Huck Finn Thesis

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.

In this section, insight into the character of Jim is portrayed. Jim comes across as sincere and trustworthy. The loyalty of Jim and Huck to each other begins to be seen. An example of Jim’s loyalty is seen when Jim is overjoyed to find Huck is still alive after they are separated in the fog. During this section, it begins to be apparent that Jim would be willing to sacrifice to be sure that Huck is safe but Huck does not yet return those feelings. During this section, Huck’s moral dilemma about helping a slave escape begins to surface. The fact that the relationship is strengthening is revealed when Huck lies about having smallpox on their raft in order to prevent Jim from being caught as a slave. Huck again assumes several identities during this section, which reveal much about him. On the raft, Huck is very mature and responsible. He becomes the son of a

The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers the situations and people Huckleberry Finn encounters after he runs away. Huck prevents his alcoholic father from getting his fortune and is able to run away after his father, Pap, kidnaps him and leaves town. It has many colorful characters that exhibit several facets of society at that time in history. It is anti-racist although it uses the word "nigger" frequently. Huck seems to struggle throughout the book with what he has been taught and what is morally right. His main and most consistent interaction is with Jim, a runaway slave. Although he had been taught differently throughout his entire life, he eventually makes the choice to go against what society deems to be right and be Jim's

Since its first publication in 1884, Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has proven to be one of history’s most controversial novels; especially recently, the novel has often been banned by schools and censored by libraries. Characters in the book are constantly using disparaging language toward slaves, and the repeated use of the word “nigger” makes many sensitive and offended. Critics denounce the novel and Mark Twain as racist for this word being insulting and politically incorrect and for its depiction of black people and how they are treated. However, Twain was not attempting to perpetuate racism; on the contrary, he used satire to expose the ignorance and paradoxical views held by many in America at that time.

Is the Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Racist or Not? The book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a racist book. The main arguments against it are the characters’ personalities and the dialect they used. This book is criticized by Twain critics and on the top ten ban list for school reading material. If people just concentrated on the main plot of the story, instead of the fine details that makes the novel realistic, they would agree that the accusation of this novel being racist is ridiculous. Huck Finn was abused by his father all throughout his childhood.

When taking a look at Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, racism is a large theme that seems to be reoccurring. What some may think to be racism in Twain's words, can also be explained as, good story telling appropriate to the era the story takes place in.

“All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” this is what fellow writer had to say about this classic novel. Still, this novel has been the object of controversy since it was published more than 150 years ago. Some people argue that Huckleberry Finn is a racist work, and that the novel has no place in a highschool classroom. This feeling is generated because a main character in the story, Jim, and other slaves are referred to many times as “niggers.” When Mark Twain wrote this book, he was striving to show the general public that society was wrong in the past, that the way white people thought black people were less than human was a wrong viewpoint. The

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.

Back in 1884, white people didn’t see African Americans as people, but as property (Salwen). Huck Finn was written in 1884, in response to the emergence of Jim Crow laws (Briley). In the curriculum, it places the novel within the historical context of slavery and race relations in nineteenth-century America (Briley). Huck Finn shows honest portrayals of the culture, attitudes and prejudices in the rural, pre-Civil War South (Briley). Huck Finn is a major part in American history because it changed American literature. Huck Finn showed what America was like and its lingering problems of racism.

To Continue, racism was also very prominent in Huckleberry Finn. Since there was already slavery during this time period racism also came with it. “We blowed out a cylinder head. Good Gracious! Anybody hurt? No’m killed a nigger. Well, it’s lucky because

School districts across America have banned the classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, calling it racist. Taking place when slavery was still legal, the novel doesn’t promote racism, but instead holds a mirror to it, shining a light on the reality of racism that existed. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of a 13 year old boy named Huck who runs away from home. Huck is living with his guardian, a woman named Widow Douglas, and is being taught to be “sivilized”, when his father, a lowlife drunk, kidnaps him. Huck then escapes and joins a runaway slave named Jim. Together they face many challenges as they travel along the Mississippi River. The novel is not necessarily racist, but merely holding a mirror to the racism in society of the 1840’s.

“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has been considered controversial for it being a supposedly racist novel. The novel takes place in Antebellum America, where slavery was extremely prevalent. African Americans were not treated as normal human beings and were denied their God-given rights. It was not Mark Twain’s intent to write a racist novel; he fully demonstrated how life was really like by being historically accurate and wrote in the vernacular so that readers get the raw image of life on the Mississippi River. The novel is not racist: it is a sincere statement towards society regarding the brutality of slavery and of each individual’s natural rights to freedom. Through events such as Pap’s views on African Americans, the countless amount of uses of the “n” word, and with Huck’s relationship with Jim is where we can see the message Twain was conveying in the novel.

Even Though the book does utilize racial slurs that are very deleterious in today's society, the book should still be edified to students from today. The reason this word was utilized, so much throughout Huckleberry Finn was because that is just the word people of color were called.This book shows many things that transpired in racial history in the past and gives students a conception of how people lived in the past. Huckleberry Finn does not only show racism toward people of color, but it additionally shows the amity between a white boy named Huck and a slave named Jim. Huckleberry Finn shows the friendship between two boys who were not allowed to be friends. This book may have offended many people, but also demonstrated how a white boy became best friends with a slave, and back in the day many believed slaves were bad people. One needs to understand the history that back in the days when the book was published, slavery threatened to divide the nation, but there was always an effort to keep the nation together. Throughout the years a series of concessions were made on both sides in an effort to keep the union together”(Gale). For this reason this book is really important, because after Huckleberry

Huck Finn does not act as the axe that will free our minds from the ice, but rather the frozen sea that we need to free ourselves from. It oppresses and ridicules black people and the history they come from. Twain makes an absurd analogy that compares the “enslavement” of Huck to his abusive father to Jim, and the fact that he is a literal slave who is mistreated and segregated against. While Huck is in quite a terrible situation, it pales in comparison to what it is like to actually be a slave, and in making this comparison, Twain makes slavery appear lighter and under exaggerates how it actually was (Lester