Jim's ghosts

Will Landschulz
Am. Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Jim is haunted in a way that transcends any superstition.  He remembers his daughter of four, Lizabeth, who once denied his orders to shut the door.  In a rage at her blank stare and her seeming inability to comply with his demand, he strikes her down.  Only when she breaks down in frustration and incomprehension, he realizes that she is deaf and dumb, brought down by scarlet fever.  His guilt over his treatment of his daughter has paralysed him ever since.  The fact that he now tells this to Huck, rather than continue to keep it inside of him, may be attributed to his guilt being too much for him to bear, but it also gives him more humanity than the white characters we have seen over the course of the book.  Or if it doesn't, it gives a better class of humanity to him than, say, Miss Watson.  I will not mention such travesties of character as the "Duke" or the "King." He attains this through showing a conscience and a strong love for his family.