Huckleberry Finn Analysis

Mark Twain, avid novelist, was an abolitionist when it was potentially very dangerous to be one. Twain portraits this through his norm-defying novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He cleverly uses the growing maturity of the main character, Huckleberry Finn, to force the reader to ponder whether or not enslaving minorities was ethically or morally correct. Although Twain gives most of the characters the diction of a racist, Twain is using words like "Nigger" and other slang terms to show how ignorant those are who are racist. Throughout Twain's story, Huck's opinion on slavery changes, both on an intellectual and a moral level. Whenever Huck and Jim runaway, Huck feels like it is his duty to turn Jim in, but later realizes that Jim is

During the early 1800's, slavery was very normal and was even praised in southern states. The theme of the story, according to literary critic William Grant from Salem Press, was "Huck’s conflict with his conscience over whether or not to turn Jim in as a runaway slave." In the beginning of the story, Huck believed that slavery was right, for the Church and society all believed in it. He thought that he was more important than all black people. For example, after a black man would not share the road with Huck, Huck shoved him out of the way and asked "Why ain’t this nigger put up at auction and sold?" (Twain 29). Huck believed that he is always more important than blacks. This shows that not only Huck, but all of society was very ignorant to colored folks only because they were black. Mark Twain is trying to make the reader sympathize for the black man, forcing them to question the morality behind the idea of

Because this story takes place before the Civil War, Twain uses this opportunity to make the reader wonder "whether anything has really changed since the emancipation of slaves" (Stocks, Claire). Huck's internal conflict is symbolizing that people, after the emancipation of slaves, have a hard time of changing their views on an idea that has been enforced among society for centuries. Having mixed emotions about his situation, Huck asks himself, "Was Jim a runaway nigger?" (Twain 129). Huck, symbolizing all of America after the Emancipation Proclamation, is trying to figure out whether or not treating colored people differently is good. When Twain was writing this, he was still upset that black people were treated so badly, so he made a character in his story to portrait America's internal conflict of figuring out what is really right. Huck started out thinking all blacks were nothing more then property, but then realizes that Jim was a human just like every white person. Twain wants the American people to at least try to give the newly freed slaves a chance to be apart of