These are not the feelings of a comic character. Huck fears for himself and the others, concerned that someone might get hurt. He knows that “human beings can be awfully cruel to one another” (245) and does not want to witness a repeat of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords. Here is Huck’s “instinctive humanity” (9) and the “mature emotions” (11) that Marx swears do not exist in the ending. Tom Sawyer does not share these emotions. He writes threatening letters to the Phelps – his adopted relatives – while reducing “Jim’s capture for the occasion of a game” (12). When Huck sees the plan was a mistake, readers can see that his “knowledge of human nature and of himself” (11) is still intact, even in the face of Tom Sawyer’s antics. By the time the novel ends, Huck is tired of the games. When he leaves for his next adventure, he does not invite Tom to come with him.

Like Huck, Marx believes that Jim’s character is reduced at the end of the novel to a mere shadow of himself Locked away in the shed, Marx says Jim “ceases to be a man,” instead becoming the “victim of a practical joke” and a “creature who bleeds ink and feels no pain” (12). But while Jim’s role diminishes, the quality of his character does not. Twain’s ending ultimately allows Jim to rise above “flat stereotype[s]” (12) and proves he, too, deserves respect from society. Marx claims that Jim “doesn’t mind too much” (12) that Tom Sawyer imposes unusual cruelties upon him, but in reality Jim sets standards for his would-be jail breakers. Jim insists that he will only “tackle mos’ anything ‘at ain’t onreasonable” (276) and asserts himself by objecting to Tom’s rattlesnake suggestion. Finding fault with Tom’s other plans, Jim drives him to frustration. While Jim capitulates to Tom, he is not a “submissive stage-Negro” (12) but the crafty man who uses a hairball to get money from Huck. Desperate for freedom, Jim knows it would be foolish to drive Tom – his potential rescuer – away. Ironically while talking about the reduction of Jim’s character, Marx does so himself by failing to discuss Jim’s signature moment – risking his freedom to save Tom. Jim’s actions defy his white captors, who assume Jim is the submissive creature Marx writes about. Yet instead they explain that Jim is “worth a thousand dollars – and kind treatment” (300) and they actually “liked the nigger” (300) for his actions. Jim has not been divested of “much of his dignity and individuality” (12) as Marx argues, but instead rises to a point where few slaves reach – grudging respect from racist whites.

Marx views the novel’s last lines as a “concession of defeat” (19), suggesting the quest for freedom has been abandoned. Yet Huck’s decision to run west suggests a continued desire for freedom, not the reverse. To use Marx’s argument of geography, Huck is no longer confined by the raft which “lacks power and maneuverability” (18) – he can now turn west, the last region untouched by civilization. While “the raft patently was not capable of carrying the burden of hope Clemens placed upon it,” (18) Huck is. He brings west a profound “knowledge of human nature and of himself,” (11) that will prevent anyone from “sivilizing” him in the ways of racism and mob mentality. Watching Jim, whom he treated like a father-figure, get abused by Tom and other whites, it is no wonder Huck does not want to stay with the Phelps’ – “I been there before” (307) he says. Huck is much like Twain, buoyed by a courageous “optimism undaunted by disheartening truth” – he understands he cannot forever evade the “inescapable advance of civilization” (19), but as a young adolescent boy with his life ahead of him, Huck is willing to try. Huck “can’t stand” the idea of being locked down once more and so dares to move “ahead of the rest” (307) into the unknown – to freedom. While Marx argues that this pure state of freedom is merely an “ecstatic dream” (14), it is the pursuit of that dream that matters – Huck and Jim never achieved total freedom on the raft – but the hope of freedom was all they needed to keep going. By continuing west