Racism In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Despite all the criticism, of racism and other questionable material for young readers, Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is a superbly written novel, which in the opinion of this reviewer should not be remove the literary cannon. Twain’s novel is a coming of age story that teaches young people many valuable lessons and to some extend makes students reexamine their own lives and morals. The most common argument for its removal from the literary canon is that the novel is too racist; it offends black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today’s bookshelves.  However one must ask if Twain is encouraging

You walk into a diner in the 1950’s. Everything seems to be running normally, but then you are confounded when six college students of African American ethnicity sit down at the counter. When they ask to be served, they are refused, and told to leave.

It is hard to turn on the news today without being reminded that the world that we live in still has distinct traces of racism from bygone eras, with racially charged protests towards police brutality and accountability. Racism can affect many different groups of people and can be expressed in countless ways. While we have made advances in the treatment and relative equality of others, remnants of a racist time are lodged within our society. Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” can be seens as one such remnant, due to its portrayal and attitude towards African Americans. Mark Twain writes the character Jim to be what was a stereotypical African American slave in the mid nineteenth

Since the release of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885, the way that different races relate to each other (specifically people of European and African descent) has changed astronomically. In some ways it’s improved dramatically, but some aspects of inter-racial relations have changed in ways that are not necessarily positive since the books release.

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 main messages and themes of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are supported by the main symbols of the novel which are the raft, the river, and land. Themes of this novel are racism and equality, freedom, and the importance of friendship. The raft that Huck and Jim spent many days floating on symbolizes equality whereas the raft was the only place that they could speak together as equals despite the colors of their skin. The Mississippi river which Huck and Jim floated down shows how free they are compared to being on land. Land represents the exact opposite of the river. It shows how Huck and Jim don’t have freedom and aren’t equal. Eventually, Huck and Jim find out freedom and equality can only be found temporary and not last forever.

Many arguments have been made based on the racism in Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The main character, Huck Finn, travels south down a river with a slave named Jim, and the way Huck treats Jim raises questions on how racist the young boy actually is. Considering the time period, It was viewed as okay to discriminate against people of different ethnicity. Huck was just doing what everyone was doing at the time, and it was not considered racist. Therefore, Huck Finn is not racist.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain are not racist Race was common in 1884 when the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was published, and still exists today. There is a lot of controversy regarding whether or not Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is racist. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not racist, Mark Twain uses racism shown in characterization, Jim and Huck’s friendship, and language to show the reader that racism is wrong. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not racist, but uses racism in the book though horrible people who support racism to show the reader that racism is bad. One example of this characterization in the book is, “It was ‘lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk

At the start of Huck Finn, Huck is a follower of Tom, and does not stand up for his opinion, yet throughout the middle chapters, Huck develops morally and is able to see Jim as a human, and friend. When Tom returns in the finals chapters, Huck’s “clarity and moral resolve fade, and he becomes, if anything, more of a passive Sawyer-lackey than he was at the beginning of the book” (Saunders 201). Huck’s reversion back into Tom’s follower (who is essentially racist) leaves Twain’s anti-racist message to deteriorate, which impairs the final chapters. Preceding the last chapters, Huck breaks society’s expectations for a young white boy, when he says, “all right then, I’ll go to hell...” and rips up the letter he wrote to Miss Watson about Jim’s

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a novel full of racism and hypocrisy of the society that we know. Huck continually faces the many challenges of what to do in tough situations dealing with racism and what the society wants him to do. With the novel being written in the first person point of view gives us insightful information into the challenges the Huck is facing and gives us a look into Huck’s head. Huck uses many different techniques to deal with his problems and he gets through them with the end result always being what Huck believes is right. Through Huck’s perspective we see how he deals with all of the racism and hypocrisy of society to form him into the character that he is and to serve the themes of the

left behind (FIshkin). We as a nation still live in the shadow of racism, only committed to equality on paper and if children do not read the stories of slavery then history will undoubtedly repeat itself (Fishkin). Other books on racism do not create the picture that it was not villains that made the slavery system work, but the ordinary people who kept slavery alive (Fishkin). People are against The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because its irony makes them face the issues they would rather leave alone, it is the irony at the core of Mark Twains novel that makes us face these slavery problems head on which turns some people against the book (Fishkin). Irony, history, and racism all combine in Huckleberry Finn and make us confront these issues and teach them so they can be avoided in the future, as they were not in our past.

Morals of racism are brought forth from the idea that some people are less human than others just because of their race. Throughout modern day society, there are numerous examples of racism that people see every single day, whether they realize it or not. Racism is a serious problem that everyone faces, some nationalities more than others. One of the most preformed forms of racism is towards African Americans, which controversially rooted from slavery in America, which started in the 15th century and ended in the middle of the 19th century. Slavery and racism are still relevant today because it, did not go away, it was America’s past, and society suffers from it.

Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, grew up in the antebellum south where blacks were often viewed as nothing more than just ignorant, lazy, pieces of property with no feelings. As Mark Twain grew older, the perception of blacks as ignorant property with no feelings remained the same and even intensified to a certain extent. Surprisingly, around the time The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written, Mark Twain opposed slavery and presumably cringed at the common notion that blacks were just pieces of property and not even human beings. Coincidentally, a significant character in the novel, Jim, and other minor characters that are black, are portrayed throughout the novel as being stereotypical unintelligent, lazy

An issue of central importance to Huckleberry Finn is the issue of race. The story takes place in a time of slavery, when blacks were considered inferior to whites, sometimes to the point of being considered less than fully human. But Huckleberry Finn challenges the traditional notions of the time, through its narrator and main character, Huckleberry Finn. While in the beginning, Huck is as unaware of the incorrectness of society’s attitudes as the rest of society is, he undergoes many experiences which help him to form his own perspective of racial issues. Through the adventures and misadventures of Huck Finn and the slave Jim, Twain challenges the traditional societal views of race and

A person’s looks can not determine how they feel about a certain race of people. Some of the nicest looking peoples harbor deep feelings of hatred towards races other than their own. Characters like Aunt sally, Uncle Earl, and Miss Watson all seem like very nice people, but they all accept and participate in, whether they realize it or not, racism. Almost all of the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain seem to have pre-conceived ideas towards blacks, and the author does not seem to have any trouble writing the words of their pre-conceived thoughts or ideas. Mark Twain has an accepting attitude towards racism in his book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.