Essay On Shackles Of Slavery In Huck Finn

shackles of slavery? And if freedom of the black slave was to be contested wasn’t the black man just as ‘white’ in human approach vis-à-vis the white man?

Another thought-provoking twist to the plot is how the author portrays Huck as a white boy who comes from the lowest levels of the same white society that viewed itself ‘superior’ to their black counterparts. The question being that if here was a character Huck who was financially backward, had an abusive father, and loathed the ‘civilised’ form and structure of life, how on earth could the ‘self’ justify the ‘slave drive’ instilled in plantations and factories in 1870’s America? Surely if Huck were ‘black’ he would have been brazenly beaten to stupendously shackled the way black slaves were. If the formula of the white man were to be applied to Huck then why wouldn’t the white man enslave his ‘own’ coloured people? Twain pointed out to this human duality by deliberately portraying Huckleberry Finn who did come from an inferior class as compared to Tom Sawyer, to perhaps enlighten the reader towards the attitude prevalent in America towards the coloured race. If the demonization of the ‘other’ could be based on the colour of skin and appearance, it could well be applied on the not so well of blue collar workforce like the character of Huckleberry Finn?

Was Huck Black? Jim the slave and Huck the underprivileged white boy have a lot in common, both are disadvantaged, powerless, abused, yearn for freedom, sick to death of the ‘rules and regulations’ of the world order and above all their respective fates hang on the heads of the powerful white man. Huck tastes his own duality when it comes to ‘trusting’ Jim whilst they have a jaunt up the Mississippi River. His duality is furthe...

... middle of paper ...

...ke Hitler and Mussolini had indulged in fascist behaviour that was eerily similar to the policies of Nazi Germany.

The assimilation and amalgamation of the other was very much needed in America. Though Twain and others knew this would be an arduous task, the method in which the author sought to portray the ‘self’ in both the novels is intriguing. If Huck a white boy is portrayed belonging to a poor background where excessive alcoholism is the route chosen by his father Pap, wasn’t this the demonization of the white class? The categorization of the characters would have raised eyebrows at the time.

Although it seems that it wasn’t just the self or theorists who were white that came up with the rationale that a black man was born to serve the white man. Philosophers were pathetically inclined towards extreme ethnic discrimination. Aristotle described slavery as not