Essay On The Difference Between Huckleberry Finn And Grandison

When comparing the characters Jim from Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and Grandison in Charles Chestnutt’s “The Passing of Grandison”, there are many likenesses to the portrayals of minstrel characters that can be perused. This type of representation could have derived from different responses to the minstrel shows by the authors. Was Chestnutt and Twain using the minstrel mask to achieve the same sagacious insight into the degrading racial stereotype of the African American people and their culture? Or, is it possible that the personal convictions held by each author, regarding minstrel shows, a direct effect on their intended use of the mask? Are Twain and Chestnutt are using the farce of minstrel themed personalities as aspiration and admiration towards the genre or as a strategic play on the derogatory stereotype in order to pull one over on the reader? When the characters of Jim and Grandison are compared the evidence seems apparently clear. Jim remains trapped in the traditional plantation myth stereotype, whereas Grandison has been given the opportunity to reveal his mask and emerge as a truly clever human being. Twain was an enthusiast of the minstrel show, even stating so in his autobiography. Although, there is little information in the way of Chestnutt’s personal take on the minstrel show, we can assume he viewed the depiction of exaggerated characterization of African-American people as degrading when his ancestry is considered. This very well could be the reason behind Grandison

being allowed to lift his mask and Jim always remaining behind his, forever trapped as a prop. Chestnutt’s use of the minstrel mask for Grandison appears to be more authentic as opposed to Twain’s attempt to sugar coat the complexities of the racist, white persons mentality.

When we take a close look at the character of Jim, Twain paints the minstrel mask to match his namesake with the use of dialect, dialog banters between Jim and Huck, superstitious beliefs, and lack of literary knowledge. Famously, the “King Sollermun” exchange between Jim and Huck is indicative with the minstrel show debates. In Chapter XIV, Jim admits to knowing nothing about kings “skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat’s in a packer k’yards.”(138) But yet the wisdom of his humanity is slightly uncovered as he disagrees with Solomon’s method of cutting the baby in two; comparing it to being as useless as cutting a dollar bill in half. “ I reck’n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de real pint is down furder-it’s down deeper. It lays in de way Sollermun was raised. You take a man dat’s got on’y one or two chillen; is dat man gwyne to be waseful o’ chillen? No he ain’t: he can’t ‘ford it.” (138) I believe this gives us a glimpse of the compassionate feeling person under the mask and could possibly even be hinting to the feelings for his own children and their importance to him. Some people say this is a clever way Twain attempts to provide true emotional attachment to Jim, while others criticize Twain claiming he is “stooping to false and offensive racial stereotypes to court popular favor.” (3)

As Chestnutt introduces us to the character of Grandison, his mask is on extremely tight. So tight in fact, that as a first time reader I found myself irritated with the pantomime, desperately wanting the character to discontinue feeding into the negative stereotype. “Well, I sh’d jes’ reckon I is better off, suh, dan dem low-down free n!&&*#, suh!”(754) And boy does he continue to lay it on thick to Colonel Owens, “Anybody ax’em me who I b’longs ter, I ain’ got no ‘casionter be shame’ ter tell’em, no, suh, ‘deed I ain’, suh!”(754) It’s obvious that Grandison is cajoling the Colonel but it appears to be coming from a place of servitude. It’s not till the very end of the story do we realize we have been duped by the mask and Grandison’s Machiavellian escape might not have been possible without the ignorance and prejudice of the plantation myth, or beliefs held by those believing in slavery. Chestnutt uses the minstrel mask as a reverse weapon on the very race that finds this type of entertainment appealing. While feeding into the racist bigotry he creates a cloak that allows Grandison to not only free himself, but also return and free his entire extended family. All at the expense of white ignorance. I was ecstatic at the end of this story, could have cried if more provoked. I felt the success and freedom, the wit and the patience, and then the deep human-being desire to preserve ones family was kept well disguised through out the narrative.

By examining these two stories and the use of the minstrel depiction on the African-Americans characters within these volumes of work, gives us an opportunity to question the real intention behind portraying these characters in such light instead of as compassionate and genuine human beings. It is rumored that Twain was trying to be ironic and use the humor of the minstrel shows, in which the contemporary white reader would have seen no harm in, while attempting to address the complex superficial stereotype of the mask. But, by not allowing Jim the dignity to take it off and appear to be an individual free of subservient behavior, he wears his mask to the bitter end. “Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you?- what I tell you up dah on Jackson islan’? I tole you I got a hairy breas’, en what’s de sign unit; en I tole you I ben rich wunst, en gwinerter to be rich agin;”(5) Does this narration keep Jim suppressed behind the mask, adding to the simple minded posturing. Here was Jim not showing any signs of discontent for the situation he just went through considering he was already a free man. And Twain has him turn towards his superstitious beliefs instead of questioning what Tom just put them all through, considering he was free. There is some questions regarding the ending where Jim informs Huck about his father and why such important information was withheld to the very end. Was this Twain’s attempt to send the reader into contemplation regarding the real person under the mask, was it intended to have us question the intentions of Jim in withholding this information? James M Cox suggests in his book “ A Hard Book to Take” that “though one of his motives for evading Huck’s query about the dead man in the floating house may be his tender wish to spare Huck the knowledge of being and orphan.” Also he states “Jim has good reason to suspect that a Huck free of his pap might leave him high and dry”(444) annotated
The real intentions Jim had in withhold the information from Huck was never established; we are left to wonder whether he was silent to protect Huck or protect himself.

This could have been a great place for Twain to lift the minstrel mask and reveal a genuine character, even if it was for a self-serving side of Jim that might have rubbed readers the wrong way. Unfortunately Twain leaves Jim in the shadows of the minstrel mask to forever be

deliberated.
Now compare the way Jim was left in his mask and how Chestnutt sets Grandison free. Not only from slavery but from the minstrel mask and plantation myth. If Tarantino had written this story he would have most certainly written it so that Grandison would have shot the middle finger to the colonel instead of simply pointing “him out to one of the crew of the vessel, who waved his hand dervisively”. (762) Anthology
Even though Grandison’s mask is heavy and placed on tightly, to the point we don’t even recognize it as a front, he completely shows the reader the extreme depth of the character with his actions of returning to the plantation and continuing to play into the falsehoods held by the Owens. They sincerely believed he had run away from the abolitionists and return home to the comforts of slavery. This absurd mentality is the very thing Grandison uses against the ignorance of the white slave owner. Throughout the story we suspect that Grandison is being approached by individuals trying to offer him freedom, yet we are only allowed to see him by means of the young Owens’s eyes and his intellect is left behind the mask, we see him as his young master sees him and not the calculative, clever and full-hearted character he ends up to really be. I feel that Chestnutt’s use of the mask for Grandison worked amazingly well. Much better than the hoodwink Twain was attempted to achieve with Jim. Grandison is not only a heavily laden, clandestine character, but he is also given the opportunity to show the reader how by the use of the white persons bias in such a masterful way, his tight mask played to his advantage and he triumphed over the adversity of slavery. Without the skills to use the mask in his favor, he could have possibly been considered unfit to travel to the north much like the character of Tom, young Owens first choice to take with him. “ ‘I don’t think it safe to take Tom up North,’ he declared, with promptness and decision. ‘ He’s a good enough boy, but too smart to trust among those low-down abolitionists’’ (753) Here in the text allows the reader to see the mindset of the colonel and how he doesn’t trust this person because he doesn’t wear the stereotype of servitude well enough. I found it unique that Chestnutt acknowledges how Tom was suspected of reading, which made him a threat and says to Dick “I don’t think its safe to take him”.(753) Almost as a warning, that if the true essence of the humanistic character is revealed, he will continue to remain suppressed, it’s only Grandison and his ability to feed the ego and play into the prejudice of the colonel, where is has the capability to escape in such a fashion. Chestnutt, I feel, layered his character, Grandison, to at first play into the plantation myth only to emerge victorious. The reader is left feeling just as mystified as the colonel, because you don’t see it coming till the very end as it all comes together for the escaping party.
It is of my interpretation that Chestnutt pulls of the cloak and dagger scheme suburb, with the use of the minstrel mask and the lifting of that mask as freedom is endured in a completely human and empathetic manner. But I cannot give credit to Twain for such honest intent to divulge the humanist character behind the mask. He lives Jim trapped in the ‘darky’ stereotype and even though we are suppose to take the story from the perspective of a young boy, not once does Twain even allow his characters to hint at the idea that slavery is wrong. It is documented in Twain’s autobiography his true feelings towards the minstrel show presentations, “The minstrel show was born in the early forties and it had a suc¬cessful career for about thirty-¬five years. To my mind it was a thor¬oughly delightful thing and a most laughter-¬making one and I am sorry it is gone.” (pg 24, Autobiography) And with this outlook on what is a truly degrading art form meant to entertain whites all the while negatively representing black people as unauthentic characters, I feel that his use of the mask for Jim was out of admiration for this type of theater. He wasn’t using the mask to flip the narrative and pull one over on his reader, he used the minstrel likenesses because he genuinely like the minstrel shows and their philosophy. This makes his use of the mask for Jim almost down right disrespectful, racist, and apocryphal. When compared to Chestnutt and his use of he mask for Grandison, Chestnutt’s heritage could account for the authenticity of the intentions to use the mask in a profound and meaningful way. Chestnutt was the product of a mulatto mother and father, and with this ancestral heritage he appeared to have features that closely resembled other whites. But he was considered lower in social status than that of other ‘white’ Americans. Having to deal with the harsh realities of unfair treatment and witnessing injustices to other mixed and African-American people appears to have molded his desire to blur the line between what we think we know about a person of a different color and what that person is actually capable of without consideration to genealogy. Here lies the solidifying component that gives rise to the successful use of the minstrel mask as a bamboozlement Granidson pulls over on the colonel and the reader.