Friendship and Betrayal 1

The theme of friendship and betrayal is quite evident in the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.  An example of betrayal is the shocking scene in which Tom Sawyer starts a gang.  In order to join the gang you must sign your name in blood, which Huck and all his friends do, but if you tell the secrets of the “Tom Sawyer Gang” you must kill a family member. Since our character Huckleberry Finn has no legitimate family aside from his alcoholic father whom can never be found the other boys in the gang say he cannot join. Upset that he is not able to join the gang Huck opts in and says that he can kill Miss Watson, his guardian. This scene in the book is very shocking because you can see how eager Huck is to join his friends and not be excluded. It is also shocking to read that he would “kill” his guardian Miss Watson. This shows that he is willing to betray someone whom cares so much about him.

     Another important part of the book is Huck’s feelings towards Jim. Huck and Jim get along quite well and are good friends. They both have things in common, for example they are both in search for freedom, though they each want a different type of freedom. In the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” it is important to notice Huck’s thoughts about Jim. Throughout the story you can read that though Huck is mostly independent and goes by his own rules, but society has an influence on him. Huck often thinks about whether he should report Jim to the authorities or not. You can see that because of the time period in which the novel takes place Huck is influenced by slavery, segregation and racism. The thought of reporting Jim makes Huck feel horrible and like a bad friend but the thought of helping a runaway slave also bothers Huck. This shows that society has had an influence on Huck, it is almost like Huck feels like a trader to society for helping a runaway slave. 

    Mentally Huck thinks and betrays his friend Jim but he never acts on it which demonstrates that Huck cannot betray Jim because he looks at him almost like a brother and best friend. It seems like Huck would only betray someone whom he did not care about that much. Huck would betray Miss Watson but he would not really act on betraying Jim because he cares about him too much.