In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Huck goes through an adventure that goes against his beliefs and morals. He discovers new ways of thinking. Jim , the runaway slave, takes the role of a father figure, an influential model- despite being black. Huck learns many important lessons about life, such as being a kind and considerate human being. .
When the novel starts, Huck thinks Jim is a stupid, uneducated slave who has no feelings. Huck breaks away from his first impressions of Jim when Huck tries to play a trick on Jim. They are separated on the river and Huck lies to Jim about what is going on. What Jim tells Huck lets him know how Jim feels about him. This is the first time that Huck feels sorry for something he has done to Jim. This shows that Huck doesn't think of Jim as just a dumb slave with no feelings, but that he has very respect for him. Huck feels sorry for what he has done. After that incident, Huck begins to make an effort towards treating Jim as an equal, but also makes his own decisions about how he treats others. He realizes that the slaves aren't the uneducated, but instead, the scum of society. When Huck is assigned a slave at the Plantation, he again has another moral outlook. Although a slave would make things easier, Huck doesn't use his slave. Here Huck's character is tested. He refused to use his slave, and by this his moral strength grew. .
Huck's moral journey comes to an end when he had to decide on whether or not to tell Miss Watson about where Jim was. Instead, he decided to "go to hell" for Jim. Jim is very important to Huck. This shows the kindness and friendship between them. This was the moment when Huck did what he thought to be "the right thing" and went against the beliefs about slavery. .
Jim doesn't have the nurturing characteristics to act as a father figure to Huck. However he does play the most influential role model in Huck's life.
