Jim Character Analysis in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

One of Miss Watson’s slaves, Jim runs away because he is afraid of being separated from his beloved wife and daughter. Jim is superstitious, but nonetheless intelligent; he is also freedom-loving, and nobly selfless. He becomes a kind of moral guide to Huck over the course of their travels together, and, indeed, something of a spiritual father. Despite being the most morally upstanding character in the novel, Jim is ruthlessly persecuted and hunted and dehumanized. He bears his oppression with fiercely graceful resistance.

Jim Quotes in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn quotes below are all either spoken by Jim or refer to Jim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“People will call me a low down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum—but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t agoing to tell, and I ain’t agoing back there anyways.”

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Page Number and Citation: 32

Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes—en I’s rich now come to look at it. I owns myself, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’ want no mo’.”

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Page Number and Citation: 36

Explanation and Analysis:

Well, he [Jim] was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head, for a nigger.

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Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

“My heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’t k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en fine you back agin’, all safe en soun’, de tears come en I could a got down on my knees en kiss’ yo’ foot I’s so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.”

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Page Number and Citation: 65

Explanation and Analysis:

It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger—but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither.

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Page Number and Citation: 65

Explanation and Analysis:

Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me.

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Page Number and Citation: 66

Explanation and Analysis:

“I doan’ mine one er two kings, but dat’s enough. Dis one’s powerful drunk, en de duke ain’ much better.”

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 101

Explanation and Analysis:

I do believe [Jim] cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so.

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Page Number and Citation: 117

Explanation and Analysis:

Jim Character Timeline in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The timeline below shows where the character Jim appears in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...the Widow Douglas’s house, Huck trips and makes a noise. One of Miss Watson’s slaves, Jim, hears the noise and leans out of the kitchen doorway and asks who’s there. Huck... (full context)

...from the Widow Douglas’s kitchen, leaving five cents in payment, and then tricks the sleeping Jim by taking Jim’s hat off of his head and hanging it on a nearby tree... (full context)

Huck goes on to tell how Jim has a hairball, taken from the belly of an ox, that Jim does magic with.... (full context)

...no luck, later he does see a fire. A man is sleeping nearby: it is Jim. Huck greets him, but Jim jumps up, then falls to his knees, begging Huck not... (full context)

Huck learns that Jim came to Jackson’s Island the night after Huck was allegedly killed, and that the runaway... (full context)

If it wasn’t Huck killed in the cabin, Jim asks Huck, who was killed? Huck then explains his escape to Jim, who praises the... (full context)

Some young birds fly by Jim and Huck. Jim says that this is a sign that it is going to rain,... (full context)

Huck asks if there are any good-luck signs. Jim says there are very few, and that they’re not very useful, because there’s no reason... (full context)

In the morning, Huck wants to find the middle of the island, so he and Jim set out and find it. This place is a high hill or ridge with a... (full context)

Outside, it begins to rain fiercely. Huck is very content, however, and Jim points out that Huck wouldn’t be in the cavern were it not for him, that... (full context)

One night a two-story cabin floats by. Though Huck and Jim board the cabin through a window, it is too dark to see anything, so they... (full context)

Huck wonders who shot the dead man he and Jim discovered, and why, but Jim doesn’t tell him because “it would fetch bad luck.” The... (full context)

In response, Huck reminds Jim of how, a few days earlier, Huck had fetched a snakeskin with his bare hands,... (full context)

The next morning, bored, Huck wants to go exploring, which Jim thinks is a good idea, but he reminds Huck that he mustn’t get caught. Huck... (full context)

...alleged murder. She says some people think that Pap murdered Huck, while others think that Jim murdered Huck. There is a reward for the capture of either. In fact, the woman’s... (full context)

...Judith’s house, returns to his canoe, and paddles back to Jackson’s Island, where he tells Jim that people are hunting them. The pair rushes to load the raft and silently paddles... (full context)

Huck and Jim drift away from Jackson’s Island, undiscovered by the men looking for them. At dawn, they... (full context)

...eventually, but the Widow told Huck that such “borrowing” is really just stealing. Huck and Jim discuss this and consequently decide not steal any more crabapples or persimmons. Nevertheless, Huck says... (full context)

One night during a storm, Huck and Jim see a wrecked steamboat. Huck wants to board it and have an “adventure,” in the... (full context)

Once onboard the steamboat, Huck and Jim realize that they’re not alone. They hear voices, one of a man pleading for his... (full context)

Terrified, Huck and Jim search for the skiff the men used to reach the wreck, at long last finding... (full context)

In the darkness, Huck and Jim spot their unmanned raft and paddle towards it. Upon reaching it, Jim boards, and Huck... (full context)

...realizes that all the robbers must have died. He shoves off and, at last, rejoins Jim, on an island, where the pair “turned in and slept like dead people.” (full context)

The next day, Huck and Jim enjoy the things they found in the robbers’ skiff, and Huck describes the night before... (full context)

Huck reads to Jim about kings and noblemen. Huck explains that kings get whatever they want and go to... (full context)

Huck tells Jim about Louis XVI and his young son, who was jailed after his father’s execution. Jim... (full context)

Huck and Jim judge that they are three days out of Cairo, near the Ohio River. The pair... (full context)

Huck asks Jim if he fell asleep and why Jim didn’t think to wake him. Jim says he... (full context)

Huck requests that Jim tell him all about his dream, which Jim proceeds to do. Jim even interprets the... (full context)

...asks what the leaves and rubbish on the raft mean, along with its broken oar. Jim realizes that Huck was tricking him all along. Jim hadn’t been dreaming at all. He... (full context)

Huck and Jim continue their journey to Cairo, and, as they approach it, Jim trembles and is feverish... (full context)

Restless and fidgety like Huck, Jim talks about what he will do when he is free, how he will work and... (full context)

Jim spots in the distance what he thinks is Cairo. Huck volunteers to paddle over and... (full context)

...but reasons that he would feel just as bad had he done “right” and turned Jim in. He figures it is easier to do wrong than right, and that the outcome... (full context)

Huck and Jim resume their journey, passing two towns, only to find out that neither are Cairo. Huck... (full context)

Huck and Jim learn they have reached the muddy Missouri River, and figure that Cairo is upstream. They... (full context)

...Jack through the swamp. Instead of leading Huck to snakes, however, Jack leads him to Jim, hidden on a densely vegetated piece of land. Jim tells Huck that their raft survived... (full context)

Huck goes to where Jim is hiding. Jim is so glad to see Huck that he hugs him. Huck tells... (full context)

...been “so high.” He claims to have been born the Duke of Bridgewater. Huck and Jim pity the man after he begins to cry, and the duke tells the pair that... (full context)

...king asks for the duke’s hand, and the duke gives it to him. Huck and Jim immediately feel more comfortable after the unfriendliness on the raft dissipates; for, as Huck thinks,... (full context)

The duke and king ask Huck and Jim if Jim is a runaway slave. Huck says that Jim’s not and tells a lie,... (full context)

With Jim still on the raft and the duke at the printing office, Huck and the king... (full context)

...making, in total, nine and a half dollars. He also printed a wanted poster describing Jim, so that he and the king and Huck and Jim can travel by day; for... (full context)

That night, as Huck comes up to replace Jim as the lookout, Jim asks Huck if he expects them to run into any more... (full context)

...did the audience before. As they eat later that night, the duke and king tell Jim and Huck to float the boat two miles below town and to hide it. On... (full context)

Back at the raft, Huck and the duke meet up with Jim and the king, who didn’t even go to town for the performance. The duke revels... (full context)

...really just con men, but he doesn’t think it would do any good to tell Jim that, and anyway, Huck thinks, “you couldn’t tell them from the real kind.” The next... (full context)

As the duke and king devise another con, Jim tells the duke that it is uncomfortable to be tied up every day. In response,... (full context)

...the while imitating an English accent. After hailing a yawl, the duke, king, Huck and Jim all travel to the town where the Wilks family lives. There the duke and king... (full context)

...would tell on the duke and king immediately except that he would be endangering someone (Jim), and he proposes a different plan. (full context)

...the two to escape. Mary Jane is to return in the evening, after Huck and Jim have made their escape, and expose the duke and king, sending for the townspeople of... (full context)

...a look at the bag, and Huck immediately makes a run for it. He meets Jim by the river, and the two begin to drift away. Suddenly, though, Huck hears a... (full context)

...thieves again, and literally sleeping in one another’s arms. As the two sleep, Huck tells Jim everything that’s happened. (full context)

Huck, Jim, and the con men drift downriver for four days, at which point the duke and... (full context)

As Huck runs to the raft, he shouts with joy to Jim that they are free. But Jim, Huck soon discovers, is gone. Huck can’t help it:... (full context)

Huck considers writing a letter to Tom Sawyer asking him to tell Miss Watson that Jim is at the Phelps’ farm so Jim can at least be with his family, but... (full context)

As Huck makes his way to save Jim, he runs into the duke. Over the course of their conversation, the duke tells Huck... (full context)

...about his recent adventures. Huck tells Tom that he’s at the Phelps’ farm to rescue Jim, and Tom, after thinking a bit, enthusiastically decides to help Huck rescue him. That Tom... (full context)

...can go to “‘the show’,” but Uncle Silas says that, according to the runaway slave (Jim) and another man, the show is scandalous. Huck, realizing that the show must be the... (full context)

Tom deduces that Jim must be imprisoned in a hunt on the Phelps’ property, based on the fact that... (full context)

Huck suggests that he and Tom bring up the raft, steal the key to Jim’s hut, and rescue Jim in the night. Tom concedes that Huck’s plan will work, but... (full context)

Huck and Tom survey the Phelps’ farm and think of ways to bust Jim out of the hut. Tom decides that it would be grand to dig Jim out,... (full context)

Jim greets Huck and Tom by name, which startles Nat. He asks how it is that... (full context)

Tom is dissatisfied that liberating Jim will be so easy. He wishes there were guards to drug, or a guard-dog, or... (full context)

Tom also proposes that he and Huck make Jim a rope ladder by tearing and tying up their sheets, and that they then bake... (full context)

Tom also says that Huck should steal a shirt off the clothesline, so that Jim can use it to keep a journal. Huck exclaims that Jim doesn’t even know how... (full context)

That morning, Huck steals things to give Jim, as well as a watermelon from the slave’s watermelon patch. Tom, however, tells Huck that... (full context)

Finally, Tom tells Huck that they need to steal tools to dig Jim out of the hut with. Huck asks why they don’t use some picks and shovels... (full context)

In the night, Huck and Tom begin digging with their knives to rescue Jim, but after a while are tired, blistered, and realize they haven’t gotten hardly anywhere. The... (full context)

The next day, Huck and Tom steal a spoon and candlestick from the house for Jim to use as pens, as well as some plates for Jim to write messages on.... (full context)

Jim tells the boys that Uncle Silas comes into the hut once in a while to... (full context)

One night, dogs get into Jim’s hut. When Nat sees the dogs, he almost faints, thinking that witches are responsible. Tom... (full context)

...to bake the witch-pie. Afterwards, the boys go down to breakfast, hiding a spoon for Jim to write with in Uncle Silas’s pocket and nails in his hat, only to find... (full context)

...Tom recognizes that Uncle Silas has helped him and Huck conceal their plan to help Jim by producing the spoon at breakfast, and so he resolves to help Uncle Silas by... (full context)

...stole in her apron along with a nail, both of which she inadvertently delivers to Jim in his hut. (full context)

...is basically a crust under which is hidden a ladder. Nat delivers the pie to Jim, which Jim busts open so that he can take the ladder out and hide it... (full context)

Tom insists that Jim make an inscription with his coat of arms on the wall of his hut, because... (full context)

Tom changes his mind. Jim can’t carve inscriptions onto the wooden walls of his hut; he must carve them into... (full context)

...all the way without help, because it is too heavy, so they go back to Jim’s hut. There, they make it so that Jim can walk freely even though he still... (full context)

Having gotten the grindstone home and re-chained Jim to his bed, the boys are ready to go to sleep. But before leaving Tom... (full context)

Jim is agitated by the creatures that Tom and Huck introduce to his hut. He says... (full context)

...an anonymous letter to warn the Phelpses that someone is going to try to rescue Jim. Huck mildly protests but soon gives in to Tom’s plan. The boys leave notes and... (full context)

...they get ready to take a lunch they have prepared, along with a dress, to Jim. Tom notices there’s no butter with the lunch, so he sends Huck to get some.... (full context)

...get through with him so he can tell Tom about the farmers and commence rescuing Jim before it’s too late. Aunt Sally questions Huck, but he’s so nervous because the farmers... (full context)

Huck hurries to meet Tom inside Jim’s hut to tell him about the farmers. Tom is elated, but assures Huck that Jim... (full context)

...the calf of his leg. He is in considerable pain and bleeding. After some deliberation, Jim says he will not leave Tom’s side. Huck knew that Jim would say that, because... (full context)

...he wakes the sun is up. He decides to go to the where Tom and Jim are to prevent the doctor from exposing Jim to capture, but bumps into Uncle Silas... (full context)

At the Phelps house, neighbors are gathered, talking about how crazy it is that Jim made inscriptions in the grindstone and the like, and they all reason that he must... (full context)

...around the breakfast table, Aunt Sally sees Tom on a mattress along with the doctor, Jim with his hands tied, and a bunch of people. Aunt Sally is profoundly relieved to... (full context)

The men in the mob also cuss at Jim and strike him and put him back in the cabin enchained, but Tom’s doctor tells... (full context)

...his bedside. He joyfully recounts to an incredulous Aunt Sally how he and Huck helped Jim to escape. However, Tom’s joy gives way to grave disappointment when he learns that Jim... (full context)

...tells the disgruntled Phelpses all about Huck. She also confirms that Miss Watson had set Jim free two months ago. Finally, during a conversation between the adults, it comes out that... (full context)

...in private, he asks Tom what his plan was if they had successfully escaped with Jim. Tom says he planned to have more adventures with Huck and Jim before revealing to... (full context)

Jim is unchained, and the Phelpses and Aunt Polly, upon learning how Jim helped Tom, take... (full context)

Tom suggests that he and Huck and Jim travel to the Territory for adventure, but Huck says he doesn’t have enough money. Tom... (full context)

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Jim Character Analysis

Jim Quotes in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Jim Character Timeline in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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