Chapter 15: "Huck Takes a Step Forward"

Contributor: Lauren Hrncirik

A Summary of Events

A fog causes Huck (in the canoe) and Jim (on the raft) to lose each other in the river.  The fog lets up and Huck finds Jim asleep on the raft.  Huck lies to Jim and says he has been on the raft the entire time and Jim must have been just dreaming that Huck was separated from him.  A confused Jim elaborates about his “dream” and interprets it as signs of all their troubles to come.  Jim discovers Huck’s prank when he notices all the trash around him on the raft.  Jim calls Huck trash for making him feel ashamed.  Huck feels awful and apologizes to Jim.

Characters Involved

Huck: narrator  Jim: Miss Watson’s runaway slave

Two Discussion Questions

How is it noticeable that Huck is changing somehow after he plays the joke on Jim?  In which way is it evident how the white society views a ‘Negro’ having feelings regarding Huck’s surprised reaction to Jim’s anger?

Two Important Passages

“En all you wuz thinking ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.”  -For the first time Jim puts Huck in his place, by scolding him in a fatherly and disappointed manner. Jim’s statement is short and to the point. He shows that he, a Negro, can also have feelings and gives Huck a lesson about friendship and how people shouldn’t be treated.

“It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a negro-but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way,”  -Huck makes a complete transformation and decides to apologize to Jim for hurting him. This is something that no ordinary white being would do, so it is very significant that a rebellious, teenage, white boy would “humble himself to a negro”. This white boy is learning to look past this black man as more than just a slave, but as a person and a friend.

Controversial Elements

Jim is being displayed in the “typical” minstrel sense, when he is stupid enough to fall for Huck’s mind games and as a result is made a fool of, perhaps an offensive example of how black people are stereotyped as being “stupid?”  When Huck decides to apologize to Jim, he makes the suggestion that he had no idea Negro’s had feelings. All human beings possess feelings. Therefore, this is once again a seemingly racist comment, suggesting that a black man has no feelings and is therefore not a “normal” living human being.