I chose to examine the symbolism of the raft and river, and the journey Huck and Jim take on it in Mark Twain’s “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn”. The Raft and the Mississippi River play a major role in this book. The river comes to symbolize many things, and one important role I believe the river play is being the deliverer for both Huck and Jim. The river takes both Huck and Jim away from captivity. As Huck was running from both Pap and the Widow, and Jim was running from Miss Watson the river helps to cover their footsteps. With Jim confined to the raft during the day it is very difficult for them to hunt. The river also helps to feed them.Huck and Jim are on their journey to Cairo so that Jim can become a free man and to reunite with his family. The river became their life always in motion, and they began to grow an attachment towards the river and one another.The river controls the voyage of Huck and Jim; as it won’t let them land in Cairo because of the fog where Jim could have been free; it separates them for a time when Huck stays with the Grangerford’s and then re-unites them. The control of the river also brought Huck to meet the fraudulent, thieving Duke and King, who overpowered him, just as Pap did. This brought Huck and Jim’s journey to an end when the Duke and King sold Jim to the Phelps’s for forty dollars and Jim is enslaved once again. The raft also played an important role in this journey, it is just as important as the river is. The river symbolizing Huck and Jim’s life always in motion with transitional harmony, and the raft symbolizing their home in motion on the river. The raft made both Huck and Jim feel free from captivity and safe from the chaotic world around them. As the river controlled their journey the raft is what transported Huck and Jim on this journey, without the raft Huck and Jim would not have gotten as far as they did. The raft not on...
