In the novel, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, two main characters, Huckleberry Finn ( a young boy) and Jim ( an African- American slave), shares two lives; life on shore and life on the raft. According to the two males, life on shore has an ending. They both see the world as a corrupted place on shore, where the society restricts them from gaining freedom. However, life on the raft has no ending. They both see the world as a path (a sweet escape) on the raft, where they have self control from gaining freedom.



For both men, life on the shore was like walking through a dead-end street. They never rest with a corrupted society restricting them because when “I’d [they] go down the river about fifty mile and camp in one good place [it makes things a lot easier for them], and not have such a rough time tramping on foot. (23)” For example, “In about five or ten minutes we heard dogs and the men away off, shouting. We heard them come along towards the cricks, but couldn’t see them; they seemed to stop and fooled around a while; then as we got further… by the time we had left a mile of woods behind us and the struck the river, everything got quiet. (90)” This however shows that they don’t belong on shore because they are powerless to change the world on shore. For example, Jim, as a slave, limits him from a lot of rights since he’s a slave. Whenever Jim’s on shore, “Jim never asked no questions, he never said a word; but the way he worked for the next half hour showed about he was scared. (47)” This shows that how inevitable life on shore is because it can stop us. Although, whenever they face society, there sweet escape is the river, and the river never stops flowing. But living on a shore can stop them from flowing and starting walking into reality. For example, when Huck’s on shore, Huck says about Aunt Sally, “…she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. (220)” But since he’s in America, he’s already been civilized by the British at that time, so what difference does it make if he’s being civilize by Aunt Sally? The only answer to that is life on the raft because to Huck it symbolizes freedom. It’s like another America for Huck and Jim because “I can stop anywhere I want to. (26)” They can control and do anything they want on the river because “They won‘t ever hunt the river for anything but my dead carcass. (26)” This shows that society does not have control of the river only as long as Huck and Jim manage to survive.



While on the other hand, life on the raft felt like “Sometimes we’d have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time… We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars… (90)” This however shows that they belong on the river because they can control the river than the society. It is easier for Huck and Jim to escape through rivers to another than esc