Jim & Slavery
Slavery first emerges as a major theme of Mark Twain's literature in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Because Jim, one of the main characters, is a runaway slave, the negative impact that slavery has upon his life is often at the forefront of the story. As a result of his status as a runaway slave, Jim is often left behind, such as when he must stay on the raft rather than share in Huck's adventures. Jim also suffers considerably because he is separated from his family; Huck hears him crying out at night for his children: "Po' little 'Lizabeth! po' little Johnny! it's mighty hard; I spec' I aint gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!" While these elements elicit sympathy for Jim from readers, Twain's overall depiction of Jim is ambivalent, because Jim also appears to be foolish in many ways throughout the novel. Jim is highly superstitious, as well as repeatedly humiliated by the other characters, so that he often becomes to butt of the novel's jokes. For instance, when the King and the Duke force Jim to dress as a "sick Arab," or when Tom Sawyer convinces him to wear Aunt Sally's dress, the reader is meant to laugh at Jim's expense. Overall, Twain's depiction of Jim both reveals the injustice of slavery and creates reasons to laugh at Jim's sad circumstances.
Big River is much less ambivalent in its depiction of slavery as wrong, and its portrayal of Jim as a sympathetic character. Over the course of the play, Jim is developed more positively and his suffering is meant to elicit audience sympathy rather than laughter. While he is still superstitious in the play, this superstition ends up proving to be truth for Huck and Jim. The fortune that Jim sees in Huck's hand at the beginning of their journey, "considerable trouble and considerable joy," Huck recognizes to have become reality in the last scene (Hauptman 35). This characterizes Jim in the play as wise and prophet-like, rather than a fool. Jim in Big River is also much more confident in his identity as a human equal to the men around him; while helping the doctor tend to Tom Sawyer's leg, Jim has enough gumption to scold the doctor for taking whiskey out of his bag: "You be the doctor, that's the only thing that's important here. What you got the bottle for? We need a doctor, not a drunk" (Hauptman 105). Possibly the most significant difference between Jim in the novel and Jim in the musical is the way he allows himself to be treated while imprisoned at the Phelps' plantation. While Tom Sawyer makes a fool of Jim in the novel, forcing him to sleep with garter-snakes and treating his escape from slavery like a child's game, the musical adaptation of this scene does not degrade Jim in the same way. Tom still expresses his desire to "keep it up all the rest of our lives, and leave Jim to our children to get out", but Jim responds to Tom's ideas with powerful anger rather than humble compliance (Hauptman 98). In the end, the Jim of Big River is powerful and confident enough to keep Tom from harassing and manipulating him in; this characterizes him as strong and reasonable, rather than weak and foolish.
While Twain mentions several other slave characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, such as the Wilkes' and the Phelps' slaves, none of them have a significant voice within the story. In Big River, the plight of these slaves is much clearer to the audience; their voices are literally heard through several of the musical numbers. One such song is called “The Crossing,” sung by the caught runaway slaves and an overseer who pass by Jim and Huck floating on the raft. In the tradition of Southern slave songs, this slow and sad number captures the sorrow of people journeying "through the darkness of the night," to return to slavery (Hauptman 40).
Another song which gives a voice to slaves in the musical is called "Free At Last". Jim and the Phelps' slaves sing this song right before Tom and Huck execute their plan to free Jim, to voice their frustration and oppression: "I wish by golly I could spread my wings and fly and let my grounded soul be free" (Hauptman 98-99). The play again gives the audience the slaves' point of view, a perspective which is only implicit in Twain's novel.
These differences in the way that Jim and slavery are portrayed shows that the century of American history between Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Big River has necessarily changed the treatment of slavery in the story. Twain wrote his novel only 24 years after the 13th amendment was passed abolishing slavery in the United States, while Hauptman and Miller composed Big River long after the abolition of slavery and decades after the American Civil Rights Movement. Because so much progress against racial discrimination has been made and so much understanding gained in the last century, modern audiences expect to hear and sympathize with the perspective of the slave characters in Big River. Civil Rights history also allows Big River to invoke the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr. in the song "Free At Last": "Great God Almighty, I'd be free at last" (Hauptman 99). This adds more depth of meaning to the song, asking modern audiences to reflect upon the problem of slavery in 1840's America, and appreciate the difficult task of gaining equality which resulted in the America of today.
As a whole, Big River focuses on the theme of slavery more completely than Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by voicing multiple perspectives of slave characters and doing it more frequently throughout the work. Modern audiences can understand from the musical that slavery took a serious toll on people like Jim throughout history, and can see that there is little place for humor within the context of slavery.
Another song which gives a voice to slaves in the musical is called "Free At Last". Jim and the Phelps' slaves sing this song right before Tom and Huck execute their plan to free Jim, to voice their frustration and oppression: "I wish by golly I could spread my wings and fly and let my grounded soul be free" (Hauptman 98-99). The play again gives the audience the slaves' point of view, a perspective which is only implicit in Twain's novel.
These differences in the way that Jim and slavery are portrayed shows that the century of American history between Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Big River has necessarily changed the treatment of slavery in the story. Twain wrote his novel only 24 years after the 13th amendment was passed abolishing slavery in the United States, while Hauptman and Miller composed Big River long after the abolition of slavery and decades after the American Civil Rights Movement. Because so much progress against racial discrimination has been made and so much understanding gained in the last century, modern audiences expect to hear and sympathize with the perspective of the slave characters in Big River. Civil Rights history also allows Big River to invoke the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr. in the song "Free At Last": "Great God Almighty, I'd be free at last" (Hauptman 99). This adds more depth of meaning to the song, asking modern audiences to reflect upon the problem of slavery in 1840's America, and appreciate the difficult task of gaining equality which resulted in the America of today.
As a whole, Big River focuses on the theme of slavery more completely than Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by voicing multiple perspectives of slave characters and doing it more frequently throughout the work. Modern audiences can understand from the musical that slavery took a serious toll on people like Jim throughout history, and can see that there is little place for humor within the context of slavery.