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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Jim (''Huckleberry Finn'')}}
]
{{Infobox character
| name = Jim
| series = ]
| image = Huck-and-jim-on-raft.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Jim standing on a raft alongside Huck
| creator = ]
| spouse = Sadie (wife)<sup id="fn_1_back">]]</sup>
| gender = Male
| children = Elizabeth (daughter)<br>Johnny (son)
}}


'''Jim'''<ref name="Arac1999">{{cite journal |last1=Arac |first1=Jonathan |title=Why Does No One Care about the Aesthetic Value of "Huckleberry Finn?" |journal=New Literary History |date=1999 |volume=30 |issue=4 |page=782 |doi=10.1353/nlh.1999.0043 |jstor=20057571 |s2cid=143237607 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20057571 |access-date=21 August 2021 |issn=0028-6087 |quote=Worst, yet most common, she uses her authority to tell the world that Jim is named Nigger Jim. Of course Twain never uses that formulation, but you would never know it from the public record—including many distinguished professors and some very recently.}}</ref><ref>While a slave, Jim has no surname and is formally identified as "Miss Watson's Jim" in reference to his owner. {{cite book |last1=Twain |first1=Mark |editor1-last=Hearn |editor1-first=Michael Patrick |editor-link=Michael Patrick Hearn |title=The Annotated Huckleberry Finn |date=2001 |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5e3TSKRsWUC&dq=%22miss+watson%27s+jim%22+name&pg=PA29 |isbn=0393020398 |access-date=2022-02-08}}</ref> is one of two major characters in the classic 1884 novel '']'' by ]. The book chronicles his and ] raft journey down the ] in the ] ]. Jim is a ] man who is fleeing ]; "Huck", a 13-year-old white boy, joins him in spite of his own conventional understanding and the law.
Jim is the other major character in the novel ] besides the title character. He is a controversial figure in American literature for his portrayal as a simple escaped slave. Because of the frequent use of a now derogatory term for African Americans, the novel has often been attacked for being racist throughout history. However, the novel and its characters are largely symphathetic to the plight of escaped slaves and critical of the institution of slavery. Jim may have been modeled after one or many slaves or a butler Twain knew.


== Character inspiration==
Huck had been placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her sister, Miss Watson, are attempting to "sivilize" him. Tom Sawyer appears briefly, helping Huck escape at night from the house, past Miss Watson's slave, Jim. After Huck escapes from the cabin, elaborately faking his own death, he sets off down the Mississippi River, encountering the slave, Jim, who Huck learns has run away.
The character may have been a composite portrait of black men Twain knew,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mark Twain and the South|last=Pettit|first=Arthur G.|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=1974|isbn=9780813148786|location=Lexington|pages=95}}</ref> or based on the "shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured" ],<ref name=Times/><ref>, ''The New York Times'', dated, retrieved 18 JAN 2013<!-- US Daylight Time --></ref> a former slave whom Twain employed as a ] and treated as a confidant.<ref name=Times>, ''New York Times'' (6/18/1994): 27.</ref><ref>, ''International Herald Tribune'', Monday, June 20, 1994</ref>


Twain grew up in the presence of his parents' and other Hannibal, Missourians' slaves, and listened to their stories; an uncle, too, was a slave owner.
Jim's spoken language is written in his native dialect. Jim is simple and trusting, even gullible. But Jim’s simple nature becomes common sense and helps chooses the right path for him and Huck to follow. Jim recognizes the duke and the king to be frauds. Jim becomes an authority figure in contrast to Huck's abusive father, who can be appreciated for his wisdom and intelligence. Jim realizes he cannot stop the con men from controlling the raft, but tells Huck:


==Fictional biography==
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Jim's is one of the several spoken dialects called deliberate in a prefatory note. Academic studies include Lisa Cohen Minnick's 2004 ''Dialect and Dichotomy: Literary Representations of African American Speech''<ref>Lisa Cohen Minnick, ''Dialect and Dichotomy: Literary Representations of African American Speech''. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.</ref> and Raphaell Berthele's 2000 "Translating African-American Vernacular English into German: The problem of 'Jim' in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn".<ref>Raphaell Berthele, "Translating African-American Vernacular English into German: The problem of 'Jim' in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn", ''Journal of Sociolinguistics'' 4.4 (Nov2000): 588-613.</ref>
“I doan’ hanker for no mo’ un um, Huck. Dese is all I kin stan’.”
</BLOCKQUOTE>


While the racial slur "nigger" is used extensively throughout the novel, Huck Finn specifically refers to "nigger Jim" in the note he writes to Miss Watson in Chapter XXXI ("Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim....".<ref>] (1885). ''Project Gutenberg''. Accessed 13 December 2024.</ref> Jim himself is introduced at the beginning of Chapter Two, seen at midnight by the two boys, Huck and Tom, standing silhouetted in the doorway of the outdoor detached kitchen. He hears them approach and inquires into the darkness; he states that he will wait to hear the sound repeated, and he sits at the doorway until he dozes, relieving the hidden narrator's tension indicated by an entire paragraph on an itch unscratched because of fear, of which Jim is unaware.
Though Jim can choose to be free, he stays by Tom Sawyer’s side in the end.


Jim flees from his owner after overhearing her discussing whether or not to sell him for 800 dollars. He meets up with Huck on Jackson's Island. The two travel on a raft together, and Jim plans to reach ], so that he can be free and buy his family's freedom as well.
According to Cliff Notes: "Jim’s logic, compassion, intelligence, and above all, his loyalty toward Huck, Tom, and his own family, establish him as a heroic figure."


His character and perceptions dominate the novel and include spirituality, parental tenderness, and nonviolence: he leaves unmolested two rogues – Jim's term is "rascals" – who have taken over the raft despite their vulnerability as they sleep drunk.
⚫ ==External Links==


When the rogues sell Jim as an escaped slave, the character Tom Sawyer arrives. Tom knows that Jim is a free man by this point (having been freed by his owner, Miss Watson, in her will), but uses the opportunity of Jim being imprisoned to act out prison escape fantasies from books he has read, refusing Huck's simpler plans that would free Jim easily, but without the drama that Tom sought. Jim, who is now on a plantation owned by Tom's aunt and uncle, is freed by the boys. However, Tom is shot by a pursuer. Jim gives up his freedom to help nurse Tom back to health, and is taken back to the plantation in chains. Upon waking up, Tom admits that he knew Jim was free the whole time, and Jim is released. Tom pays Jim 40 dollars, and the trio departs.


]'s book ], portrays ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' from Jim's perspective and adds an alternate ending to the story.

==Academic reception==
As a study of two slaves escaping, ''Huckleberry Finn'' is largely sympathetic to the plight of ]s and critical of the institution of ].<ref>Matthew Guinn, "Review of ''The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn''," ''Southern Quarterly'' 37.2 (Winter1999): 175-6.</ref>

However, beginning in the 20th century, the novel was frequently criticized for depicting Jim as a stereotype, and Tom as an aggressor. According to Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia, Twain was unable to fully rise above the stereotypes of black people that white readers of his era expected and enjoyed, and therefore resorted to ]–style comedy to provide humor at Jim's expense and ended up conforming to rather than challenging late 19th-century racist stereotypes.<ref>Stephen Railton, "Jim and Mark Twain: What Do Dey Stan' For?" ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' 63 (1987).</ref>

==Portrayals==
Actors who have portrayed Jim in films and TV:
*] (1920)
*] (1931)
*] (1939)
*Frederick Spencer (1944)
*] (1960)
*] (1968 in ''Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer'')
*Feliks Imokuede in (1973 in '']'')
*] (1974 and 1990)
*] (1975)
*Blu Mankuma (1979)
*] (1986)
*] (1993)
*] (2012)
*] (2014)
*Daniel Edward Mora (2015)
*Deren Tadlock (2016 in '']'' as Victor playing Jim in a fictional movie)

==Notes==
<cite id="fn_1">]</cite>: Jim's wife is only mentioned in passing in ''Huckleberry Finn'', and her name is not mentioned in that book. She was given the name Sadie by Nancy Rawles in ''My Jim'' (2005).<ref>{{cite journal
|title=In the Margins of ''Huckleberry Finn''. A conversation with Nancy Rawles
|author=Spengler, Birgit
|journal=Altre Modernità
|number=18
|pages=145–149
|year=2017
|doi=10.13130/2035-7680/9267
}}</ref> Jim's wife is also referred to by the name "Sadie" in the short story "Rivers" by John Keene, which appears in his collection ''Counternarratives'' (2015).<ref>{{cite book
|title=Counternarratives
|author=John Keene
|publisher=New Directions
|year=2015
}}</ref> She is similarly named Sadie in ]'s 2024 novel, ''James''.

==See also==
*]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

⚫ ==External links==
*

{{Adventures of Huckleberry Finn}}

]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 17:39, 21 December 2024

Fictional character
Jim
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn character
Jim standing on a raft alongside Huck
Created byMark Twain
In-universe information
GenderMale
SpouseSadie (wife)
ChildrenElizabeth (daughter)
Johnny (son)

Jim is one of two major characters in the classic 1884 novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The book chronicles his and Huckleberry's raft journey down the Mississippi River in the antebellum Southern United States. Jim is a black man who is fleeing slavery; "Huck", a 13-year-old white boy, joins him in spite of his own conventional understanding and the law.

Character inspiration

The character may have been a composite portrait of black men Twain knew, or based on the "shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured" George Griffin, a former slave whom Twain employed as a butler and treated as a confidant.

Twain grew up in the presence of his parents' and other Hannibal, Missourians' slaves, and listened to their stories; an uncle, too, was a slave owner.

Fictional biography

Jim's is one of the several spoken dialects called deliberate in a prefatory note. Academic studies include Lisa Cohen Minnick's 2004 Dialect and Dichotomy: Literary Representations of African American Speech and Raphaell Berthele's 2000 "Translating African-American Vernacular English into German: The problem of 'Jim' in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn".

While the racial slur "nigger" is used extensively throughout the novel, Huck Finn specifically refers to "nigger Jim" in the note he writes to Miss Watson in Chapter XXXI ("Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim....". Jim himself is introduced at the beginning of Chapter Two, seen at midnight by the two boys, Huck and Tom, standing silhouetted in the doorway of the outdoor detached kitchen. He hears them approach and inquires into the darkness; he states that he will wait to hear the sound repeated, and he sits at the doorway until he dozes, relieving the hidden narrator's tension indicated by an entire paragraph on an itch unscratched because of fear, of which Jim is unaware.

Jim flees from his owner after overhearing her discussing whether or not to sell him for 800 dollars. He meets up with Huck on Jackson's Island. The two travel on a raft together, and Jim plans to reach Cairo, Illinois, so that he can be free and buy his family's freedom as well.

His character and perceptions dominate the novel and include spirituality, parental tenderness, and nonviolence: he leaves unmolested two rogues – Jim's term is "rascals" – who have taken over the raft despite their vulnerability as they sleep drunk.

When the rogues sell Jim as an escaped slave, the character Tom Sawyer arrives. Tom knows that Jim is a free man by this point (having been freed by his owner, Miss Watson, in her will), but uses the opportunity of Jim being imprisoned to act out prison escape fantasies from books he has read, refusing Huck's simpler plans that would free Jim easily, but without the drama that Tom sought. Jim, who is now on a plantation owned by Tom's aunt and uncle, is freed by the boys. However, Tom is shot by a pursuer. Jim gives up his freedom to help nurse Tom back to health, and is taken back to the plantation in chains. Upon waking up, Tom admits that he knew Jim was free the whole time, and Jim is released. Tom pays Jim 40 dollars, and the trio departs.

Percival Everett's book James, portrays The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's perspective and adds an alternate ending to the story.

Academic reception

As a study of two slaves escaping, Huckleberry Finn is largely sympathetic to the plight of escaped slaves and critical of the institution of slavery.

However, beginning in the 20th century, the novel was frequently criticized for depicting Jim as a stereotype, and Tom as an aggressor. According to Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia, Twain was unable to fully rise above the stereotypes of black people that white readers of his era expected and enjoyed, and therefore resorted to minstrel show–style comedy to provide humor at Jim's expense and ended up conforming to rather than challenging late 19th-century racist stereotypes.

Portrayals

Actors who have portrayed Jim in films and TV:

Notes

Note 1: Jim's wife is only mentioned in passing in Huckleberry Finn, and her name is not mentioned in that book. She was given the name Sadie by Nancy Rawles in My Jim (2005). Jim's wife is also referred to by the name "Sadie" in the short story "Rivers" by John Keene, which appears in his collection Counternarratives (2015). She is similarly named Sadie in Percival Everett's 2024 novel, James.

See also

References

  1. Arac, Jonathan (1999). "Why Does No One Care about the Aesthetic Value of "Huckleberry Finn?"". New Literary History. 30 (4): 782. doi:10.1353/nlh.1999.0043. ISSN 0028-6087. JSTOR 20057571. S2CID 143237607. Retrieved 21 August 2021. Worst, yet most common, she uses her authority to tell the world that Jim is named Nigger Jim. Of course Twain never uses that formulation, but you would never know it from the public record—including many distinguished professors and some very recently.
  2. While a slave, Jim has no surname and is formally identified as "Miss Watson's Jim" in reference to his owner. Twain, Mark (2001). Hearn, Michael Patrick (ed.). The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 29. ISBN 0393020398. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
  3. Pettit, Arthur G. (1974). Mark Twain and the South. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 95. ISBN 9780813148786.
  4. ^ "After Long Absence, Twain's Butler Is, to Return", New York Times (6/18/1994): 27.
  5. "After Long Absence, Twain's Butler Is to Return", The New York Times, dated, retrieved 18 JAN 2013
  6. American Topics : Mark Twain Butler To Be Memorialized, International Herald Tribune, Monday, June 20, 1994
  7. Lisa Cohen Minnick, Dialect and Dichotomy: Literary Representations of African American Speech. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.
  8. Raphaell Berthele, "Translating African-American Vernacular English into German: The problem of 'Jim' in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn", Journal of Sociolinguistics 4.4 (Nov2000): 588-613.
  9. Twain, Mark (1885). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade), Chapter XXXI. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co. Project Gutenberg. Accessed 13 December 2024.
  10. Matthew Guinn, "Review of The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn," Southern Quarterly 37.2 (Winter1999): 175-6.
  11. Stephen Railton, "Jim and Mark Twain: What Do Dey Stan' For?" Virginia Quarterly Review 63 (1987).
  12. Spengler, Birgit (2017). "In the Margins of Huckleberry Finn. A conversation with Nancy Rawles". Altre Modernità (18): 145–149. doi:10.13130/2035-7680/9267.
  13. John Keene (2015). Counternarratives. New Directions.

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