The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, tells the story of a young man wishing to escape from his life. He fakes his own death and runs away to travel down the river, and along the way he meets many people and befriends a slave named Jim. In essence, you may see this river as the river of life and as Huck moves along down the river he learns things about himself and the world. Three different life lessons that Huck sees and learns from as he travels is the harsh institution of slavery, the concept of family relationships, and the role the women play within their family.
             Slavery is a big part of the novel as it takes place in the in the deeper south around the Mississippi river. The main symbol of slaver in this novel is Jim. Jim is a runaway slave who left his owner because of the fear that he would be sold down to New Orleans. Jim is also considered a fugitive because many believe that he was responsible for the death and disappearance of Huck. Jim travels along with Huck and both are forced to hide along the river because both know that if they are caught, Jim would return to slavery. Slavery is even shown in the mind of Huck as he feels he is superior to Jim because he is a slave. He never makes this point known to Jim, but in his head he feels that way. At one point in the novel Huck feels so bad and evil that he is helping a slave escape, that he almost turns Jim in to the authorities. Finally he doesn't but he wholeheartedly believes that he will go to Hell for what he is doing. Thanks to his upbringing and how he was raised to view slaves, Huck doesn't know that he is actually doing the right thing in helping Jim and the right thing in not going to the Authorities. The way slaves were moved around and transported is also shown within the novel. When the two meet the two con artists they decide to tie Jim up and leave him on the raft as they move. This way, if anyone questions the...