Criticism

I agree with both Reena and Roxanne how Solomon is the government, and the mothers represent blacks and whites, but I think the baby symbolizes how blacks are treated like property. After reading the criticism, Karen Sloan pointed out a rather obvious point that I seemed to have missed the first time I read the Solomon scene. Jim compares cutting a child in half to cutting a dollar bill in half. Like Michelle said, cutting either of these in half would make them worthless, and this directly compares black people to money, or property. Jim doesn’t finish the rest of the Solomon story because all he is thinking about is how Solomon wanted to cut the baby in half; according to Huck he has missed the whole point. But Jim, unlike Huck, sees how the government is treating black and whites, and he no longer wants to be treated like property and can be sold at $800. Jim dislikes Solomon because of this idea, and wants the world to finally treat him like a baby, or a human being, rather than money and cents.