Just because of the time period the book takes place in, the idea of freedom verses enslavement can be closely linked with social class. Huckleberry Finn and Jim both come from the lower end of the social pyramid. Even when huck fakes his own death, he wants Tom, someone from the upper social class, to be there to help him. If huck had come from a higher social class, he probably would not have fakes his own death. Hell, we wouldn't even have the book if huck wasn't in the social standing that he is in now. Tom reads about things in books and thinks about doing them. Huck, on the other hand, just puts them into action. He has the guts or lack of fear to do the things that the boys in the higher social classes won't do.
The idea of freedom and enslavement can be looked at through all of the lenses. The lenses that I find most affective to look at are social class, race, and historic. Yes, the novel would be completely different if either huck or Jim had been female, but the other lenses have more of an impact on the novel. Had Jim been white, for instance, he would more than likely would have not been a slave. And huck's social standing leads us to believe that he wouldn't have done any of this is he had come from a stable family. To look at it through a historical lens, I don't think that a young boy and a big black man would be able to survive in a raft in the Mississippi River. Just my opinion.
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