All Colors Matter Equally In Mark Twain's Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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All Colors Matter Equally

The white south during the 1830’s was an era of disorder and moral relativism caused a peculiar institution to be maintained. In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, slavery was still rampant and society stood by this institution. Although some saw this as a cruel establishment, southern whites defended this with their lives to preserve their superiority. The slaves suffered harsh conditions and only wanted to be seen as equal to their white brethren. However, Huck Finn, the protagonist, see the flaws in this inhuman practice and strives to make a difference. He aids his best pal Jim, a slave, in his escape from grasp of slavery and guides him to freedom. Along the path they encounter different characters …show more content…

Mark Twain uses Pap’s racism to prove how society prevented blacks from being able to have an important say in the political sphere through voting. Pap states his frustration by saying “I was just about to vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a state in this country where they'd let a nigger vote, I drawed out” (Twain 35). His animosity towards blacks is evident, and he is so furious with their ability to vote that he won't even vote because the idea of a colored man voting is ridiculous to him. He is similar to other poor whites because he doesn’t want to lose the power he has over them. If black people gain voting powers, his status will be reduced to lower than the black people. This causes him to embody racism as a facet of his morals. Pap’s beliefs that whites and blacks will never be equal proves his racist mindset, while also showing how wrong the stereotypical southern vision was because it believed whites should possess all the power instead of sharing it. Pap first describes inequality of black people when he talks about “a free nigger there, from Ohio; a mullater, most as white as a white man” (Twain 34). He is ridiculing the government for giving the black people so many nice things because he is being

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