[[Huck Finn Essay 1]]

Jessica Rone
Mr. Hughes
English 3rd Hour
31 October 2007

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are a number of moral dilemmas that Huck has to go through. A moral dilemma is a situation that has no direct right or wrong answer. One of the moral dilemmas that Huck goes through is when he runs away with Jim after he fakes his own death and Jim runs away from his slave owner. While running away, Huck finds two men and wants to ask them what town they’re in, so he leaves Jim behind and paddles on the raft to talk to the men. While paddling, he could hear Jim saying to Huck “Pooty soon I’ll be a-shout’n for joy, en I’ll say, it’s all on accounts o’ Huck; I’s a free man, en I couldn’t ever ben free ef it hadn’ ben for Huck…” (Chapter 16, Pg. 67 Paragraph 6) Jim thinking that he’s in the north and that he is free. Now, Huck approaches the two men who happen to be looking for slaves that have ran away and they ask Huck if the man back there in that canoe with him is black or white. Huck takes a second; he doesn’t know what to say but he lies for Jim and says that he is white to protect him. But after that was all said he begins to feel bad. Here is a quote from Huck: “They went off, and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to so right; a body that don’t get started right when he is little, aint got no show…” (Chapter 16, Pg. 69 Paragraph 4)
I am in favor of Huck’s decision, I think that morally, Huck did the right thing although it was illegal; I believe he did the right thing.
For example, when Huck says; “When the pinch comes there ain’t nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat. Then I thought a minute, and says to myself hold on, -s’pose you’d a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad- I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then says I, what’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck.” (Chapter 16, Pg. 69 Paragraph 4) Even though according to the law, he is doing the wrong thing, I think it is the right thing to do. I would rather lie to the men that rat Jim out. After hearing how excited he was to finally be free and it was all thanks to Huck, if I were Huck, I don’t think I would, nor could, have the guts to rat out Jim. After all that he has done for Huck, he has protected Huck from a lot and taught him many things, I think that Huck kind of owes it to him and I agree with the fact that he lied to the men to protect Jim.