Slavery And Racism In Mark Twain's Huck Finn

The book Huck Finn by Mark Twain is more than just a simple adventure novel. Maybe, that is the reason it is read by high schoolers all over the United States. The debate on hand: was it a successful anti-slavery and racism book. In my opinion the first half of the book was in fact successful in combating slavery and racism. The other half of the book is quite unsuccessful and makes the authors point quite blurry.

Mark Twain made Jim and Huck both equally superstitious. In the very first chapter Huck already gives an example of how extremely superstitious he is. A spider crosses his path and he acts a bit outrageous “got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away” (3). Later on in chapter two Jim acts equally as outrageous “Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it

Near the beginning of their adventure, they get separated. When they find their ways back to each other this is what Jim says, “When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke” (81). Compared to something is blood father said to him after he was getting a proper education, “You’re educated, too, they say----can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you” (19) Yet somehow many people in Huck's time consider Pap the better father just because, he’s white.

As the book continues Huck and Jim become very close. The time spent together changes Huck, creating many internal conflicts throughout the story. He finally accepts Jim into his heart as a friend, a human being, and finally as a father figure. Huck decides to go with his gut feeling and not listen to everything he has ever been taught, to save Jim out of slavery, “All right, then, I’ll GO to hell"