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Part 1, Chapter 17
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
Traveling on the river again, Huck tells Jim about being taken in by the Grangerfords and witnessing their feud with the Shepherdsons. One morning, they find an old canoe near a small creek on the shore. Huck suggests testing the boat on the creek. Jim stays behind, sensing that the boy is troubled by the violence he witnessed. Jim himself is no stranger to violence, as he lives with the threat of it daily. He thinks of Young George and tries to write with the pencil he stole, but he falls asleep. Jim dreams of the philosopher John Locke and calls out the hypocrisy of abandoning his moral principles to write a constitution that justified slavery in southern colonies.
Though Huck relates the tale of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons as a grand adventure, the violence has disturbed him, tarnishing his innocence. Here, the novel seems to equate whiteness with the ignorance of violence; as an enslaved Black man, Jim has always lived with the threat of bodily harm. While Jim is concerned about Young George’s fate, the man’s punishment only makes the pencil more precious to him. His imagined argument with John Locke once again highlights the hypocrisy of humanitarian philosophers, who claim to oppose slavery only to approve of its continued existence.
Themes
Jim wakes to Huck’s voice. The boy returns with two frightened white men aboard the canoe. Hearing dogs, Jim lashes the raft to the canoe, and they float back into the river. The men are polar opposites of one another: one is old and thin, while the other is younger and fatter. Huck tells the men that Jim is his friend, not his slave. The two newcomers are strangers in similar trouble. The young man (the Duke) was selling a shoddy product that stripped teeth of their enamel, while the old man (the King) was preaching about the evils of alcohol when an attendee caught him drinking from his private stash. Both con men were forced to flee before they were caught.
Like Jim, the King and the Duke spend their lives engaged in performance. While Jim’s act facilitates his survival, these two men deceive people in order to steal their money. Their appearance, while humorous, further complicates Jim’s own situation as a runaway. Huck’s insistence that Jim is his friend again highlights the boy’s empathy, but it unintentionally places Jim in danger, as white society is automatically suspicious of an unenslaved Black man in this period.
Themes
The two grifters consider teaming up, discussing the various cons they employ, like revival preaching, phrenology, and fortune telling. Huck is amazed by the men, and Jim notes the gullibility of white people. The younger man confesses a secret: he is the son of the Duke of Bridgewater, and the rightful heir to that estate. The older man intentionally mispronounces the Duke’s title and confesses he, too, is secret royalty: Louis the Seventeenth, the rightful King of France. The King and the Duke discuss collusion, while Jim wonders if Huck knows they are liars. Nevertheless, the men are stuck with them.
While Huck’s gullibility may be partially rooted in his youth, Jim blames his whiteness for his naïve response. The Duke and the King’s lies seem designed to one-up each other, indicating a shared sense of self-importance. It is unclear whether Huck sincerely falls for their performance, but it seems possible that he wants their lies to be true because it is more interesting. This builds on Jim’s perception of white gullibility as willful ignorance.
Themes
