He says, "Even allowing for the fact that the novel is written from the limited perspective of a fourteen-year-old boy (and at fourteen it is not possible to take anything seriously but oneself), the author must be held responsible for choosing to write from that point of view." If the novel had been written before emancipation, Huck's dilemma and conflicting feelings over Jim's escape would have been moving. But in 1884 slavery was legally over." Disregarding the unsupported blanket statement about all fourteen-year-olds, Lester has not taken into consideration that on the title page it is noted that "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" takes place in the early nineteenth century", which would indicate that it was far earlier than 1884 (the end of the nineteenth century), which was merely when the book was published. That being said, Huck's efforts to free Jim were absolutely not in vain, and they were in fact inspiring due to the actual risks at hand during that time.
Lester also argues in his essay that when Huck speaks of Jim in the end of the novel saying, "I knowed he was white inside,"" he is displaying "proof of liberalism or compassion, but evidence of an inability to relinquish whiteness as a badge of superiority. " However, Justin Kaplan quotes Mark Twain elaborating on growing up in a slaveholding society, saying, "Conscience can be trained to approve any wild thing you want it to approve if you begin its education early and stick to it."" Huck Finn is actually the perfect example of such a statement, as he is portrayed during a time in his life when he is rebelling against societal standards, but also living in a life that he has been trained to accept by superiors like the widow Douglas, Ms. Watson, and his father. Despite what he may have seen and experienced while his guardians owned slaves, he still feels that Jim is his equal, which he mentions in an innocently controversial way, saying, "I knowed he was white inside"," which I personally interpreted as Huck feeling that he regards Jim as one would have regarded white people during that time.