Racism In Huck Finn

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.

The novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain is about Huck Finn, a thirteen year old boy, learning his way through southern society in the 1830’s and 1840’s. When Mark Twain writes this book, he used special dialect for Huck’s speech to reflect the way children would talk and act towards society around him. The idea of racism was there at that time, but it was not looked down upon as a bad thing. Through Mark Twain’s writings, Huck Finn travels on adventures with Jim and shows his feelings through the way he talks. Because of the American Dream and beliefs in southern society during the 1830’s and 1840’s, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn convinces the audience to understand what Huck Finn believes during the 1830’s

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.

     In extreme cases the book, Huckleberry Finn, has been banned from some schools because of the depiction of racial tension towards Jim, the black slave, in Huckleberry Finn. This story takes place at a time where slavery was considered moral. Blacks were considered inferior to whites, but Huckleberry challenges the notion that he was raised upon. Through Huckleberry’s adventures Twain expresses his challenge towards civilization’s rules and moral code. One must read between the lines and reach for the meaning in Mark Twain’s subtle literature dialog. If one were to do this that one would realize that it is not racist, but anti-slavery. For someone

Apart from being one of the landmarks of American literature, Mark Twain’s classic tale,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a mirror of the deeply embedded racist attitudes of the Deep South in the 1880’s. First, not to mention the most controversial and obvious, is the liberal use of the “n” word throughout the book. Taken as a derogatory term by modern-day Americans, Twain’s use of the “n” word is simply a reflection of the times. Huck Finn was written when cruel and unjust treatment of colored people were commonplace and use of such a word didn’t get so much as a second thought.Huck Finn depicts a time when slaves were not treated as people but as things without emotions or personalities, mere property. For instance, Jim is initially known only in relation to whose property he is. He escapes from being continuously treated as property, even sold to a family that will most likely treat him even less humanely.

Kids are often exposed to books long before they are ready for them or exposed to them in a manner that seems almost calculated to evaporate whatever enthusiasm the student may bring to them. Very few youngsters of high school age are ready for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Leaving aside its subtle depiction of racial attitudes and its complex view of American society, the book is written in a language that will seem baroque, obscure and antiquated to many young people today. The vastly sunnier Tom Sawyer is a book for kids, but The Adventures for Huckleberry Finn most emphatically is not. (Baker 114)

Many creative people take the matter of equality into their own hands, because the voices of colored people, become silenced under the many societal issues, therefore it takes books like the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and movies like Black Panther to invoke a passion for equality among people. Many people of color were, and still today are discriminated against, throughout the years people have not been very concerned with taking action. The voices of the colored population have been muffled by the many other societal issues. People claim it is not as important for these people to get the justice they deserve as many others require more help than people of color. To give these people a voice it takes subliminal protests by various sources of media. Books, movies, and other sources promoting the rights

Friendship Doesn’t Stop at Skin Color “I have a dream that one day… little black boys and black girls will be able to hold hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” (King). In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck, encourages the equality our society has today when he doesn’t let race come in between a friendship. Huck isn’t racist because he helps set Jim free, he feels guilt for Jim, and he becomes friends with Jim.

In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, Huck and an escaped slave, Jim, sail down the river trying to get to the free states. This novel was written during a time when being “civilized” meant having slaves and treating African American people poorly. Today, however, this is not the case, and many people question whether or not Twain was racist. Mark Twain is not racist because he portrays repulsive characters as racist, reveals that many people disagree with slavery, and shows that Huck dismisses being “civilized”. Mark Twain is not racist because he portrays vulgar characters as racist, which makes the reader question whether or not they want to agree with such a horrible character.

Racism has been a problem for a long time. The story “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” talks a lot about racism. In this story, Jim was a running way slave. Throughout the book Huck, the main characters in the story treat Jim badly pranking him and making him feel bad until they become friends Huck decide to help Jim escape to the free state. In this story, the word nigger used to describe slaves/African. Pap, Huck Finn’s harsh father is a very racist person who sees blacks people as property. “But when they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let that nigger vote…..I says to the people the people why ain’t this nigger put up to auction and sold?” (pg.26). pap didn’t want to vote for the state he was live in because blacks/slaves

The story tells the life of the American South before the Civil War. The nigger Jim, who is an industrious and simple, honest and enthusiasm, and loyal, heard that his mistress would sell him, so he fled to the north. In the midway, Jim encountered Huckleberry who is a smart, kind, and brave white boy. Huckleberry was unbearable his father’s beaten while wandering outside. They live in the pursuit of freedom, fled to the Mississippi River.

as his exploitation of the “n-word.” These elements combine to greatly overpower Huck’s individual beliefs, which have never been the main offender of the book. Furthermore, one cannot negate claims of racism in Huckleberry Finn based on the novel’s positive reception by a historically bigoted audience. The fact that Kaplan, a white man, felt obligated to nullify cries of racial injustice in 1984 exemplifies the need for education on literary racism that so many were trying to ban. But the routine silencing of black voices has not ceased over the past thirty years.

Mark Twain is an author who fought against, slavery, injustice, and discrimination in order to highlight the crippling effects of racism through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . For some time, many students, educators, and scholars debated whether Huckleberry Finn deserves its place in our literary canon. Certain readers find the relationship between Huck and Jim especially problematic due to the abundant use of the N word and Twain’s stereotypical depiction of Jim. On one hand, Jim is an uneducated slave who is always in peril due to Huck’s playfulness and immaturity. Yet, however, Jim is a complex secondary character crucial for Huck’s development from naiveté into maturity. (connect) Despite, the glaring overuse of racial epithets,

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, though a widely controversial book since its publication, delivers a powerful message about the true significance and impact of racism. While his writing contains disputable and coarse language at times, Twain manages to diminish the magnitude of these words with his literary techniques. One of his most prominent approaches is the regular repetition of the word “nigger” in the novel, demonstrating society’s utter lack of class and respect for African-Americans. This reiteration exists not to accentuate the offensive word, but to bring attention to the social tolerance of such hateful speech that transpires in Huckleberry Finn. Secondly, Twain places within Huck an impressionable trait, which, although at times may cause him to conform to society’s unethical norms, eventually improves his set of principles drastically when exposed to influential figures. Lastly, in Twain’s insertion of the character Jim, he provides a strong influence for Huck who comes to directly shape him and his morals. This breaking of social barriers shows Mark Twain’s intention to create a bond between Huck and Jim. Through his ultra-realistic use of the “n-word”, the depiction of an easily influenced mind in Huck, and portrayal of an unlikely friend in Jim, Twain proves that racism is not identified by an individual’s uncouth language or irrational decisions, but the moral measures by which they stand.