Symbols

Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. The Mississippi River - For Huck and Jim, the Mississippi River is the ultimate symbol of freedom. Alone on their raft, they don't have to answer to anyone, and the river carries them toward freedom: for Jim, toward the free states; for Huck, away from his abusive father and the restrictive "sivilizing" of St. Petersburg. The fluid, fast-moving river reflects …

…another. Each escape exists in the larger context of a continual drift southward, toward the deep South and entrenched slavery. In this transition from idyllic retreat to source of peril, the river comes to mirror the complicated state of the South. As their journey progresses, the river, which once seemed an Eden, a source of freedom, becomes merely a short-term means of escape that nonetheless pushes Huck and Jim ever further toward danger and destruction.