No Sympathy for Slaves in Mark Twain's Work

Mark Twain was not a racist, yet it took me many years to realize that. I finally found a respect for him that I should have known before I turned that first page. Even though the book has many racial slurs, it shows that not just a friendship, but a strong bond could be formed between a young white boy and a black man. "They hain't no right to shut him up! Shove! - and don't you lose a minute. Turn him loose! He ain't a slave, he's as

Mark Twain has been seriously accused by many including Toni Morrison of being a "racist author," whose writing is offensive to black readers, which spreads cheap slave-era stereotypes.

This paper examines Mark Twain’s work to determine whether or not he was racist. Racism is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as "the belief that one race is superior to others." Unfortunately the issue of race isn’t black or white. There are many shades of gray in racism and even the most progressive thoughts of old seems conservative as progress enlightens new levels of thought. During his time, Twain was a forward thinking author who championed many causes, one of them being fair treatment of the downtrodden and oppressed.

Writing in the favor of black people has always remained controversial from the very beginning. Critics regard such writing as “a highly conventionalized genre” indicating that “its status as literature was long disputed but the literary merits of its most famous example such as Frederick Douglass 's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass…are widely recognized today.” (Ryan:537) Despite of such severe resistance, writers like Douglass have penned down their autobiography to present the misery of their fellow beings.

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.

One argument made by people who fully support Mark Twain’s novel, Huckleberry Finn, say that a man who pay for a black man’s education and feels that slavery should have never been okay, could not possibly have written a racially offensive novel. (Marx) Throughout my research I discovered Twain’s joy behind the challenging of the ideas of racism within his writing. He wanted to be known for his perspective and controversial issues. For example, in his book Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain is left with the question on whether or not white or black people were different from each other, rather than by skin color.

Mark Twain has always been one of the most controversial authors of all time. Though in recent years, there has been increasing controversy over the ideas expressed in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In some extreme cases the novel has even been banned by public school systems and censored by public libraries. The basis for this censorship is the argument that Mark Twain's book is racist, but in reality Twain was against racism and used this book to make people aware of what was going on in the south. He did this by using the regional dialect of the south, showing the attitude of the other characters in the novel toward black people, and showing his depiction of black characters. If one were to "read between the lines"

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was viewed as a racist novel, it was not. Mark Twain was viewed as the conspirator of the novel. The novel was a build on slavery and racism raising awareness, it was also a great novel. Since it was first published, Huck Finn has caused much trouble for mixed reasons, which recently included the use of racial slurs and accusations that the author himself was racist, unfortunately due to multiple issues, it had been banned. Most of this controversy comes from the repetitive use of the word “nigger” when referring to black slaves, including one of the main characters, Jim.

Slavery. Everyone knows what it is, how it works, and why it is wrong. Why should someone be sentenced to a life of tedious, physical labor just because he was born black. If an individual is born 1/32nd black is he still black? If he looks just as white as the white men why is it that he has to work in the field all his life? Because his great great grandfather was fully black, that's why. He looks white so what if he became white? Could he pretend to be white and pass? He might. In Pudd’nhead Wilson Mark Twain explains that race is a complex idea that has as much to do with society's views as an individual's skin tone.

Prior to the publication of any slave narrative, African Americans had been represented by early historians’ interpretations of their race, culture, and situation along with contemporary authors’ fictionalized depictions. Their persona was often “characterized as infantile, incompetent, and...incapable of achievement” (Hunter-Willis 11) while the actions of slaveholders were justified with the arguments that slavery would maintain a cheap labor force and a guarantee that their suffering did not differ to the toils of the rest of the “struggling world” (Hunter-Willis 12). The emergence of the slave narratives created a new voice that discredited all former allegations of inferiority and produced a new perception of resilience and ingenuity.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, the idea of slavery and racism is integrated throughout the novel. The novel was written in 1884 after slavery was abolished but takes place before the Civil War when slavery was still legal. Even during Twain’s time, slavery and racism was still a big issue and not completely abolished. Around the early 1880s, the United States was in the process of trying to help the freed slaves live like normal people, but this plan, which was thought to be going on a positive path, is not doing so well.

1. No matter what Twain had in mind for the book, it is without a doubt racist. The slaves in this novel are portrayed as disloyal and untruthful. One instance of this in the book is when Jim learns that he is a freed man, and he decides

Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn best shows the horrors of slavery and the viciously racist beliefs people held in the early to mid 1800s. Twain depicts these horrors by discussing that idea that slaves were treated like property. Blacks were seen as an inferior race, so with the exception of Huck, almost every character in the novel refuses to believe, “that blacks are indeed people...dismissed

The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has long been in the crossfire of great controversy. In his novel, Mark Twain sets the stage in a rural southern town shortly before the Civil War. Despite the setting and the racial language that is used throughout the novel, Mark Twain is not a racist, nor does he promote slavery. On the contrary, Twain uses the harshness as depicted in his novel to speak of the injustices of slavery.