In chapters 12 through 15, Huckleberry and Jim venture off to a find a new home. Throughout this journey, a change in Huck’s character begins to appear. An example of this would be when Huck gives Jim no other choice but to board the gangs ship with him even though Jim quickly voices that it was not a smart idea. This showed a new fearlessly stubborn side of Huckleberry Finn that the author had not revealed yet. Another example of Huckleberry’s changing character was the statement made about Jim in chapter 14 page 2 he says “he was pretty smart for a nigger.” This could be taken both ways, but primarily negative. Throughout the previous chapters Huck implies that Jim’s race never made him any less equal than himself, until now. These new chapters show a completely different side of Huck that twists the plots that could have been predicted when reading the previous chapters. Twain is changing the character of Huckleberry Finn either temporarily to show a drastic change in his level of maturity later on in the book or permanently to show that the people you spend most of your time with can effect your opinions and views more than anything.
I also recognized this shift in personality in Huck as I read through the chapters. One possible explanation may be that since Huck has been thrust into living basically on his own, he has become more stubborn, harsh, and commanding. Huck may have made that remark about Jim to make himself feel better about his own low level of intelligence. Huck might also have said this without much thought to it, since the general idea at the time was that African-Americans had no intelligence what-so-ever, so in his mind it didn't sound as prejudice as it came off.
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