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Relationship of huck and jim
Literary analysis of huckleberry finn
Relationship of huck and jim
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A young white boy from the deep south, a runaway slave, and a daring adventure for freedom, sounds like the making for a literary disaster, right? Many people believe that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is profoundly racist and disgusting, and have sought to have it banned from their local public schools. However, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a prime example of a book that has broken down stereotypes about slaves and satirized the social constructs of the South. Huckleberry Finn should be taught in schools due to the satire of preexisting constructs and the profound anti-slavery message.
Satire is funny. Though many people interpret satire in a serious nature, it is meant to ridicule a preexisting construct, such as the Christians
Though the lower class is low on the social hierarchy, they still believe that the African Americans are lower than them, on some inexistent class between slave status and low class. Huck’s father, ‘Pap’, exemplifies this when he was going to vote while he was intoxicated, and was told that someone that “there was a State in this country” that would let an n- vote and swore he’d “never vote again” (Twain 24). The irony of this statement is that the man was drunk, going to vote, but believes that sober African Americans do not have the right to cast a vote. Though Huck is lower class, he is an “honest, clear eyed individualist” who fights against a “corrupt social order” (Sawicki 48). Huck breaks the ironic chain of backward social constructs by questioning what he believes and by being his own person. Moreover, nothing is ironic about slavery, but something can be said about those who hold slaves. Miss Watson, who is a well to do Christian. Miss Watson is the Widow Douglas sister who is an “a tolerable slim old maid” with glasses (Twain 6). The widow Douglas represents the good part of society, the caring one who speaks of a loving God to Huck. Since she represents the good in society, Miss Watson represents the bad part. She speaks of an angry, vengeful God to Huck, nags him incessantly and owns as slave while being a ‘proper Christian’. She tells Huck to do not “put
The idea of a civilized society is to be well mannered, godly, polite, and humongous. If this idea is followed, then everyone will end up in heaven, according to the common belief in the south at that time. These values are always present in Huck’s life, but he cannot bring himself to follow the rules. Huck says that it okay that he will “go to hell” (Twain 3), this is because Huck realized the hypocrisy of civilized society. The heaven that the Widow Douglas describes is too lofty, and Huck believed that Tom and his other friends cannot get there. Huck also does not have a big sense of entitlement. Shortly after meeting Jim he decides that they are near equals and look out for each other. The mental crisis that Huck has towards the end of the novel shows that he wants to be good, but being good means turning Jim in. Huck knows that the good thing to do is to help Jim, and despite the consequences, believes that he made the right
High Schools in the United States should not ban The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This book is one of the most important components of American literature in our libraries today, it throws the reader into a time when slavery was lawful and accepted, and gives the reader a new perspective on slavery in general. Until civil rights groups can come up with a better argument than the word “nigger” creating a “hostile work environment”(Zwick) it should not be taken off the required reading list of any High School in the country.
“All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” this is what fellow writer had to say about this classic novel. Still, this novel has been the object of controversy since it was published more than 150 years ago. Some people argue that Huckleberry Finn is a racist work, and that the novel has no place in a highschool classroom. This feeling is generated because a main character in the story, Jim, and other slaves are referred to many times as “niggers.” When Mark Twain wrote this book, he was striving to show the general public that society was wrong in the past, that the way white people thought black people were less than human was a wrong viewpoint. The book is also denounced because people feel that this book is anti-American. Russians have even taught this book to show that Americans are generally rotten people (Loeffler, class notes). But this novel is in no way anti-American, everything written about Americans is used as a satire, to make such a poignant book less serious, and to add some levity. Twain also has hidden morals in his messages. Huckleberry Finn should be taught in highschool classrooms because it is a very valuable and educational novel, with a moral and a theme that are needed to be learned by everyone.
Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, educates high school students on how the Southern society operated at that time. When analyzing the novel, one can see that Twain’s writing clearly does not endorse slavery or the use of derogatory language toward African-Americans. In a petition to remove this book from a high school required reading list, a school board in New Jersey concluded, "the literary value of the book outweighed the negative aspect of the language employed.” (2) Huckleberry Finn is a satirical novel that was written to show the flaws of 19th century American society. It shows how people thought and acted back then, and points out what was wrong with the white supremacy mindset of many Southerners during these years. “The book itself is a great testament that...
Satire is a writing technique used oftentimes as a way to criticize or mock something comically. Many writers utilize satire to reveal their perspectives on social issues without outright stating them. Mark Twain 's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exhibits many examples of satire, all of which hint towards Twain 's opinions of the American society he lived in. Three particular societal norms Mark Twain uses satire to mock multiple times in his novel, include but are not limited to; racism and slavery, religion, and family feuds. There are multiple other instances for which satire is used, but these three are exceedingly prominent throughout the novel.
To begin with, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are two wealthy sisters who adopt Huck. Thw two sister’s want to teach Huck the importance of religion, manners, and behaving. After staying in the house for a while, Huck realizes that “it [is] rough living in the house all the time”, because the Widow Douglas wants to “sivilize [him]”(Twain, 1). When dinner is ready the widow would call Huck to the table, but before they began eating the widow needs “to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals” (1). Huck knew there was nothing was wrong with the food but because the widow was religious she was trying to instill in Huck that he needs to bless his food and give thanks to God for it. The widow is trying to make religion a part of Huck’s life, which seems to be a negative impact on his life considering the many times Twain portrays religious persons as being gullible. Miss Watson, the more forceful of the two sisters, is adamant about getting huck to behave. To help mold Huck into a person that “go[es] to the good place” also known as heaven, Miss Watson constantly tells him things to do to help him behave such as “don’t put your feet up there” and “set up straight”(2). Besides adopting a religion, and behaving, Hucks appearance needed to be neat and respectable. Although the new clothes made Huck “sweat and sweat,...
Why would one satirize society with the risk of being in trouble? Well, the realistic fiction Huckleberry Finn takes place in Mississippi, 1830s-1840s where slavery was legal at the time. The time being, lead to much racism and the abolition of slavery was starting to anger those who were in possession of slaves. Mark Twain uses satire to teach the newer generation that the way people were treated should be intolerable. Throughout the novel Tom Sawyer is a presentation of satire as well as society which were considered villainous.
In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses mockery to point out the social issues that were current during his time. Throughout the text, Mark Twain utilizes the main character Huckleberry as a means of voicing his own opinion on problems in social institutions in a jokingly manner; this is called satire. Hypocrisy in religion is one example of satire found in the novel. People's quickness to believe and stupidity are others as well.
'Classic' -a book which people praise and don't read"(Twain). If one truly wants to understand the full meaning of Huckleberry Finn they must read the novel. The author Mark Twain does an incredible job using satire to mock beliefs and social institutions. In Huckleberry Finn Twain portrays his beliefs on social issues through Huck, who is an innocent unbiased child. Since Huck was born from nothing, and had nothing he speaks the truth on social issues such as slavery, religion, and greed. Unlike many of the people surrounding Huck, he is the one of the only characters Twain can speak through. In Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses satire to discuss greed, hypocrisy, and personal beliefs.
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality"(Poe 1). A child's perception of reality is influenced by those around them. Huckleberry Finn had an impressionable thirteen year old mind filled with the morals, thoughts, and values of many. Leading a very unstable life, there was never a contingency that Huck would develop his own perception. One day, Huckleberry faked his own death and ran away from his oppressive father. Joining runaway slave, Jim, Huck was now able to see the hypocrisy of the world. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain used satire to criticize the various social institutions of antebellum America.
The novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ was published in 1885. It was not until the 1950’s, after Twain’s death, that the novel started getting accused of being racist. Mark Twain had a few messages to get across to his readers, he emphasised on showing that specific society how ridiculous they were treating slaves by using humor and satire. This novel can be interpreted in many different ways, he has many different type of characters that all have different personalities. One of Twain’s biggest goal while writing this novel was to create sympathy for certain characters, specifically Jim and Huck. He effectively used multiple techniques to create sympathy such as, setting, symbolism and style.
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are many forms of satire that are used. One form of satire that I realized was a constant show up, was fraud. Fraud means wrongful or criminal deception intended to help someone's needs.m
At first Huck is just a poor, uneducated boy struggling with following the rules. However, by the end of his journey Huck has learned to distinguish what is right from wrong. Yet, that didn’t come easy. Huck struggled with what is expected of him from a “civilized” society. A big issue for Huck is that society has failed him. For example, it is the rules of society that gave Huck’s father custody of him even though it put Huck’s welfare in danger. As a result, Huck always question how good society actually was which only added to his feelings of confusion. A difficult concept for Huck to grasp was the society allowed for slaves to be owned and how nearly everyone in town owned a slave. The townspeople are always so religious and telling Huck do be good and god-loving, but Huck did not understand how religious, “good” people could own slaves. This led to Huck’s realization that society is not always correct, and that he should listed to his heart when making moral decisions. At the end of Huck’s journey Aunt Sally had offered to adopt Huck, but Huck didn’t want to be adopted because he feared civilization. He said, “I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before”(Twain 293). This shows that Huck realizes the corruptnesses of society and doesn’t want to deal with the same moral battle
In the book, “Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain should not be banned in school because it is educational, it has wonderful symbolism about society, and talks about both the good and bad of the slavery era. “Mark Twain is a humorist or nothing. He is well aware of the fact himself, for he prefaces “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” with a brief notice, warning persons in search of a moral, motive or plot that they are liable to be prosecuted, banished or shot.” (Huck Finn Controversy). This quote talks all about how Mark Twain was only a man of humor and was in no need to put the words personal to anyone and instead to make it a good book. This story talks all about the times of slavery and how differently people were treated based on their color
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an extremely important work of literature that addresses many world problems such as: poverty, race relations, and our role in society. Although some of these issues are not as prevalent today as they were in the 1880s, the novel still sends an important satirical message to anyone who is willing hear this story. This essay will analyze Huckleberry Finn and its relation to society today; the main issues that are addressed include: Huckleberry’s growth as a moral and upstanding person, race relations between African-Americans and Caucasian-Americans including Huck’s relation to Jim and the issue of slavery, the role of society and an analysis of Huck’s role in society and society’s role in Huckleberry’s personality.
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...