Huck Finn Slavery Analysis

Shivani Lokre
Dr. Roark
English H – Hour 8
15 September 2014
The Immorality of Slavery: Does Humanity Exist?
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn explores the ideas of racism and slavery that occurred in the South during the 1880s. Throughout the book, the main protagonist, Huck Finn must confront with people and ideas that force him to question the morals with which he was raised. Twain satirizes slavery by questioning existing societal values, showcases slavery from distinctive perspectives, and highlights the prominence of white supremacy in order to express his anti-slavery views.
By satirizing slavery and the prejudice placed against blacks in society, Twain takes a stance against this institution. Twain attempts to discreetly

Although Huck reflects the racist attitudes and injustice of the South, he reamains completely unaware of his wrong attitude. For example, Huck says, “'We blowed out a cylinder-head' 'Good gracious! anybody hurt?' 'No'm. Killed a nigger.' 'Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt'” (241). In society, each black individual appears as a “nobody”, less than human, with lives that are of little or no value to anyone. Unconsciousness and indifference play a major role in public tolerance of slavery. People do not typically question the normal conventions, which have been place and practiced for hundreds of years. “Most white southerners took it for granted that "the Negro enters upon slavery as soon as he is born, nay, he may have been purchased in the womb, and have begun his slavery before he began his existence" (Chadwick 75). Men were being told that “it’s the right way— and it’s the regular way” (257). Huck says with certainty that “the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way” (137). Since, society remains corrupted as a whole, the standard of morality lowers. Therefore, enslaving Black people did not seem like a immense issue since everyone continued to do it. Slavery was viewed as “natural to the dynamics of culture” since it “appeared ordinary to whites who lived amidst it all their lives” (Mensh