Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Where does racism begin? Is it embedded in us the day we are born? Do we wake up one morning and decide to be racist? Racism is an aspect that is taught to us from daily observations. Normally, we grasp the concept to be racist by our parents or guardian. In the story “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, the protagonist and narrator of the novel is young white, male, named Huck Finn. Huck lives in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River. This novel takes place a few years prior to the Civil War. During this time, slavery was still permitted. African Americans around that time were treated brutally. Many whites owned slaved, and Huck Finn’s guardians, Widow Douglass and Miss Watson are one of them. They both own Jim, a runaway slave that Huck later meets. Huck is recently awarded with money, and Huck’s violent father, comes to retrieve Huck and his money from Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, the sisters that adopt Huck. Huck fakes his own death and runs away, and on the run finds Jim. Jim decides to run away after he hears Miss Watson is going to sell Jim to a plantation that would then separate him from his family. While on their voyage, Huck and Jim form a close friendship. Despite societies norms and judgments that Huck will face by being Jims friend, Huck still defends and cares for Jim. Huck is a young boy that is sometimes conflicted between societies expectations and what his conscious feels. Huck is superstitious, naive, intelligent, and heart driven.

Huck has many characteristics in the novel, many are portrayed but one important one that is voiced throughout the novel is his superstition. Huck is very superstitious. Some of the superstitions he has are derived from the time period. According ...

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... Race in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Jackson, Mississippi. P. 1-159. 1998. Print.
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Johnson, Claudia Durst. “Understanding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. A student casebook to issues, sources and historical documents. Westport, Connecticut. P. 1-246. 1996. Print.
Quirk, Tom. “The Flawed Greatness of Huckleberry Finn”. The Magazine of the Mizzou Alumni Association. University of Missouri. 21 May 2013. Web.
Twain, Mark. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. 2nd ed. Ed. Graff, Gerald and James Phelan. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 1-883. Print.
Wood, Daniel Davis. “Character Synthesis in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The Explicator. Academic Share Research. 12 June 2013. Web.

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