The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Conflict With Social Authority "It was according to the old saying, 'give a [African-American] an inch and he'll take an ell.'…Here was this [African-American] which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children - children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm"(Twain, pg. 98) Despite the fact Huckleberry Finn (Huck) is a 12-13 year old boy, one can't help but realize the hypocrisy in this statement that he said to himself. It is hypocritical because what he is accusing Jim (the "African- American") of (stealin