In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s raft companion is Jim. Jim is an enslaved man who escapes from Miss Watson and joins Huck on the Mississippi River, forming the novel’s central companionship.
Huck initially treats the journey as an adventure and struggles with the racist assumptions of the society around him. As the voyage continues, however, he comes to recognize Jim’s humanity, loyalty, intelligence, and deep love for his family. Their relationship drives many of the book’s most important moral conflicts.
Jim is not Tom Sawyer, although Tom becomes involved near the novel’s end in an elaborate rescue plan. Pap Finn is Huck’s abusive father, while Becky Thatcher belongs to the world of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain’s novel was published in 1884 and is widely regarded as a landmark of American literature, though its language and treatment of race remain subjects of serious discussion.