "speculate in", to which Jim promptly answers "live stock" meaning cattle (Twain 35). In Jim's humorous use of "the language of finance", Twain is satirizing it to poke fun at the surreptitious humor found in the titles of the financial pages. .
Another characteristic to Jim's doltish appearance was his superstitious viewpoint.