Huckleberry Finn and Beloved – Slavery
Slavery is a very significant theme that has been frequently debated ever since the book Huckleberry Finn presented itself into many schools. Fortunately, Deerfield High School has the pleasure to read this book that has been banned in so many other learning facilities. Mark Twain himself was strongly against slavery; Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as a symbol for why slavery is wrong.
In another book we have read this past semester, Beloved, we have learned the true, harsh reality of slavery and the people that came victim to it. There are some parts in this novel where you think they can't even be described in words, but they were. From immobilizing people to speak by using cruel and unusual devices like the "bit", to seeing black slaves as part human and part animal, there is nothing worse. In chapter 19, Schoolteacher teaches the class to separate a black slaves human side and animal side, "No, no. That's not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And don't forget to line them up."(Morrison193). Huckleberry Finn doesn't even come close to telling about the severity of slave life. There is a saying in the writing community, "Write what you know." How can a white man, who wrote about a white little boy, understand the same depth of the slavery experience as a black person? This would be a difficult task for Mark Twain to approach, so he doesn't nearly approach the circumstances of slavery as well as Toni Morrison did in Beloved.
Huckleberry Finn uses Jim, being a slave, as a way of showing the sensitive and real side of a slave, before they are brutalized of course. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions. Jim runs away because Miss Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family. "I hear ole missus tell de wider she gwyne to sell me to Orleans..."(Twain 54). He tries to become free so he can buy his family's freedom. He takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very kind manner.
He has "the heart to serve Jim" (Twain 222) by letting him feel "free and easy and comfortable" (Twain 119) on the raft down the Mississippi River. He shows compassion towards Jim by shutting out the evil in the outside world and giving him the feeling of freedom for once in his life. Huckleberry made Jim feel like "there warn't no home like a raft" (Twain 119). He makes Jim feel like he is actually apart of a community like everyone else no matter the color of the skin. Where Jim can find tranquility and can take a break from running and hiding all the time due to the actions of Huckleberry. The raft doesn't make him feel like a slave following every command, duty, or order for the white masters. The way Huckleberry treats a Jim is how society should be treating them to be consider a hero because the way society treats black people now, makes them the
W.E.B Du Bois strategy can be evaluated as ceaseless agitation as stated in The Niagara Movement "If we expect to gain our rights by nerveless acquiescence in wrong, then we expect to do what no other nation ever did. What must we do then? We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complain, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong- this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty, and we must follow it." For this time period, this strategy is inefficient because he only thought about a small percentage of the Black race. As like Washington, he to wanted them to go to top colleges, get a great education, and in some way he thought that they were going to become the intelligence whole Black nation.
I have chosen Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas as one of the most divisive Supreme Court cases.
The case of brown v. board of education was one of the biggest turning points for African Americans to becoming accepted into white society at the time. Brown vs. Board of education to this day remains one of, if not the most important cases that African Americans have brought to the surface for the better of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education was not simply about children and education (Silent Covenants pg 11); it was about being equal in a society that claims African Americans were treated equal, when in fact they were definitely not. This case was the starting point for many Americans to realize that separate but equal did not work. The separate but equal label did not make sense either, the circumstances were clearly not separate but equal. Brown v. Board of Education brought this out, this case was the reason that blacks and whites no longer have separate restrooms and water fountains, this was the case that truly destroyed the saying separate but equal, Brown vs. Board of education truly made everyone equal.
The Supreme Court is perhaps most well known for the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. By declaring that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, Kevern Verney says a ‘direct reversal of the Plessy … ruling’1 58 years earlier was affected. It was Plessy which gave southern states the authority to continue persecuting African-Americans for the next sixty years. The first positive aspect of Brown was was the actual integration of white and black students in schools. Unfortunately, this was not carried out to a suitable degree, with many local authorities feeling no obligation to change the status quo. The Supreme Court did issue a second ruling, the so called Brown 2, in 1955. This forwarded the idea that integration should proceed 'with all deliberate speed', but James T. Patterson tells us even by 1964 ‘only an estimated 1.2% of black children ... attended public schools with white children’2. This demonstrates that, although the Supreme Court was working for Civil Rights, it was still unable to force change. Rathbone agrees, saying the Supreme Court ‘did not do enough to ensure compliance’3. However, Patterson goes on to say that ‘the case did have some impact’4. He explains how the ruling, although often ignored, acted ‘relatively quickly in most of the boarder s...
In the beginning, Huckleberry Finn hasn?t fully formed opinions on topics such as slavery. He is quite immature and content to just have ?adventures? with his friends. During his journey on the raft, he learns much more about himself through his dealings with others. He establishes his very own standards of right and wrong. Huck?s most important lessons are learned through Jim. He learns to see Jim as a person rather than as a slave: ?I knowed he was white inside? (263). More than any other character in the book, Jim is a catalyst for Huck?s maturity. Through Jim as well as other people he meets along the way, Huck becomes a more defined person who?s more fully himself. His development through the course of the novel proves The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be a gradual journey toward growth and maturity.
Reid, Herbert O. “The Supreme Court Decision and Interpretation.” The Journal of Negro Education 25.2 (1956): 109-117.
Patterson, James. “Brown v Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy (Pivotal Moments in American History).” Oxford University Press., 2001.
The Brown vs Board of Education as a major turning point in African American. Brown vs Board of Education was arguably the most important cases that impacted the African Americans and the white society because it brought a whole new perspective on whether “separate but equal” was really equal. The Brown vs Board of Education was made up of five different cases regarding school segregation. “While the facts of each case are different, the main issue in each was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools ("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION") .”
Walking into the auditorium, conversations about the excitement of the Brown sisters giving a talk about the historical decision, politics, sports, and other everyday conversations could be heard. The auditorium filled with people of different ethnic groups, mainly Caucasians but several African-Americans came to hear the true story behind Brown v. Board of Education. I would have to say about 60 percent of the people were Caucasians, 25 percent African-Americans and the other 15 percent were either Asians or Hispanics. People of all ages came to hear what the Brown sisters had to say; some as young as the age of seven and some as old as in their late 60’s. Children, undergrad students, grad students, professors, as well as people with other professions filled the auditorium, with undergrad students making up most of the people who attended. However, the auditorium was not full or as filled as one would expect knowing that the Brown family was going to discuss the Brown v. Board of Education decision, a disappointing reality.
Another theme that is dealt with in this book is slavery. In fact, slavery is one of the main topics that has been frequently debated in regards to Huckleberry Finn since it was first published. Twain himself was vehemently anti-slavery and Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as an allegory for why slavery is wrong. Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one of the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions: Jim runs away because Miss Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family; Jim is trying to become free so he can buy his family's freedom; and Jim takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very materialistic manner.
In 1954 through Brown V. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decided that forced segregation denied African Americans equal protection under the law as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown mandated equal access and opportunity. This decision created a wave of effects throughout the African American community. Unequal outcomes were fueled by low expectation and cultural incompatibilities along with the drainage of resources such as the removal of the best teachers through reassignment to desegregated schools or through firing (Green et al., 2005). Black students were also bused to predominately White schools disproportionately, causing many African American schools to close (Morris, 1999). Morris further state...
It was adopted in 1868, and had only given certain rights to African Americans, so African American families lead the fight for equality. Brown v. Board of Education stated that public schools must integrate, in which created an enormous controversy throughout the nation. .May 17, 1954 was an important milestone in American history, the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education unanimously outlawed racial segregation in public schools. During the trial, many experts testified the negative effects the discrimination segregation had on learning and furthering one 's’ education. I believe so as well, it makes one think that there is no hope for they themselves to be successful. To some Americans it would not matter if your intelligence outshone anyone, but because of stereotypes white Americans observed as a young child one was still misjudged. Due to the fact that white Americans grew up to believe that African Americans were filthy and uneducated human beings who do not belong in the high rank of society, it was difficult for many white Americans to accept the desegregation in public
“Brown v Board of Education.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation Corporation, Nov. 19, 2013. Accessed Nov. 25, 2013. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
All things considered, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, suggests that people are subject to various enslavements and attempt to pursue freedom from these enslavements. The reason I selected this theme as the most important is due to its real world application. This theme is relevant to real life due to the fact that numerous people are deprived of freedom and are attempting to obtain the freedom that they desire. People throughout history and even today seek their freedom. In this novel, one of the freedoms sought after was the end to racial discrimination, this was achieved in the 1960s by the Civil Rights Movement and famous American hero’s we now admire such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..