Meet Huck

Handy with lying

Unromantic (unlike Tom, who is a Romantic)

Companionable 

Kindhearted

Huck Climbing Through the Window

Huckleberry Finn, the novel's protagonist and narrator, is a thirteen or fourteen year old boy that lives in St. Petersberg, Missouri and Jim's fellow escapee.  He has an abusive father, Pap, who abandons him, only to return to take Huck's fortune.  He is adopted by the Widow Douglas, and she and Miss Watson try to "civilize" him.  Huck is trying to find freedom from society's rules.  Tom Sawyer is Huck's best fiend, but the two could not be more different.  Although Tom manipulates the situation -and Huck- to suit his imaginative whims, Huck is Jim's practical and loyal friend.

Huck is very practical and logical, and Twain uses Huck and Tom to represent realism and Romanticism, respectively.  Huck quits Tom's gang of "robbers" because he did not see any use of the gang's exaggerated adventures.  Tom, however, is the gang's leader and provides much of the imagination of the gang's exploits.  At the Phelps' farm, Huck comes up with the simple, most-likely-to-work plan.  Tom has this ridiculous plan (based off adventure novels he has read) and invents difficulties for adventure.  Huck is Jim's ideal travel companion because of his practicality and ability to mold to fit in a variety of situations.

Huck and Jim on the Raft

Huck is Jim's friend, even though society tells him not to.  Huck protects and lies for Jim to help him escape.  Jim tells Huck, "Huck; you's de bes fren' ole Jim's got now ...  de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim."  (89).  Huck even decides to go to hell, so he could help Jim escape and be a free man.  With Jim and Huck's loyalty to each other, their friendship is much deeper because Huck, a Southen white boy, betrays society for Jim.

Huck is the novel's main dynamic character, and he learns that Jim is too a human being.  His logical approach to his surroundings makes him seem stronger and more mature while tackling major issues such as slavery and racism.  His friendship with Jim helps Huck stand his ground and eventually break with society.

Pictures:

First picture courtesy of: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/old/orig76-h/p1.htm#c28

Second picture courtesy of: http://replacethechalkboard.blogspot.com/2013/10/huck-finns-observational-dilemma.html