Essay The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a story about a young boy who is trying to find who he is during the civil war. In this novel by Mark Twain it speaks about this young boy, named Huck, and how his original morals are beginning to change while he helps free his friend Jim, who is a slave. Though People have argued that this book uses many racial slurs that demoralize the African American race. Though there is solid reasoning why those are not Mark Twain's true intentions.
The black man on the back porch is afraid of the rattle snake because it is bad luck, or the innocent little slave is quick to believe everything one tells them at the drop of the hat. These are just some of the many racist stereotypes of the 1840s. A character named Jim is the star African American whom Twain bestoys the mission of being the stereotypical black man to prove a point. He along with his much more pallor companion Huck go on exciting adventures that unfold the events which expose the racist conduct of the time. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain saturates his novel with potent images of acute racism severe enough as to create a satirical mien that exposes the absurdity of prejudice.
Huck’s feelings toward Jim changes from thinking he is just a slave, to a friend, and eventually more like a father-figure. There is more to this novel than just two boys floating along the Mississippi River. It addresses the seriousness of racism and abuse and talks about the importance of friends and family. Even though Huck and Jim come from different races, the time they have spent together really helps to surpass the discrimination happening and become not just friends,
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the racist attitudes of the Deep South in the late 1800's are shown. Mark Twain portrays a runaway slave, Jim, as a racist caricature who does whatever is asked of him and exhibits little intelligence.
Despite the connotations that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may have lost focus in its message of anti-racism, the novel still displays a thoughtful and engaging take on the status of racism through setting and character development. Though authors like Jane Smiley believe the book is overpraised because the characters are shallow and ignored, Twain’s subtle commentary on racism through the use of his characters helps to create a realistic understanding of the social conditions at the time.
Marie Herrin Mrs. Huffaker AP Language 12 January 2016 Racism in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn An issue of central importance in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is the controversial topic of racism. In chapter six, Twain manipulates his reader’s response to racism by controlling the speaker and surrounding circumstances of the bigoted statements in a way that pushes the reader to reject the racism because they have already rejected the speaker. In order to influence his readers, Twain utilizes the rhetorical devices of characterization and satire to show the immorality of the racist message.
Huckleberry Finn Essay About Racism And Slavery in Our Society. Thomas Jefferson once said “all men are created equal” Jefferson explains that all men are created equal, have the same equal rights and should not be control by anyone. The adventures of Huckleberry finn follows this as Twain shows us how the society treat people with different color and are controlled by them. This is challenging the society on how they treat people and should treat people the same even if they look different from them. This whole thing is telling us how people are careless and do not care about the environment they live in.
Overall, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, criticizes the moral conditioning of society. Twain utilizes situational irony, mockery, and absurdity to satirize racism through Huck’s journey. Twain’s use of stereotypes uncovers racial hypocrisy by criticizing the way society has taught young kids to think about black people. Twain uses irony to mock the way the government treats slaves and African
Jane Smiley argues that Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn suggests only “a recognition of the obvious -- that blacks, slave and free, are human” and therefore does not deserve to be shelved on the western canon nor taught in schools (Smiley). Contrary to Smiley’s statement, the story educates on many more morals and philosophies in addition to racism and depicts the protagonist Huck fighting against deeply rooted societal conventions at the time (and even in places today) that a black person amounts to less value than a white person. This novel deserves to be on the western canon as it is far more nuanced than Smiley suggests; Huck’s fighting societal prejudices, teaches people to defeat stereotypes and value people not
All relationships have bumps in the road and hard times to overcome but in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the two main characters, Huck and Jim’s, relationship was special. They had a relationship that would change the outcome of millions of lives of slaves and people who were looked down upon. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be seen as the emergence of racial tolerance shown through the relationship of Huck and Jim. The way that Huck treats Jim on occasions such as when Jim told Huck about his family and Huck saw Jim as a normal human being with a family. Another occasion was when Huck was thinking about Jim and realized he was also white inside meaning he felt Jim was an equal.
Through Huck’s Eyes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain takes place during a time before slavery was abolished; therefore, black people were obviously deemed inferior to white people. Our protagonist Huck, the son of the town drunk, fakes his death to run away from his abusive father and finds his slave friend, Jim, also running away. They decide to team up and run away together, but Huck is internally fighting his urge to do “the right thing” and turn Jim in. During the novel, Huckleberry views Jim as a slave, a friend, and most surprisingly, a father.
The societal pressure to believe in the institution of slavery has a strong effect on Huck, distorting his views and causing him to start out racist. Society’s norms have a great influence over the people in Huck’s world. At this time, most people held racist idealogies. The people Huck was surrounded by believed that slaves were nothing more than property, and the color of their skin was something that detrmined their worth. As Huck was brought up, he was taught these ideals of society. His father, Pap is someone who is completely immersed in society and shows the reader through his views, the effect that society can have on the average person. When pap hears about a free slave in Ohio who became successful, he is infuriated. He says “here
Racism and Slavery are a hand in hand subject, without Slavery, Racism wouldn 't have been a broad topic. Although modern day slavery is nowhere to be found in America, Racism is still an existing matter. Racism against African Americans was a byproduct of permanent and inhumane enslavement of the black population. Although slavery was not only among Afro- Americans, it was also towards white slaves, and indentured servants who all received the same treatment, were punished equally and worked the same hours. The need to solve economic and social problems drove the Colonists to strip Afro-Americans down from their basic rights and such, which rose to naming all blacks, slaves.
In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are many themes that demonstrate satire. One of the themes is racism. There are many examples of racism in this book that portray the use of satire.
Living in the 1800s was a very confusing time for a thirteen-year-old American white boy named Huckleberry Finn. African people were faced with inhuman acts of slavery, prejudice, and discrimination. Choosing between what was right and wrong was a challenge, especially for Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s peers tried to corrupt him into believing that slavery was the norm and black people were to be shunned. Mrs. Watson, for example, was Huck’s adoptive mother whom consistently told Huck to not associate with people of the African culture.