The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Dayln Keith
Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
The novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the story of a young boy, Huck Finn, who runs away from his pap. While a search party was out looking for his supposed "dead," body, he ran into Miss Watson's runaway slave, Jim. The two travel together on a raft to Cairo, a free state, after finding out the cops were looking for Jim as he was a suspect for Huck's "murder."
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" the movie.
Huck Finn, played by Elijah Wood, and Jim, played by Courtney B. Vance both embark on a long journey after both ran away from Huck's father, and Jim's owner. They run into many conflicts on the way to Cairo on the Mississippi River, but they stick together through it all, like the best friends they prove to be.
Chapter XVI
This part in the novel shows Huck and Jim's friendship. After Jim starts to talk about how his life will be when he's a free man in Cairo, Huck starts to believe that helping Jim run away was wrong. Huck wants to do what he believes is right by turning Jim in to the next white man they see. Jim is so thankful and happy about the fact that he will be free, he continues to thank Huck and praise him for being a great, trustworthy person. Huck can't turn his back on his friend, so he makes up a story to get away from the white men and keep Jim safe.
Huck and Jim
Movie Scene
Like in the novel, Huck feels that he is doing wrong by helping Jim escape. Unlike the novel, Jim in the movie has an idea that Huck is going to turn him in.After trying to explain to Huck that slavery isn't right and it not working, he then starts telling Huck how great he is and how thankful he is to have Huck by his side as his friend in effort to help Huck understand that he isn't a bad person. Jim's words helped Huck see that his friendship is with Jim means a lot to him.
Novel vs. Movie
After analyzing both, I think the written novel better reveals the author's intent, or vision, for this scene because the way Mark Twain worded it. The way the scene in the story is laid out can make the reader feel what both Jim and Huck are feeling. In the novel Huck's thoughts are worded as disappointed and conflicted, and you can feel how hurt he is. You don't get Jim's thoughts in the novel, but by the way Twain had worded Jim's words, you can hear Jim's emotions, and in this scene, his happiness. When Huck decides against turning Jim in to the white men on the river, you're at the edge of your seat cheering. You can put yourself into the story and feel what the characters feel, which can have an affect on your emotions. With Jim saying that Huck is the only white man to ever keep his promise to him and Huck saying that had made him feel so bad that he felt sick to when Huck was about to tell the men about Jim but, "...the words wouldn't come..." before he lied and said the man he was with was white, you can feel every emotion from nervousness to suspension to happiness. Because of Mark Twain's way with words, I feel that the novel was just a little bit better than the movie.