Huck Finn Essay

Huck Finn is not racist: It is a profound social statement on the inhumanity of slavery and of every individual’s born right to freedom.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a Mark Twain classic, wonderfully demonstrates pre-Civil War attitudes about blacks held by whites. Twain demonstrates these attitudes through the actions and the speech of Huckleberry Finn, the narrator, and Jim, Miss Watson's slave. These two main characters share a relationship that progresses from an acquaintance to a friendship throughout the novel. It is through this relationship that Mark Twain gives his readers the realization of just how different people's attitudes were before the Civil War. Twain also reveals the negative attitudes of whites toward blacks by the cruel manner in which Jim is treated with such inferiority.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that twain didn’t like. However, the main theme in this book is breaking free. He urges his readers to do the right thing, not necessarily what everyone else is doing. He illustrates this ideal with Huck. Most everyone else thought of Jim, along with blacks in general, as something less than human. Huck knew this was wrong, and his actions followed this when he rescued Jim. Main characters Huckleberry Finn Huck is the narrator of the story and for the most part is honest to us, the readers. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and everything else that will eventually make him civilized. A big debate surrounds Huck on whether he changes or not throughout the story. Huck, in the beginning, seems very set in the south’s anti-black ways, however, Huck states that he will go to hell to keep Jim out of slavery. At this point it seems like he does change, but at the end of the book, Huck plays yet another joke on Jim and seems as though any change was temporary. Huck has little sense of humor, which is ironical, considering the book is satirical. Twain has also been criticized about Huck’s character, in that it seems as though Huck knows too much for his age. In one of the movies Huck was about seventeen, in another he was about eight. I figure from the book that Huck is

Huck finn is not a racist book, it just states racial problems in the south, shows the bond between huck and jim, while they learn life lessons about each other and their flaws

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Jim, a runaway slave, faces many obstacles in his journey to freedom. Huck Finn, a teenage boy and friend of JIm, is also facing difficulty with whether or not he should be helping Jim escape slavery. Many characters throughout the novel struggle to deal with conflicts. A conflict that people in today’s world are struggling to deal with, is the controversy over whether Huckleberry Finn is a racist novel or not. All-in-all, Huckleberry Finn is profoundly antislavery. Twain creates Him as a man who is brave and heroic. Twain also demonstrates that the blacks and whites relationship is not the only concern over racism, and reveals the voice of a slave attempting to survive in a white slave culture.

Huck Finn's relationship with slavery is very complex and often contradictory. He has been brought up to accept slavery. He can think of no worse crime than helping to free a slave. Despite this, he finds himself on the run with Jim, a runaway slave, and doing everything in his power to protect him. Huck Finn grew up around slavery. His father is a violent racist, who launches into tirades at the idea of free blacks roaming around the countryside. Miss Watson owns slaves, including Jim, so that no matter where he goes, the idea of blacks as slaves is reinforced. The story takes place during the 1840's, at a time when racial tensions were on the rise, as northern abolitionists tried to stir up trouble in the South. This prompted a

At this point in the novel, Huck still holds the belief that blacks are essentially different from whites. Also, Huck's conscience constantly reminds him that he is an abolitionist for helping Jim run away from his owner. Huck does not see that Jim is looking for freedom just as he is.

Jim’s words had a big affect on Huck, who realizes that Jim is a person, and that his feelings can be hurt.

Mark Twain went against endless amounts of criticism about his racist’s comments in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The character of Jim is demeaning to African-Americans as he is portrayed as a foolish, uneducated, black slave. The “n” word is also used in the book describing him and many other African-American characters in the story. However, some see this book as anti-racist and believe that the use of racist’s comments is not racist at all. Those who think that are mistaken because Huck Finn in clearly a racist novel.

     There is a major argument among literary critics whether the adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is or is not a racist novel. The question focus on the depiction of Jim, the black slave, and the way he is treat by Huck and other characters. The use of the word “nigger” is also a point raised by some critic, who feel that Twain uses the word too often and too loosely. Mark Twain never presents Jim in a negative light. He does not show Jim as a drunkard, as a mean person or as a cheat.

Another reason that Jim and Huck’s had broken the idea of racism is that they had a friendship showing commensalism. Jim had very much needed Huck in order to cross the Mississippi in order to get into the free states. Huck though does not really need Jim but it’s good to have him for company and a companion. Huck does like being alone but multiple times he wishes he had his friend Tom Sawyer to accompany him on his fun adventures…”I did wish Tom sawyer was there: I knowed he would take interest in a kind of business and throw in fancy touches”(Twain 47).Huck also says when he finds Jim “I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn’t lonesome now”(Twain 57).THis is showing that while Huck was on the river that he was getting lonely and was glad to see Jim. Another way that Jim and Huck’s relationship had broken the idea of slavery through their

The first time On the outside Jim is introduced in the novel, he is characterized as as a stereotypical slave as he is simple, unsophisticated, illiterate, childlike and superstitious. Huck is simply a representation of the average white person in that era. He may be fascist but wouldn’t even know he was one due to his society. Huck is not necessarily racist; he goes as far as befriending a slave who is owned by Miss Watson. His initial description of Jim comes off as racist but Huck is merely describing Jim in a way that slaves were typically viewed.

Jim was a slave in this book, however, he was also a great friend of Huck. Throughout the entire book, Jim and other Black people in the book are referred to as the “N” word and have many of awful racial slurs said to them. Huck sees this as normal because of the fact that he has grown up around this terrible world of racism. Although true, Huck soon seems to see how badly Jim was being treated, and he has a battle within himself on whether to do what is right according to society or to do what is right according to his moral beliefs. When Jim runs away with Huck Finn, Huck contemplates whether he should report Jim for running away since it was actually against the law being that he was a slave, or if he should keep quiet since that is a great friend of his. He has to go through this series of contemplation because of the grewsome fact that racism was at an extreme high in this book. Even though Jim was the best friend of Huck, Huck still had these thoughts of whether to turm Jim in or not due to the ridiculous fact that Blacks were looked at as if they were not even actual people, but rather were considered property that had no mortality

Huck’s views regarding black people come into question when Huck and Jim run away together. Their experiences together let them become closer to each other and let Huck recognize Jim as a human being with real feelings. Huck starts to view Jim as a caring individual when they are on the raft. This is a scene taken from when Jim and Huck were working together on the raft and Jim was trying to protect them both from the rain, “Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of reach of steamboat waves” (Twain, pg 64). In this part of the novel, Huck seems to be all Jim has, and Jim is also all Huck seems to have, and they work together to build a place that the waves cannot reach them. Their feeling of friendship is born through working together and protecting each other. Even though Huck and Jim are having new experiences together, Huck’s conscience is still going back and forth about the idea of freeing a slave. This quote is taken from when Huck

The first racial side of this book is in the language that is uses. John H. Wallace comments about this to the Washington Post. “Huckleberry Finn uses the pejorative [insulting] term nigger profusely.” (Wallace) This book suggest that black people are never honest. But there is a part in the story where Huck had to apologize