TATARU ALEXANDRA

3 rd year , group 3

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

- About Racism and Slavery -
The skin of every human being contains a slave ( Mark Twain )

Mark Twains classic tale ,The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a

mirror of the deeply embedded racist attitudes of the Deep South in the 1880s.
( Jones 1) Even if at the first sight this book seems like a simple childrens
adventure book, it contains an extremely controversial message. Through the entire
novel, the writer tries to show the ignorance of the people and the mistakes of the
society. Even though this book is a mirror of the reality from that time it is not a
racist novel, nor is Mark Twain a racist author.
There are many books written about this novel, racism and slavery and a
lot of opinions about it. Opinions about the novels correctness arise and critics are
divided into detractors and supporters ( Toni Morrison) ( Isabella Wrobel
Racism ) . One of the most direct detractors to this book was John H. Wallace ( The
Case Against Huckleberry Finn) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain is the most grotesque example of racist trash ever written . Huck Finn is
racist, whether its author intended it to be or not ( Wallace 20)
My aim is to show that the abolitionist movement is present in the whole
book. It is true that all the cruel parts of the slavery is presented in there but only
because we must understand the whole context, not because Twain support those
ideas. The author uses the technique of realism for us to see that these are real
people and real emotions.
Some critics support the idea that Twain was racist because he used
constantly the word nigger.
There is an obvious contrast of the mindset depicted in the Twains novel compared
to our time. Nowadays, the use of the word nigger is slanderous and is not
acceptable anymore. At that time, this term was not necessary offensive. For all
persons it was almost equal with something which denotes an insignificant object-
dehumanizing term. Wallace in his writing support the idea that this word should not
be allowed to be thought in schools and that this book should be banned. He
supports the idea that this term ridicule the black people.
Anybody hurt ? Nom, killed a nigger Well, its lucky, because sometimes
people do get hurt
( Chapter 32)
Even if this word enrage the persons who read in our days the book, the
replacement of this word would distorts American history. There is no other term
that can replace it. Thousands of civilizations have had slaves, but in no place they
have been such abused and mistreated. I think substituting this word will take away
the deepest meaning of the book.
Slaves of that time period were not provided any formal education or any
independent thought they were abused and continually mistreated (physically and
psychically). The dialect which Jim is speaking indicate his lack of education that
white people refuses to provide to slaves. They were viewed as a property which
were mentally inferior but in the same time, this thing allow white people to
maintain total control of them. En when I wake up en fine you back agin all safe
en soun , de tears come en I could a got down on my knees en kiss you foot Is so
thankful ( Chapter 8 )
The slaves also didnt know to read. We can see very clear this thing in the episode
when Huck and Jim after " borrowing some things from people saw a poster with a
reward for Jim. Jim asks Huck to read for him what is written in there. The poster
announced the reward for the person who bring Jim back. It is a historic fact that in
the abolitionist period there were not modest amounts of money for the persons
which bring back the runaway slaves ( dead or alive).
Some enslaved people lived in nuclear family all the members of that
family belonged to the same owner. Others lived in near-nuclear families the
father has a different owner and could live several miles away. (National Humanities
Center) In this book, Jim is inhumanly ripped away from his wife and children.
During the whole novel, his purpose was to become a free man and to set free his
family.
The most part of the book is historical accurate even if the details arent
realistic. It reveals the societys pressure and conscious on how blacks should be
treated. I believe that the book have a anti-racist interpretation . The comparison
between Jim and Pap highlights the anti-racist component of the book. Pap is
Hucks biological father, which is uneducated , rash and alcoholic . Jim is also
uneducated, but it is protective, loving and humane. He is exactly the opposite of
Pap. Although in those times the slaves are dehumanized, from this perspective,
Pap is the victim of this thing irony .
When we talk about slavery, we immediately think about niggers and
their oppressors. Twain compares Jims slavery to Miss Watson equally horrid as
Hucks to his father because they both end up running away . Even though Pap was
more like an animal than a person ( and this was not a secret for the other
characters), Jim is the one suspected for Hucks murder only because he was black
and he was a runaway slave. When we talk about Huck, we can think about him in
relation with Pap, but also with Widow Douglass and Miss Watson. They put Huck
under a kind of psychological slavery. They tried to sivilize him. As Jim, Huck
wants to be free, away from rules that must be kept in society he was a slave of
the society. ( Lit Charts)
In the beginning, Huck addresses to Jim with the N word. [] Huck Finn
helped a nigger to get his freedom then he claims All right then, Ill go to hell
He recognized Jim as a friend. His vision changes. People will call me a low-down
abolitionist [] but I dont care ( Chapter 8) . In the end, Huck achieves a certain
degree of freedom. It is not about the freedom from sivilization but from the rigid
 mindset of the racist South.( Jones 4 ) From an abused little boy, Huck Finn becomes
an enlightened human being.
Ralph Waldo Ellison said, "Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark Twain, that Jim was
not only a slave but a human being [and] a symbol of humanity... and in freeing Jim,
Huck makes a bid to free himself of the conventionalized evil taken for civilization
by the town..."
<< However, by giving Jim one of the central voices in the novel and
demonstrating Jims capacity to feel deep, human emotions, Twain demonstrates
the contradictions of his culture, portraying Jim through the minstrel stereotype
meanwhile revealing the fundamental reality of African American humanity.>> (
Was Huck Black?)
Living in this period, Twains thoughts are presented to us through
Hucks voice and his way of thinking. Even though Huck lived in that society and he
was in a way a slave of the current thinking , he could escape from that. Twain
present us the good part of the souls slave and the animal part of the whites. We
can see it very clearly that he agreed with the low-abolitionists creating the
character of Huck and dehumanizing the superior beings.
Marguerite Barnett (1982) said By making blacks inhuman, American
whites could destroy [] equal treatment. As I said in the beginning of the essay,
Twain points out that things just to show us the historical context in which the book
was written.
To conclude, Toni Morrison in The defense of The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn points out very clearly the fact that the black ones are not mocked
in this book. Twains black characters were most certainly based on real people. His
nonfiction observations and comments on actual blacks are full of references to
their guilelessness, intelligence, creativity, wit, caring, etc. [] none in portrayed as
relentlessly idiotic ( pg 106) . Mark Twain succeeded to express a lot of voices and
different mindsets in only one famous and controversial book. Personally I strongly
agree with the critics which support this book. I have no color prejudices nor caste
prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being,
and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse. ( Mark Twain)

Bibliography:

1. Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2. Shelley Fisher. Teaching Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

3. Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices. New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993

4. In defense of Adventures of Huck Finn by Toni Morrison

5. Satire or Evasion ? Black perspectives , University Press 1992
John H Wallace The case against Huckleberry Finn

6. http://www.accessessays.com/samples/Racism_in_huckelberry_Finn_MLA_.pdf ( Dee Jones)

7. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/aafamilies.htm

8. http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-
finn/themes/slavery-and-racism

9. http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/155574/racism-in-huckleberry-finn ( Isabella
Wrobel)