Huckleberry Finn Satirical Analysis

he book Huckleberry Finn is a satirical/fictitious book written by Mark Twain as a means of exposing a southern society and it’s culture of racism slavery and so on. The story revolves around a young boy and a runaway slave that are both running from something that haunts. Throughout the story there are many motifs of slavery racism and many others in that category all shown through the eyes of a young boy and an older slave. Through thick and thin the two stay close together as a means of comfort and companionship. Jim being a runaway slave and Huck a young white boy of no higher status, but still higher than the slave takes a long journey along the Mississippi River to a road to freedom that they only feel is true freedom from the chains

of society. No I do not agree with Simley’s claim on censorship. Although there are many traces of Racism, or use of racist words and ideals, from Huckleberry Finn, however when Huck uses the word nigger he does not mean it as derogatory at all, or to offend Jim, Huck also enjoys Jim’s company more than anyone else he has ever known building a strong bond between the two, also not to mention one of Mark Twain’s idea was racism in a society through the eyes of a young boy whose life is impacted by it. Never did Mark Twain mean to be offensive, racist, or derogatory, but to bring to the light and have it fully acknowledged. It was his way of poking fun of Southern ideas of racism and slavery.
To begin, the use of the word nigger or any other derogatory by Huckleberry Finn is in no means to be condescending between Huck and Jim.

Between the conversations that Huck has on his own, and the one he has with Jim. When bounty hunters were passing by Huck he uses the word nigger to refer to Jim, but the way he said it does not make it condescending, or offensive. “Goodbye, sir I says I won’t let no runaway niggers get by me if I can help it”(69). Not once did Huck say no sir I will not let no filthy nigger get past me, nor will I let any monkey niggers past me. Huck used a simple word without any negative context. Out of the multiple times Huck uses the word nigger not once is it to talk down to Jim, or mean any harm towards Jim. Not to mention, it is not entirely Huck’s fault for learning and using the word nigger as it is just the society he was raised in where the word nigger was used quite often, and it was a common thing to say in a regular conversation. He would most often use it as a sort of identification if one wills. He uses it to refer to slaves. Huck does not even know what it truly means when he uses the word to firstly refer to Jim.”Mrs. Watson’s nigger Jim” (13). There Huck goes using the word nigger without even trying to be mean or offensive. One can clearly see that Huck simply says the word, and nothing more. There is no negative context behind it a man can do just the same today get a couple of bad looks and some glares, but in reality he is only

using a word with no negative context. Huck’s bond with Jim also proves that Simley’s claims of racism are wrong.
Eventually along the way Huck begins to enjoy Jim’s company as a sort of replacement for Pap as a father figure. Huck and Jim clearly do some bonding while it is just the two of them at night. When Huck first runs away the first person he meets is Jim and boy is he glad to see him.” I was very so glad to see Jim. I wern’t so lonesome now”(31). Now if Huck really did not care about Jim he would have gone his merry way leaving him. Of all the people Huck wishes to see and is glad to see is Jim he did not care who it was just that it was someone that filled in the vast emptiness of being lonely. In fact Huck and Jim’s goals were about freedom but to each a different interpretation of it. Huck could have just pursued his own way instead of aiding Jim in earning his freedom, yet he missed Jim. When pap locked up Huck in a shack for 3 days Huck did not say how he misses Pap even though they are both related through blood. Huck enjoys the company of Jim more than the company of his father and that truly says something. Also before they even start their weird little journey Jim decides to open up to Huck even though Huck could just as easily go rat out his location for a reward money and go on his merry way a rich man with enough money to hire a bounty hunter to make sure Pap left him alone.”But mind you said you wouldn’t tell you know you wouldn’t tell Huck…”(32). Jim feels he can trust Huck with his secret seeing as how they only have each other although Huck can run off and turn him in for cash he does not which leads to a good bond between Jim and Huck as they travel down the Mississippi River. Along the way both Huck and Jim share similar qualities in the way they think and it helps build on their companionship. There is no social status between them it is not slave and master, or slave at all with Jim. The man is just like an other individual he has seen, but usage of a bad word and we have to censor it the only reason we should censor is if it is historically inaccurate, and something so dumb it would leave people speechless. censoring this book is like denying the word nigger ever existed in a book. Infact one of Mark Twain’s own motif was to expose the south and slavery to show a corrupt world with a lack of morals. Never did he mean anything negative by it.
To further my point, Mark Twain was a man of satire when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

He meant to poke fun of as much as possible it seems when he wrote this book as it is quite the list starting with religion, greed , civilization, romanticism, and the list goes on. Through Huck he shows a young boy being civilized by a society in which slavery exists and of course mistreatment, or a barrier between blacks and whites which affect Huck. “I see it warn’t no use wasting words- you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit”(60). It shows just how much a certain idea can catch considering Huck just called Jim less intelligent than he is which is pretty ironic considering Jim is much older than Huck. Twain just proves that blacks were thought less of during such times, but such a thing was not taken so seriously and with the publishing of this book gave more insight to everything in the south that was a little off. Many instances go farther and show what everyone thinks about blacks in a southern society. Most of what Huck has been taught in the south makes him conflicted when it comes time to decide certain things.”All right then I will go to hell-and tore it up”(162). Huck’s momentary decision here sort of set out how much he was affected by Southern ideology of returning and keeping slaves in check. Huck did start writing to Mrs. Watson in hopes that she would come get Jim. The thought of this really put Huck at such an ease due to the fact that he was used to

such an action of returning a slave to its rightful master. Regardless of all the time spent together Huck still thought about returning Jim, but did not as he was also a representation of a much nicer version of whites in the South as he was not your average slave owning person nor did he see slaves, but people. When one looks at it thoroughly racism only plays a small part of the entire book with its symbolism, motifs, themes, and so on. Such though eventually came to an end.
In the end, one can take away that really Simley was similar to an oversensitive person. Seeing as how one word can have such an impact. One thing she forgot to mention was context. All uses of the word nigger from huck that is are in no negative context. Words are sometimes just words and we over evaluate them for more than what they mean which can lead to confusions and such. Mark Twain did a really swell job of calling out the society of the south which would not fix itself until Jim Crowe. Moral to be taken away society can make such a huge impact on the children and that will later pass on what they gained from the past society from generation to generation. Honestly society has crumbled and it is up to the children to choose if they can fix it or not, or will they just pass on the same old ideas like the conformists they are. Either way we all are screwed. If we were to censor this it would be like taking a guidance away from an entire civilization. I mean if Harriet Beecher Stowe had not written Uncle Tom’s Cabin we may have never entered the Civil War. Sometimes it really shows what certain things can do and what certain things can’t do either way censoring is not the solution in this case it would be like a slave documentary without the word nigger.
(Pardon the use of the N word, just wanted to prove a point that a word is a word and won’t harm anyone unless you mean it to.)