Peer Review Essay # 4

Essay # 4 draft
Jim – a Stereotypical or a Real Person?
Being an immigrant in America, I have heard a lot about the black slavery from the Civil War. Recently, I have read “The adventures of Huckberry Finn” by Mark Twain for one of my English class’s assignments. Since the publishing of this book, there were numerous controversies about different aspects such as race, gender, and between human beings at that time. “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn” told us about Huck or a little white boy’s adventures with a runaway black slave. This runaway slave named Jim. Under Mark Twain’s pen, Jim was characterized as the second main character in these adventures and he was up to the same level as a white person despite the fact that he was portrayed as a stereotypical black slave.
In the beginning of the story, Jim appeared in a shadow. He was just an ordinary slave who served old Miss Watson, living in the same house as Huckleberry. Fearing for being sold away, Jim had ran away because he wished not to become a slave for some others. Then he met Huck while hiding on the empty Jackson’s Island. Together they made their adventures down south instead of going north to look for freedom. Throughout these adventures with Huck, Jim had taught Huck quite a few good lessons about human being and about the differences between classes in society at that time. As in the happy ending, Jim finally became a free man.
This characterization of Jim was portrayed as a stereotypical southern black person at that time. People would assume that a black slave would be uneducated, stupid, dumb, mean, and worthless. Being a slave, of course, Jim couldn’t get any kind of education at all. All he did was pretty much what he had learned from his own experiences. Luckily, he had a great master, old Miss Watson. Even though she was tough with him but she made him pray every day. From those prayers he could have learned something valuable about human, right? Another unfortunate fact was that Jim was a black man. Being black meant that he would be a slave forever; he would not be able to become a free person at all. A black slave had become a white person’s own property and he could be sold or killed as the owner pleased. Black people were being pushed down to the lowest level in the society. They had become the worthless property in human’s life. That is so untrue. How could they become the worthless property while they could work all their lives, sweat their tears and blood, sacrifice their own freedom to make people rich? I would say that these people are the most valuable assets to have. Because of those rude stereotypes, some black people would act very mean just in order to protect their hurtful feelings. They were hiding their own feelings; they didn’t want people to think of them otherwise. They had to live in their shells, not allowed to look forward or outside of that shell. I don’t think that black people would be much meaner than any other races. Eventually, some white people would be really mean such as Huck’s father character in this story. Huck’s father appeared to be worse than this black man. He was drunk all the time and tried to take Huck along to live his desperate life. Saying that black slave was always dumb and stupid, that was not true at all. Twain showed us that Jim, a black slave, has a very simple mind but his mental was the same as human as anyone else. He thought things logically, based on the appearance of events. For example, when Jim said that “it was a sign it was going to rain” when Jim and Huck saw some young birds “flying a yard or tow at a time and lightning” (67.) The reason Jim was so sure about the rain was that he had learned from his experiences and he realized that young birds and young chickens were similar species; therefore, they must shared similar instinct about the change in the weather. I would say that Jim was pretty smart. I would be never understand or conclude something like he did in my life. I must be the stupid one here.
From my opinion, it looked like Twain wanted to make Jim a character that was challenging the society’s expectation about the black slave at that particular time. People ignored Jim because he was black, because he was a slave. No one would question why Twain put him on the same level as Huck, even mentor Huck in some ways about life. Jim was an old man. He was yearning for his freedom when he ran away from home. He was always trying to save money so that he could buy himself out and his wife and his children. Huck was a white kid. He was an orphan even though his father was still alive. He was brought up poorly. Huck would be considered as low as Jim. However, Jim didn’t look at Huck that way. For Jim, Huck was white, and that was proved by the way Jim treated Huck as superior. Moreover, during their escape, Jim considered Huck a close person, such as his son by protecting and caring for him all the time. Jim devoted himself to Huck in every situation. He was always grateful about Huck being nice and helped him during several difficult situations. Every time they got separated and then reunited, Jim always showed his emotion toward Huck. Like when they met again after their raft got hit by a big steamboat, Jim “nearly cried, he was so glad” (120.)
There were some controversies about whether Jim was a minstrel. Initially, a minstrel was a servant who would sing and dance to entertain his owner. I don’t think that Jim was a minstrel at all. Most of the time being with Huck, Jim was pretty much controlled by others, including Huck, a little boy. Why did he let others do that to him? Did he do so to entertain them? Actually, he didn’t entertain any of them. Twain put Jim in several situations to present the bitter reality in society at that time. Remember when the king and the duke printed out some fliers portrayed Jim as a wanted runaway nigger and had him all tied up while they were away conning people. He let them did that in order for them all traveled safely during the daytime as he also wanted to hurry to the free land. Or another time, the duke “dressed Jim up in King Lear’s outfit… painted Jim’s face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead dull solid blue, like a man that’s been drowned nine days (155.) Jim was even satisfied with their instruction because he didn’t want to become their burden. Jim also believed Huck indefinitely as one of his nature of believing in people. Under his skin, Jim was equally a white person as Huck realized “he was white inside” (249) after Huck and Tom rescued and set Jim free.
There is a double consciousness in Jim. From his appearance, people were making assumption of him as being lazy, stupid and somewhat dangerous, not to be around the “white” society. However, inside Jim, another human being who showed concerns, sincerity and gratefulness toward others. Like when Tom was injured while rescuing Jim free, Jim didn’t run away when the old doctor would leave Tom by himself on the isolated island for help. If anyone appeared to be the runaway slave in that case, he would just abandoned Tom and left for his freedom rather than helping and risking being arrested again.
It was really interesting to read about Jim character in this story. Twain seemed to tell the “white class” people to give more respects and some considerations toward the black slaves in their live. Jim was the same human as everyone else and he should be treated equally. From this book, I believe that Twain wanted to send a message to everyone that human beings are the same no matter how different they look and that their consciousness is the most important and valuable.