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Part 1, Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in James, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Speech, Performance, and Willful Ignorance
Identity, Narrative, and Agency
Racism, Dehumanization, and Hypocrisy
Innocence vs. Disillusionment
Family, Alliance, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Jim watches Huck reach the mainland, hoping that if the boy is discovered, his return will take some of the pressure off of Jim himself. The snake bite is healing, and Jim’s energy returns. He wonders whether he should tell Huck that the dead man in the floating house was his Pap, but he worries how the boy’s reaction will affect the likelihood of his own capture. After three days of being gone, Huck returns, saying some other men are on the island, possibly following him. Not wanting to risk discovery, Jim and Huck retrieve the canoe and sail away from the island.
Huck’s running away complicates Jim’s situation, but Huck is naively unaware of the risk his presence poses to Jim. While Jim’s concealment of the dead man’s identity may have originally been motivated by pity for Huck, now he worries that the discovery of his lie will result in Huck betraying him. Despite Jim’s apparent affection for Huck, he is not certain the boy is trustworthy, and so he must continue to perform ignorance for him as he would do for other white people.
Themes
