Racism in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

James Phelan’s commentary, while extremely interesting and enjoyable, turned out to be the least useful in developing my understanding of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. “On the Nature and Status of Covert Texts: A Reply to Gerry Brenner’s ‘Letter to ‘De Ole True Huck’ ” is, as the title plainly states, a response to Gerry Brenner’s story rather than Mark Twain’s novel. Phelan openly declares, “My analysis of Brenner’s critique of Huck in effect unmoors that critique from Twain’s text and reconstitutes it as a separate narrative” (433). The article was actually about “Letter to ‘De Ole Huck,” rather than Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Phelan discussed the novel only in comparison with Brenner’s narrative, thus assisting more with my understanding of the narrative than the novel. While I enjoyed reading the different ways Phelan managed to manipulate Brenner’s narrative and expose varying interpretations, it did not bring anything truly unique to my reading experience. Despite having not read the novel before, I did possess a degree of knowledge of the racial controversy surrounding it. My previously acquired knowledge no doubt influenced the way I read the novel, thereby coloring my interpretation as well. As I read, I purposefully sought passages potentially containing underlying or alternate meanings. My reading was geared toward identifying and understanding multiple viewpoints of a single event. Phelan acknowledges “Twain’s text does leave open the possibility that Huck places the rattlesnake on Jim’s blanket for some reason other than to play a good-natured prank,” in his article (432). I also noticed the dual possibilities presented by Twain in the rattlesnake scene. As Phelan might say, I searched for my own covert text du...

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...65). Lester’s conclusion asserts, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a dismal portrait of the white male psyche” (370). My response to Lester would be that Twain warns readers from the very beginning, “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted,” and never claimed to be writing anything more than a fantastical adventure of a young boy (27). At first, I did not think that Lester’s article had anything valuable to offer, yet as I reflected on the anger it aroused in me I realized an error in my judgment. In forming my arguments against Lester, I had been forced to refer back to the covert texts found in my initial reading of the novel and revaluate many of my previous beliefs. Lester forced me to overthrow my attempts to abstain from picking one covert text over another. This helped me clarify the message I took from the novel as a whole.