The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Few books in the American Literary genre have been as influential and as thoroughly debates as Mark Twains 1985 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Just after being published the book was quickly banned in some libraries. To Twain's critics, the novel is racist on the face of it, and for the most obvious reason, the racial slurs and the harsh depiction of Jim in the novel. I believe that this book is one of the greatest anti-racist books in America. In Huckleberry Finn Twain is not only not being a racist but he is trying to point out how stupid and wrong slavery is. In Huck Finn every aspect of racism is shown through the people in the novel from Pap to Huck himself.
In the beginning of the book you can see this from the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson’s attempt to “sivilize” Huck to the end of the book when Tom Sawyer has a startling acclamation that Jim was already free. When a person reads this novel closely he or she might see that in many aspects Twain writes in a satiric sense. For instance Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat wreck and asks if anyone is hurt and then they answer no just a nigger. Aunt sally continues on saying, “Well, it's lucky, because sometimes people do get hurt.” In this sense Twain is using wordiness to get the point across that in the south if a black person died it would not bother them one bit. In chapter fifteen when Jim becomes very worried that he may have lost his friend expresses his concern to huck. This shows there is a connection, which has been made between huck and Jim. A connection not that of slavery and more important a relationship deeper than being a slave. Another example would be how Pap is drunken, uneducated, and unemployed, representing the lowest class of white Southern society. Pap kidnaps Huck and holds him in the woods and then makes fun of Huck for being educated. And to Twain using the word nigger, he was just trying to give the book a more realistic view and to make it fit with the time frame it is placed. Although the evidence of Twains writing this book to be anti racism there is the side that thinks this book is extremely discriminatory and should be banned.
Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest American novels ever written. The story is about Huck, a young boy who is coming of age and is escaping from his drunken father. Along the way he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away because he overhead that he would be sold. Throughout the story, Huck is faced with the moral dilemma of whether or not to turn Jim in. Mark Twain has purposely placed these two polar opposites together in order to make a satire of the society's institution of slavery. Along the journey, Twain implies his values through Huck on slavery, the two-facedness of society, and represents ideas with the Mississippi River.
Why would a man who fought against slavery, injustice, and discrimination write a racist book ? For some time, many students, educators, and scholars debated whether The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain deserves its place in our literary canon. Certain readers find the relationship between Huck and Jim especially problematic due to abundant use of the N word and Twain’s stereotypical depiction of Jim. On one hand, Jim is viewed as an uneducated slave who is always in peril due to Huck’s playfulness and immaturity. Yet, on the other hand, Jim is a complex secondary character crucial for Huck’s development from naiveté into maturity. Despite, the glaring overuse of racial epithets, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn should remain in the literary canon and continue to be taught as it allows readers to address racial misconceptions, such as racial
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Samuel L. Clemens, whose pen name was Mark Twain, presents the evils of southern societies during the pre-Civil War period in America. The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Samuel L. Clemens, whose pen name was Mark Twain, presents the evils of southern societies during the pre-Civil War period in America. Clemens, a well-respected author, "began writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1876 and, after several stops and starts, completed it in 1883" (19). This novel revolves around the theme of slavery versus freedom, and was published at a time when most southern landowners still "owned" slaves.
Moving Forward, Twain is anything but subtle with his regards to racism in Huck Finn. In chapter VI Huck’s father (Pap) curses the government when he takes notice of a particular fellow who happens to be of mixed race in town. Pap is disgusted that such a man is able to roam free he states “when they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let a nigger vote, I drawed out….I’ll never vote again” (Pg.38). Pap would give up his own right to vote just to spite black people. Twain uses Pap to display how there are people in society who are willfully
Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, educates high school students on how the Southern society operated at that time. When analyzing the novel, one can see that Twain’s writing clearly does not endorse slavery or the use of derogatory language toward African-Americans. In a petition to remove this book from a high school required reading list, a school board in New Jersey concluded, "the literary value of the book outweighed the negative aspect of the language employed.” (2) Huckleberry Finn is a satirical novel that was written to show the flaws of 19th century American society. It shows how people thought and acted back then, and points out what was wrong with the white supremacy mindset of many Southerners during these years. “The book itself is a great testament that...
The largest debate as to why the novel is a racist work is because of the use of the "N-word." Although there is an abundance of evidence pointing towards the theory that Mark Twain was a racist, therefore making the book itself a reflection of his ideologies, Huckleberry Finn is created as a form of social commentary, on the racism of the time period. As reflected in the essays in Satire or Evasion?, the perspectives on the views of racism in Huckleberry Finn vary widely (Arac 113) and it can be concluded that “there is no single ‘black’ position on Huckleberry Finn any more than there is a monolithic white one” (Leonard
In the novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the two main characters, Huck and Jim, are strongly linked. Their relation is portrayed by various sides, some of them good and some others bad. But the essential interest of that relation is the way that uses the author to describe it. Even if he had often been misunderstood, Twain always implied a message behind the themes developed around Huck and Jim.
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is a person to be admired. His caring attitudes and blunt honesty prove that he is a great person. Although Huck can be seen lying, cheating and stealing, he does these things out of necessity and as a result of his poor upbringing. These negative attributes don’t affect his overall high character.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn has experienced many internal problems throughout the novel. When it comes to slavery, he agrees with the philosophy of slavery, but sometimes he only follows that philosophy because that’s what he’s been taught in his society. “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”(Mark Twain) Huck is trying to approve his actions by following his conscience, whether society finds it right or wrong.
They face racism every day, with mindless judgement put upon them simply by the color of their skin. As freedom for African Americans only came within the past two hundred years, and desegregation within the past one hundred years, racism still dwells within communities and schools. Africans Americans face prejudices just as they have in the past two hundred years and beyond, “It most froze me to hear such talk. He wouldn 't ever dared to talk such talk in his life before. Just see what a difference it made in him the minute he judged he was about free”(Twain 110). Such racism dwells from the many centuries that blacks were seen as inhuman, or even three-fifths of one, and even today in the media, race has major pertinence, for example, when speaking of someone who robbed a store, without a second thought the media states the person’s race as if that pertains to the crime somehow. Therefore, stereotypes and judgements of race come about, such as all young African American boys are troubled. Nearly the same thing happened two hundred years ago at the time the novel was written, an African American was seen as inhumane and unequal, an assumption that was obviously false. For example,an African American man cannot achieve the same goals as a white individual: “Jim never gains the intellectual complexity of Huck, never becomes a figure of disruptive alienation, nor even seems capable of learning this from Huck”(Carey-Webb). Twain’s failure to develop Jim as a character shows his judgements towards African Americans, and makes aware the stereotypes of African Americans today, the stereotypical young man of that minority does not have the same aspirations as one of European origin. Even though many young men have repeatedly falsified that claim, many still see worth in it. The media of today represents the minority with many blind
While not every cause is worth fighting for, notable men like; Huckleberry Finn, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Atticus Finch, and Ralph from Lord of the Flies recognize that when something’s worth fighting for, one needs to sacrifice for those thing bigger than them. Hence, men who have empathy along with selflessness, honor and integrity can be a leader for a cause they believe in.
The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn by Mark Twain is one of the most controversial and iconic books in American history.There has been a constant conversation about whether the novel is a good or bad novel since it’s publication in 1884. Huck Finn is a great piece of literature and deserves the praise of being called a central Document of American culture. Yes, like all great things it does have it’s downfalls, for example the ending was very disappointing to many people because it stops abruptly but maybe that's because Twain had a deeper meaning to it. The novel also touches upon the ideas of racism but doesn't make racism the complete focus of the novel this is interesting because it is praised for being a book about slavery. Another piece
Throughout the years, Huck Finn’s message has been misinterpreted as racist. In fact, according to John H. Wallace the narrative is “racist trash” (112), mainly because of the word “nigger” (Twain 7), which is used more than two hundred times. Never-theless, most anti-Huck critics fail to understand the elemental use of the word. Twain intends to unveil the South’s reality; therefore, the absence of the word “nigger” would result in the erroneous portrayal of how a twelve-year-old, uneducated boy from Missouri would talk. For the same previous reason, Twain gives each character different speech. Not in order to generalize and stereotype, but actually “[forming] identity… by social realities” (James 16). Despite Twain’s intention, the diction he uses for Jim’s portrayal has offended several students and parents throughout the nation, for its jester-like characteristics (Henry 25). In reality, the different slangs, not just Jim’s, give each character the needed humanity to make them more “believable, complex, and therefore dignified” (James 16). Twain’s chosen diction exposes the reality of human beings, which a censored versio...
On a superficial level The Adventures Huckleberry Finn might appear to be racist, and for the most obvious reason: many characters use the word “nigger” throughout the novel. But since the action of the book takes place in the south twenty years before the Civil War, it would be amazing if they didn’t use that word. A closer reading also reveals Twain’s serious satiric intent. In one scene, for instance, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion. “Good gracious! anybody hurt?” she asks. “No'm,” comes the answer. “Killed a nigger” (Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn 1409). But anyone who imagines that Mark Twain meant this literally is missing the point. Rather, Twain is using this casual dialogue ironically, as a way to underscore the chilling truth about the old south, that it was a society where perfectly “nice” people didn’t consider the death of a black person worth their notice. To drive the point home, Twain has the lady continue: “We...
Since its first publication in 1884, Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has proven to be one of history’s most controversial novels; especially recently, the novel has often been banned by schools and censored by libraries. Characters in the book are constantly using disparaging language toward slaves, and the repeated use of the word “nigger” makes many sensitive and offended. Critics denounce the novel and Mark Twain as racist for this word being insulting and politically incorrect and for its depiction of black people and how they are treated. However, Twain was not attempting to perpetuate racism; on the contrary, he used satire to expose the ignorance and paradoxical views held by many in America at that time. Despite objections to the novel for offensive and insensitive portrayal of African Americans due to Twain’s negative and stereotypical “minstrel-like” characterization of Jim and the extensive use of the term “nigger,” throughout the novel, Twain exposes Jim’s unfeigned humanity behind a “minstrel-like” pretense by illustrating his capacity to possess profound human emotions and his triggering Huck’s moral transformation from a conscienceless, uncivilized juvenile into a an adolescent able to make the ethical choice.