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Huckleberry Finn Research Paper

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Imagine it’s the 1800's. You're walking along the banks of the Mississippi river, in your newly free life, enjoying the view. There's just one thing, you're a black man. Next thing you know a slave holder cracks you across the back of the head, and drags you away to his plantation. There you work for the rest of your life, unpaid, doing hard, laborious work. This was the real life experience of many people during the contentious era of slavery. Mark Twain was a regionalist American writer who grew up on the Mississippi, piloted a steamboat on the river, and was surrounded by the horrors of slavery during his childhood which influenced him to write the controversial novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. …show more content…

His family owned one slave, and his father was part of a jury that convicted slaves of escaping. (“The adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Novels 1-21) Twain never owned any slaves himself, although his stance on slavery is very unclear. At one point in the novel it says, “Don’t be no rougher on him than you’re obleeged to, because he ain’t a bad nigger” (twain 258) This shows that Twain had some sympathy for slaves and they should be treated better. In other parts of the book however it states things like, “Well I reckon! There’s two hundred dollars reward on him. It’s like picking up money out’n the road.” (Twain 191) This could be taken a few ways. One side could see it as a joke about dealing slaves, but the other could see it as him showing us how cruelly and inhumane they were treated. Twain also lived in Missouri when it was admitted to the U.S. as a slave state. (“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Novels 15) This was a big deal to a lot of people and was a big political issue at the time. This helped lead to the start of the civil war. Once the civil war broke out, Twain joined the Confederate militia. (“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Literature 16) This however was just a brief period of his life. It could have meant little to nothing of his stance on slavery, and just been to give service time and join the cause. The overall stance on slavery in the book however is definitely portrayed both ways which makes the novel so

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