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Part 3, Chapter 2
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
Finding no trotlines, Jim and Huck decide to dog for a catfish. Jim wades into the river and sticks his arm in a hole in the bank. He has never done this and is nervous. A catfish locks onto Jim’s arm, and he is pulled underwater. He thinks of Norman, Sammy, Lizzie, and Sadie, before hallucinating John Locke again. The philosopher says Jim is in a never-ending war. Jim responds that, if this is true, he has the right to fight back and kill his enemy. Jim resurfaces, dragging the enormous catfish with him. Huck’s excitement reminds Jim he is only a boy. Jim realizes he told Huck the truth for his own sake, to give the boy a choice.
The process of fighting the catfish recalls earlier chapters, when Huck and Jim were just friends to one another. Jim’s struggle with the animal seems to represent the war John Locke describes, suggesting that subjugation does not imply superiority but merely indicates who won the fight. But Jim’s reasoning—that he has the right to fight back in a war against his oppressors—makes Locke uncomfortable, exposing his true sentiment: that Black people should simply accept their situation and continue to submit to white people. By telling Huck about his true racial identity, Jim has given his son the freedom to choose for himself who he is going to be.
Themes
