racismhf Prejudice and Racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

743 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character of Huck in Huckleberry finn

Racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the main character Huck, makes two very important decisions. The first one is how he treats Jim when he first meets him at Jackson's Island and the second is to tear up the letter to Miss Watson because he cares deeply for Jim. When Huck first runs away from Pap he goes to Jackson's Island and thinks that he is the only person there. He soon finds out that this is not true, and that "Miss Watsons Jim"1 , is taking crap there as well. Many people would hate to be alone on an island with a "nigger"2 , but Huck is happy to have someone to talk with. At first Jim thinks he sees Hucks ghost and is scared. Huck gets Jims feelings by changing the subject and saying "It's good daylight, le's get breakfast"3 , showing that Huck is not only real but he does not mind that Jim is black. Jim feels that Huck might tell on him for running away, but he then decides that it will be okay to tell him why he ran away from Miss Watson. Jim keeps asking Huck if he is going to tell anyone about his running away, and Huck say's "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum but that don't make no difference I aint gonna tell"4 . Hucks response truly shows that his ignorance has no showing over his kindness. When taken into consideration good decisions are much more important in the long run than being the smartest person. After traveling with Jim for quite some time Huck begins to feel bad about harboring a runaway slave. He decides to write a letter to Miss Watson explaining the whole story, because Jim had been sold and he does not know where he is. Huck was indeed confused about what he should do so he dropped he dropped to his knees and began to pray. He felt by helping Jim he was committing a sin, but he later realized "you can't pray a lie"5 . Huck saying this shows that he feels what he has done for Jim is not wrong; instead what others had done to Jim is wrong. Still not sure of what to do about the whole situation Huck writes the letter to Miss Watson, thinking he will be "cleaned of sin"6 and not feel so bad about what he is doing. After writing this letter of confession to Miss Watson, Huck starts to reminisce about the times he had with Jim. As he is thinking he comes across the times Jim would be "standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me so I could go on sleeping"7 . Huck begins to realize that he would not be able to "strike no places to harden me against him"8 , showing that he realizes that Jim has done nothing but good for him. Huck looks at what he is doing and feels ashamed. He takes one final look at the letter before saying "all right then, I'll go to hell"9 and then rips up the letter of confession. The fact that Huck looked back at his times with Jim before deciding to tear up the letter shows that the decision was obviously made conscientiously through his decisions. Hucks decisions have a major efect on the way he treats Jim at Jackson's Island and in his decision to tear up the confession letter to Miss Watson. The way that these decisions are made shows that Huck does indeed have a good set of morals, which he uses to make his decisions. With Huck being only a young kid and Jim being much older, I think that it is easy to say that Mark Twain grew up in a area that was just like that when he was a young kid and also I believe that he was against slavery. It was probably something to do with someone he knew or something like that, he probably made friends with a slave and realized that they have lives to.

Show More
Related

  • Barbara Chase-Riboud's Hottentot Venus

    1959 Words  | 4 Pages

    the way the Khoisan’s language sounds. Dutch are the ones who introduced the clan to private properties, land theft, and fences. The English succeeds the Dutch, and they organized the Khoisan into categories of Hottentots, Negroes, and Bushmen, while claming themselves and others like them white.

    Read More

  • Racism In Huck Finn

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    How would you feel if a white boy couldn’t apologize to a grown black man because it goes against his faith? If I was in the black man’s position I would feel disrespected but I wouldn’t blame the white boy because he was brought up like that and it’s in his mentality to look at African Americans as property and with disgust. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain incorporates racism and slavery to show how and why it is wrong. He uses Huck, one of his man characters, to demonstrate how a white boy breaks forth from society’s racist ideas and the people around him to have a strong friendship with a slave name Jim, who becomes a fugitive. He uses Jim to demonstrate humanity and how it has nothing to do with the color of your skin. He also shows the struggle African Americans had to go through during that period of time in order to be free. Through friendship Huck learns that Jim is a regular human being just like everyone else.

    Read More

  • Hucklenberry Finn Huck and Jim

    1488 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jim's character traits are easy to over look because of his seeming ignorance, but in reality Jim possessed some qualities that created a positive influence on Huck. He began by demonstrating to Huck how friends teach friends. His honest compassion also eventually causes Huck to resist the ideas society has placed upon him, and see Jim as an equal-- rather than property that can be owned. Huck knew he was going against society, and of the consequences that he could receive for freeing a slave. "It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame", (269-270). Huck then claims, "All right, then, I'll go to hell…"(272) This shows that Huck was willing to put himself on the line for a slave, because he ceased to view Jim as property and recognized him as a friend. At the beginning of the story Huck would have never done this, but after the many adventures that occur, Jims unconditional love for Huck pierces the shell society placed ar...

    Read More

  • The Integrity and Strength of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Huck has been raised in a high-class society where rules and morals are taught and enforced. He lives a very strict and proper life where honesty and adequacy is imposed. Huck being young minded and immature, often goes against these standards set for him, but are still very much a part of his decision-making ability and conscience. When faced to make a decision, Hucks head constantly runs through the morals he was taught. One of the major decisions Huck is faced with is keeping his word to Jim and accepting that Jim is a runaway. The society part of Hucks head automatically looks down upon it. Because Huck is shocked and surprised that Jim is a runaway and he is in his presence, reveals Hucks prejudice attitude that society has imposed on him. Huck is worried about what people will think of him and how society would react if they heard that Huck helped save a runaway slave. The unspoken rules th...

    Read More

  • To Kill a Mockingbird: The Book vs. The Movie

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    Overall, the movie and book have many differences and similarities, some more important than others. The story still is clear without many scenes from the book, but the movie would have more thought in it.

    Read More

  • Huck Finn Morality

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    In chapter 16, Huck goes through a moral conflict of whether he should turn Jim in or not. “I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me (89).'; Right off from the beginning, Huck wanted to turn Jim in because it was against society’s rules to help a slave escape and Huck knew it. But when Jim said that “Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now (89),'; made helped Huck to grasp the concept that there is a friendship in the making. Even though Huck didn’t turn Jim in, he is till troubled by his conscience when the slave catchers were leaving because he knows it is wrong to help a slave. Still Huck cannot bring himself forward to tell on Jim, thus showing that his innate sense of right exceeds that of society.

    Read More

  • Essay On Racial Satire In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel Huck Finn, the author repeatedly uses satire to ridicule the insanity of racial ignorance and inequity of the time period. With his masterful use of role reversal, irony, and the obvious portrayal of double standards, Twain exemplifies the injustices of different races contrasting them with example after example of counter-argument shown through the friendship and adventures of Jim and Huck together.

    Read More

  • Ku Klux Klan In The Secret Society

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    We study the beginning of America and the movement of settlers into a new land. Then we look at the formation of the United States through the Revolutionary War. But nothing has ever changed this country from the inside as much as the Ku Klux Klan invasion into the country. The Klan’s influence and ability to cause destruction within a society inspired leaders and dictators such as Adolf Hitler. During the height of the Klan’s power and influence, it was doing many things right. It had attracted mass amounts of people with a simple message and used them to complete a secret agenda. Had the KKK continued to find new ways of bringing people to their cause and working to achieve superiority first, they may have caused an unforeseen amount of damage to the United States. Mistakes that were made by the members grew attention to them and caused society to see them as they were. The Ku Klux Klan of the modern day is still alive. It is barely breathing but growing and changing everyday. The hate will live on through the young, but the good people in the world are the key to truly changing the world for the

    Read More

  • Huck Finn Civilization Analysis

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    Under the control of the Widow Douglas and Miss. Watson, Huck is taught how to interpret the world around him. He is not allowed to explore and understand for himself, but rather must follow the path of civilization. His inner conscience is confined to what society wants him to believe. His identity is molded by the principles instilled in civilization, not what he himself believes. He is told to believe that slaves do not care for their family or that they do not have basic human principles. Huck then tunes his outlook on life to match these perspectives, which are not true. Twain reveals that flaw by introducing the character of Jim. Jim is one who cares for his family and has a kind, generous, and caring human nature, which contradicts with what society told Huck. These differences in interpretations and the final culmination of Huck declaring that he will go to hell establishes the idea that civilization wrongly confined his perspective of the world. Him wanting to go to hell confirms the idea that what civilization taught him about slaves is wrong, since he willing to risk his soul for Jim. After the adventure, Huck sees the world for what it truly is, which mostly is different than what the Widow Douglas, and in a civilization in a larger sense, taught him. Twain shows by this change in outlook, that civilization is wrong to limit the freedom of people and that it is flawed to incorrectly

    Read More

  • The Ku Klux Klan

    2117 Words  | 5 Pages

    The critical time periods in the Ku Klux Klan’s history can be simply broken down into separate “Klans.” Former Confederate soldiers in Pulaski, Tennessee formed the first Klan around a year after the end of the Civil War. Soon after, Nathan Forrest, a former Confederate lieutenant general, was named the “Grand Wizard” of the organization. The “main objective of white supremacy organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White Brotherhood, the Men of Justice, the Constitutional Union Guards and the Knights of the White Camelia was to stop black people from voting” and restore the white supremacy the South saw prior to the Civil War ("Effects of the Klu Klux Klan"). At this point, Klansmen would ride at night through towns brutally intimidating, blacks and radical Republicans. These tactics got so bad that in 1870, Congress began passing the first of three...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Westing Game

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    Money is the main source of power in the world, but in ways it can be viewed as good or bad depending on the situation. It has a negative connotation when mentioned by the word “acts”. “ Acts” means to perform a fictional role. Which shows that most things involving money are fake. Though humans associate being fake with being morally wrong,but its somehow acceptable if there is a greater power involved. Another definition for acts is to take action;do something. In this case to take an action can be either good or bad. There are many ways to come across money, but nobody cares if it is good or bad because it deals with a greater power.

    Read More

  • Hound Of The Baskerville Comparison Essay

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the BBC version of it, The Hounds of the Baskerville share many similarities, yet are quite different in countless ways. The general gist of the two plots is rather similar; in both of them, there is a mysterious, possibly supernatural hound, that a man (Sir Henry, or Henry Knight) fears, and Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Watson are called upon to solve the mystery and help Henry have his piece of mind. However, a great deal of the characters have different attributes, certain themes vary, many aspects of the plot have been tweaked, and the setting has been rather drastically modified. One of the most reworked aspects seen on the BBC version is indeed, the setting. The change of the setting from a vast, desolate moor and a large mansion to a minefield and a top secret laboratory

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Klu Klux Klan

    1374 Words  | 3 Pages

    This cartoon was published in 1874, almost a decade after the Civil War had ended, and yet these people were still in dangerous and cruel situations. The Klu Klux Klan, as defined by A.J. Bowser, was a “social club” whose philosophy was “white superiority…and they would often use violence and terrorization of Blacks as a means of exercising this philosophized superiority.”(Bowser) The KKK was formed shortly after the Civil War ended, and “blacks and white sympathizers were often threatened, beaten, or even murdered by Klan members in the South.” The member of the Klu Klux Klan is one of the most dominant figures in the cartoon, showing the club’s prevalence in post-Civil War times. The words “worse than slavery” are aptly displayed in the image, showing that people who had believed they would no longer be treated as animals were still subjected to abuse, constantly “threatened, beaten, or murdered” (Bowser) even with freedom. The cartoon showcases the racism that became prevalent in America after the war, and reveals the reality of life after war. Nast wiped away the idea of a perfect, slavery-free world with this drawing and drew a line from the end of the Civil War to segregation. People that had advocated for African-Americans felt like saints and those that had fought against them felt anger at having lost. They all felt a

    Read More

  • Film Reflection Of 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles'

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Hound of the Baskervilles, was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as part of his Sherlock Holmes series phenomena. The 1939 movie directed by Sidney Lanfield, closely follows Doyle’s original writing with a few added scenes. This movie was made in black and white, but does a great job of adding many cinematic techniques to communicate a meaning and produce certain emotions. Cinematic techniques help to communicate things that may otherwise be hard to communicate with a black and white production. In this reflection I will discuss the main differences between the writing and the film, how the lighting of characters helps to portray them in certain ways, the establishing shot of the moor and its importance, and the sound of the hound.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Ethical Science In The Hound Of The Baskervilles

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Hound of the Baskervilles, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of Doyle’s crime novels that features the detective Sherlock Holmes who seeks to solve the mystery of Sir Charles Baskerville’s death and separate the cause of Baskerville’s death from a family tale of a menacing hound. The Hounds of Baskerville, directed by Paul McGuigan, is a modern-day film adaptation of Doyle’s story. Compared to The Hound of the Baskervilles, the realistic aspect and the theme of immorality accompanied by the portrayal of the results of unethical science through the characters in The Hounds of Baskerville all work to support the idea that the story serves as a cautionary tale against the loss of morals.

    Read More

More about racismhf Prejudice and Racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Open Document