Huck realizes that he is committing an illegal act by helping a slave, who is also his friend. Huck expresses his guiltiness by saying, “It stayed with me, and scorched me...I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off” (87). Society made Huck believe that all blacks are horrible creatures and any contact with them is a sin. The word ‘scorched’ connotes the guiltiness embedded in Huck by society. Huck has been burned with the idea that he is to blame for Jim’s escape.
The initial reception of the novel was that it’s racists because of the usage of the “N” word and the stereotypes, currently the book has mixed views and many places has banned it, and I believe that this book is not racists. When this novel first came out in 1885, some people found it racists. The novel used the “N” word to describe slaves back in the 1800’s. People viewed the word as negative towards slaves and it didn’t correctly define them. Some critics got the wrong message, “...they straightway proceeded to inform the reading public that the book was gratuitously coarse, its humor unnecessarily broad, and its purpose crude and inartistic” (The Atlanta Constitution).
From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped. To fail to do work to a respectable level means to be sold to another plantation and ripped away from one’s family.
After the scam with the Wilks family money, the king and the duke went to a different town to get money. The duke went directly into town, whereas the king “sold out his chance in [Jim]” for a quick forty dollars. The king treated Jim like garbage: forgetting about everything the poor slave had done for him. The king used Jim as a toy that could be bought or sold. Because of this, readers learned to despise the king and his racist beliefs.
As property, they were powerless to stop their master’s lewd advances, and would be punished brutally for resisting. Furthermore, the jealousy of the “plantation mistress” against her female slave produced by these advances made the daily life of these slaves insufferable (Northup, 12 Years a Slave). Wives of slave master’s could not directly punish their husbands for their infidelity, and for this reason they often punished the slaves themselves with erratic beatings, excessive workloads, and psychological torture (Brinkley 264). Nevertheless, female slaves often had children with their slave masters under these circumstances, which often resulted in the sale of both them and their children (Northup, 12 Years
You have probably thought that slavery was bad but you have no idea how bad it actually was. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a Autobiography by Frederick Douglass, his purpose of the story was to expose the real darkness of a slavery. Douglass was a slave before and he has gone through a lot of pain during those times. Douglass’ position on slavery was that slavery was terrible for slaves & that it corrupts the slave owners because the slave owners dehumanized other slaves, the slaves were treated inhumanely and were broken mentally. People believe that slavery is good for the slave owners and for the slaves, on the other hand Frederick Douglass believes that slavery corrupts the slave owners.
Slavery coincides with ignorance, just as education coincides with freedom. Slavery relies on ignorance to maintain order and control over slaves; thus, preventing slaves from recognizing the empowerment of education, and the ability it possesses to equip them in the pursuit of freedom. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helps him discover the hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, Douglass’s pursuit of education inspires his desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation. While still a young slave, Douglass’s master forbids his wife from continuing to teach Douglass the alphabet because it did not align with the common worldview that educated slaves had no value to their masters.
Joseph Rosenblum wrote in an exert from his book, and literary analysis of Desiree’s Baby: “Kate Chopin clearly sympathizes with the plight of people of mixed blood and points out the evils of a slave system that one creates a condemned miscegenation. Her chief concern, however is not with the souths “particular institution”, a topic she rarely treated in her fiction.” (Joseph Rosenblum) The main reason that so many authors agree on the same point of view is because of the ironic ending. “It means the child is not white, that you are not white.” “Night and day I thank God that Armand will never know that his mother who adores him belongs to the race that is cursed with the bland of slavery.” In those words from the letter his mother wrote to his father Armand’s world came crashing down upon his head. His hate, and vicious blows to his beloved wife’s heart was all for nothing. How he himself is the thing he hates the most, a beautiful and masterfully crafted endings to a wonderful story, justice was served, and we the readers now know that this was clearly a play against slavers, due to how ironic the ending
Society determines what is civilized and what is barbaric and how it uses its morals, or lack thereof, to determine how individuals should live. Unfortunately, it affects how people view others and how they judge themself. In The Kite Runner, Amir sees himself as barbaric because of how he is seen. On page 77, Amir thinks, “ I ran because I was a coward.” He knows what Baba, or Rahim Kahn, or how any Afghan would treat him or what they would call him if they had seen him run away from Hassan being raped. He almost accepts that he is in the wrong and should be ridiculed.
From the very beginning of the novel, the audience is introduced to Raskolnikov as an impecunious and dreadful young man with an idea; The idea being the murder of his pawnbroker. He is amused but also frightened of these thoughts but then reasons with himself saying " It's simply a fantasy to amuse myself; a plaything!" (Dostoevsky 10). Raskolnikov seems to be influenced by his starvation and his current living conditions, otherwise he would not think about planning his crime. He thinks of reasons as to why Ivanovna should be murdered, one of them is that her money could help finance his education and help his family.