In Chap­ter 4 of “James,” the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on the over­whelm­ing amount of cat­fish they’ve caught, not­ing that fifty pounds is far too much for just two peo­ple. As they pre­pare for a jour­ney, with Huck rolling up chunks of fish for bait, they feel a brief sense of safe­ty as the peo­ple they escaped from seem pre­oc­cu­pied with their own sur­vival. The pro­tag­o­nist’s thoughts drift to the poten­tial pur­suit due to the theft of a note­book, adding to their feel­ings of guilt and con­cern.

As dark­ness falls, they decide to rest as trav­el­ing along the riv­er in the dark seems inad­vis­able. Although Huck does­n’t com­mu­ni­cate, the pro­tag­o­nist is too tired and angry to engage. Ear­ly the next day, hunger prompts them to move, and after hik­ing a mile, they dis­cov­er a well-trod­den trail—causing con­cern for their safety—and con­tem­plate whether they stum­bled onto the under­ground rail­road.

Sud­den­ly, they spot a group of sev­en young sol­diers dressed in blue, armed, which sig­nals the ten­sion of a pos­si­ble larg­er con­flict. Huck express­es curios­i­ty about their pur­pose, not­ing hearsay about slavers and recent vio­lence. They both notice a young sol­dier fall behind, reveal­ing the fear he car­ries before he resumes his place in line. The sight prompts Huck to dream about join­ing the sol­diers and fight­ing, but the pro­tag­o­nist insists they need to head north for safe­ty, espe­cial­ly as they dis­cuss the con­fus­ing nature of the war and the impli­ca­tions of tak­ing sides.

Huck grap­ples with the con­cept of war, their free­dom, and the nature of their rela­tion­ship, ques­tion­ing why he wouldn’t accom­pa­ny the pro­tag­o­nist if he’s wor­thy of being con­sid­ered a son. The pro­tag­o­nist acknowl­edges Huck­’s free­dom but empha­sizes that he should remain safe with peo­ple who care for him. They con­tin­ue dis­cussing fam­i­ly and safe­ty, with the pro­tag­o­nist lead­ing Huck back towards the riv­er.

As they attempt to nav­i­gate, the chal­lenge of the chang­ing land­scape con­founds their direc­tion. The Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er seems to morph before them, cre­at­ing uncer­tain­ty about where they stand. They reflect on their predica­ment, acknowl­edg­ing that despite their jour­ney, choos­ing a boat would be less fea­si­ble than walk­ing, press­ing on while try­ing to make sense of their sit­u­a­tion amidst the chaos around them.