The Clashing Milieu in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The United States has never gotten free from being a racist society since the first African slaves came to this land in 1619. The young generation inherits racism from the ancestors and the society. Huck, a thirteen-year-old boy, can speak one of the most offensive words, the “N-word,” in his conversation without realizing its harsh effect on others. People who read the novel will think that Huck is a sinful racist who does not have any concerns about people’s sensitivity. However, Mark Twain, the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, does not write the word only once in his novel. The “N-word” is mentioned two hundred fifteen times in his novel. Twain writes this word on purpose to convey something more than a racist word or a joke. Before starting the novel, Twain writes the letter to William Dean Howell that, “[I] began another boys’ book” (Otfinoski). However, after he finishes his novel, “What started out as another boys’ book became something very different” (Otfinoski). Huck Finn is full of racism, corruption and murder like the society which Twain lives at that time. The readers cannot criticize Twain and Huck as racists or Jim as an inferior because Twain reveals that the society determines their identities regardless of their true natures.

On one hand, many parents is concerned that the novel is racist. Beatrice Clark, an African American parent for example, says, “It carries with it the blood of our ancestors. They were called this word while they were lynched; they were called this world while they were hung from the big magnolia tree” (Roberts). The “N-word” is used to suppress blacks and emphasize how worthless of their lives and how cruelty of the society. Twain indeed writes it to portray the actual savage s...

... middle of paper ...

...ddition, while everyone praises Jim who helps the doctor to cure Tom, Jim might not want to help Tom, who plays with his freedom but “the slave’s fate torn between his master’s will and his own” (Smith 370). Helping Tom is his master’s will and running away is his own. He does what whites wish him to do because he should not make whites angry about him. Supposing that Jim runs away, the doctor will get angry and ask everyone to capture Jim. In actuality, Jim cannot run away anymore because he and Huck float a raft downstream into the South where almost all slave hunters live. Now, if Jim wants to be free, he has to run all the way back to the North which is impossible for him to be safe. Like Jim, all black people live in the society with too many injustices and sufferings until what they do does not reflect what they want. They all wear the same “mask” for survival.