Oppression In Poisonwood Bible And The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

From the 1830’s to the 1860’s, a movement to abolish slavery swept the nation. Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass were both strong educated men against the mistreatment of the African race. However, their means of protesting it hold stark contrast. While both authors certainly had enough passion built up to be able to conduct a powerful argument in the form of literature, their prior knowledge differentiated between how they ended up making their arguments. Upon comparison of Huck Finn and the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, the characters in Frederick make a more convincing argument against racism because of the different forms

Through most of Mark Twain’s writings, he not only evinces the inhumanity of human nature by showing the cruel representation of black men in society, he also refigured how society should represent the equality of humans. Throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain critiques the different aspects of society, such as materialism, society’s expectations of white and black men, and racial hypocrisy in order to denounce the shortcomings of society and to change the mindset of society’s perspective on these aspects. Twain discusses the aspect of materialism to show that society’s materialistic nature can reveal the ignorance and society’s dependence on their wants, much more than their needs. Twain also analyzes the aspect of society’s expectations of the representation of white and black men to show that what society expects of white men to act with black men are inane and erroneous. Twain then criticizes the aspect of racial hypocrisy to show that society’s views of the segregation of white and black men and the irony of how white men are imperious to black men, are ignorant and corrupt.

Slavery in The United States and Huckleberry Finn Slavery is the act of holding individuals against their will for servitude in appalling conditions. Slavery continues to be regarded as a heinous crime committed against humanity. In US early history, slaves were held to work as labor in the plantations of sugar, cotton, and corn. In Huckleberry Finn, the characterization of Jim and Huck through their adventures while escaping St. Petersburg Missouri for the Northern states, portray a society that was at crossroads with the reality that slavery was coming to its decline. African American society suffered the effects of slavery and racism in the periods before and after the civil war. In events leading to the civil war, some states had already

If you're up to date with today's current events or watch the news every morning before work, I'm sure you're familiar with the concepts of racism and violence. Unfortunately, both occur everyday in today's society, just as regularly as they did in the 1840s. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is as novel written by Mark Twain that references racism and violence in the time era that it was written. The main character of the book, Huck Finn, has a violent relationship with his father. His father, like many other citizens in his town, is a racist. Huck’s Aunt Sally, who is letting Huck temporarily stay with her, is racist as well. Meanwhile, a runaway slave named Jim is tagging along with Huck throughout the story. Society has not changed since 1840 because many similar instances such as violence and racism, occur today.

An example of human beings responding to oppression is shown when Jurgis met Tommy Hinds the Socialist, “for all the evils of this world say, Tommy, “You know what to do about it—vote the Socialist ticket.”

Racial discrimination can be best defined as treating someone unfairly based on their race. The American social issue in the story “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, by Mark Twain, is racial discrimination. This story takes place along the mississippi river during the 1830’s, a time where racism was very strong in the south. African Americans during that time period were treated very poorly just because of their skin. The social issue of racial discrimination in this story is still relevant today and can be seen in the articles written by S.J. Prince, Mike Snider, and Genevieve Bookwalter.

The world can be a messy place, but there are always good people in the world. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, the main thematic premise in the novel is prejudice compels society to take action.The main conflict of the novel revolves around a young boy named Huckleberry Finn. The Book takes place during the civil war, a time where many had averse feelings for black people. Huck oftens speaks in a southern dialect often openly insulting black people like “‘he had an uncommon level head for a ni****’” (79) a prejudice society has argued over time and time again, a prejudice that appears in the world today. Society has often touched base on this conflict by protesting, unfortunately however the prejudice still lingers on.

Religious oppression was a dramatic factor of the way people lived in the early nineteenth century. People used it in many different ways for many particular reasons. Twain explained this when he used one of his characters, Miss Watson. This character was an overly restrictive maid on Huck. She was an example of someone who forcibly took other people into her religious practical world. Huckleberry Finn explains this in the novel:

In any case, even by Twain's opportunity, things had not as a matter of course shown signs of improvement for blacks in the South. In this light, we may read Twain's delineation of servitude as a symbolic representation of the state of blacks in the United States even after the nullification of subjection. Generally as subjugation places the respectable and good Jim under the control of white society, regardless of how debased that white society might be, so too did the deceptive prejudice that emerged close to the end of Remaking persecute dark men for strange and misleading reasons. In Huckleberry Finn, Twain, by uncovering the affectation of bondage, exhibits how prejudice twists the oppressors as much as it does the individuals who are mistreated. The outcome is a universe of good perplexity, in which apparently "great" white individuals, for example, Miss Watson and Sally Phelps express no worry about the treachery of bondage or the remorselessness of isolating Jim from his

The African American Singer, Nina Simone says that “Slavery has never been abolished from America’s way of thinking”(Simone). In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character Huckleberry Finn, who lives in a pro-slave time period, changes his view of slavery when he spends time with a runaway slave named Jim. Twain depicts Huck’s attitude as inconsiderate toward Jim and slaves, until he learns that slaves are people too. After Jim figures out that Huck tricked him, it took Huck “fifteen minutes before [he] could work [himself] up to go and humble [himself]”(86) to Jim. Initially, Huck does not think about the effect of his tricks on Jim. However in this scene, Huck changes his attitude toward Jim and stops tricking

Mark Twain once said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Twain’s remark provides insight towards independent thought, and not to look at the world as a whole, but rather to live based off of your own beliefs, and to not conform to popular belief. Mark Twain uses this as a background into writing his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain provides an overview, through Huckleberry Finn, on the cruelty of slavery, that the knowledgeable or well educated are able to successfully evade problematic situations, and that religion plays a major role in the everyday lifestyle in the 1880’s.

In the South slavery was the big business and that was all everyone-slave and slaveowner alike knew. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a youth named Huck befriends a slave named Jim and the pair goes on an adventure. Huck treats Jim like a toy and makes Jim conform to his every will because he knew that Jim would listen. Huck treated Jim (a grown man) like a child, when Huck himself was just a child. That was the way things were in the time. No slave dared to disobey their master, even if that master is a young boy. That was the way things were in that time. The culture embraced that belief, no one cared about the slave, they just were there to do what you commanded them to do.

Civilization evolves over time, trading old ideas for new ones. Society grows in intellect and innovation. Though, despite the heights that humanity has soared, impurity still remains. Regardless of the best efforts, millennia of oppression have ingrained the tendency to hate into the psyche of man, despite centuries of reform. Racism continues to propagate every corner of the globe. Yet, in his modern American novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain reveals the flaws in racism and the importance of suppressing it through his satirization of religious hypocrisy and elimination of details regarding the treatment of slaves, as well as the depiction of slaves themselves. Through his development of often platitudinous characters, Twain also manages to overcome the stereotype of race and demonstrate to the public that blacks and whites possess the ability to rise above or even sink below the racial boundaries set by literature.

Freedom to do what one pleases has been an essential part of American life since the start of the colonies. Every war in the history of America revolves around some variation of freedom. One war that has lasted the duration of America’s existence includes black people’s fight for their freedom: from the Civil War to Civil Rights. During the first half of civilization in America, slaves were kept in physical captivity, which inhibited their freedom. For the remaining half, slaves were segregated and looked down upon, hindering their mental freedom. Throughout Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, two captives take a journey in order to free themselves, one for mental freedom, and the other, physical. The first, Huck, is a young

The Antebellum period of pre-Civil War America was filled with racial tension where enslaved African Americans were treated as property. The early to mid 1800’s was a time when an entire race of people were written off as inferior. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, depict pre-Civil War American life in the heart of the south by following Huckleberry Finn, a young teenage boy, and a runaway slave Jim on their adventure up and down the Mississippi River. During the novel, Huck struggles with the discrepancy between his “sound heart and deformed conscience” (Mark Twain). Huck does not know which to to follow, his conscience or his heart, the first which is telling him to treat Jim and other African Americans harshly and inferior as he has been taught or the second which tells him to treat Jim as human and not property. Huck’s heart is leading him away from what society is telling him to do where as his conscience is telling him to conform to what to he knows. Through Huck’s character development, Twain categorizes his novel as a story where the heart wins over the conscience, ultimately suggesting that society corrupts individual thoughts and actions.