Huck and Jim's Reationship Stengthened Through the King and Duke

“It was a close place. I took . . . up [the letter I'd written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I'll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming (Twain, 220).”One major theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is relationships. The largest and most significant of the relationships in the novel is the growing relationship between Huck and Jim as they travel farther away from their home. The further they get from their home the more their bond grows. Critics evaluate Jim and Huck’s relationship as a black and white relationship, a father and son relationship, or an old and young relationship. Within these constraints, critics have applauded and condemned the relations. For instance, Jane Smiley criticizes the novel as racist towards Jim. Another critic, Kenneth Lynn, criticizes the novel as a novel that has the main relationship as a Huck and Pap relationship. The main relationship goes much farther beyond that however. Jim and Huck are merely two people that Twain decided to place on a small raft together going down the Mississippi River. They grow closer the longer they are together and through the many different acquaintances they make. One of the major events that occurs that helps to strengthen their relationship is when they encounter the King and Duke. The white society during Huck’s childhood believes that Huck and Jim are the criminals for running away to freedom, when in reality Huck and Jim build their relationship, most successfully, by working together to get rid of the real criminals: the “Duke of Bridgewater” and “King Louis XVII”. When the king and duke first join Huck and Jim on the raft they are welcomed wholeheartedly because Huck and...