Examples Of Racism In Huckleberry Finn

Racism is still one of today's largest and most controversial issues, a topic found almost anywhere almost any time almost always being questioned. Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not exempt from this questioning, falsely being referred to as a racist novel quite frequently and unfairly being banned from classrooms across the country, when in reality it advises against racism. Proof that the novel is not, in fact, of the racist sort and actually quite the opposite, can be found in various places, including the novel itself and various articles. There are many events within the novel that play into Twain's satire against racism. After tricking Jim into thinking that they did not get separated from each other one foggy night

Despite the use of a racial slur, Huck's compassion for Jim, an African-American man, is still very apparent. He does not want to hurt Jim and thus apologizes to him for the mean trick he played, despite what he has learned from his society, that an African-American is not worthy of an apology. Huck recalls waking up one morning and Jim "was sitting there with his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself [and that he knew] he was thinking about his wife and his children [... and] believe[d] he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n [and how] it don't seem natural, but [he] reckoned it's so" (155). Huck is able to revise his initial thoughts and reject the racist values his culture and upbringing have instilled in him. What at first seems "natural" to Huck – that slaves, or for that many any African-American, don't feel love for their families – is proven wrong when he sees how Jim

Once again, Huck turns on his original opinions, as he decides that he would rather end up in hell for helping someone who was an honestly good man and friend to him than continue conforming to the incredibly racist and ignorant society in which he lives. Although the novel itself provides a variety of situations that prove that it is not a racist piece of literature, many articles are capable of doing the same. In response to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being banned from St. Albans High School, Bill Matory, a seventeen-year-old African-American, states that banning the book is "'like taking a big part of America's past away from us' [and that] 'you must understand why the book was written, and how it was written'" (Hentoff). Matory clearly understands not only that the use of the word "nigger" throughout the novel is solely there to serve the purpose of staying true to the past, but that the novel itself does not support racism, but rather was written in order to discourage it. From another African-American view point that supports the novel, "Booker T. Washington noted how Twain 'succeeded in making his readers feel a genuine respect for 'Jim,' and pointed out that Twain, in creating Jim's character, had 'exhibited his sympathy and interest in the masses of the negro