Theme Of Slavery In Huck Finn

The book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is an arguably controversial novel. It explores the idea of racism and slavery (among other topics) through a young white boy during slavery in the far south. Throughout the novel, Huckleberry Finn struggles with the idea of slavery and differing moral codes than what he was raised with. He flip-flops between the typical expected thought process of slavery to a new radical, almost abolitionist, viewpoint. Twain uses anti-slavery satire to show how slavery is wrong, the current social attitudes and Huck’s search for morals to demonstrate the need to question social views at the time. The connection between the corrupt and/or criminal society Huck experiences and the acceptance of slavery show how satire in the book displays the wrongdoing in slavery. Through the book, Twain shows that the people who condone slavery can be murderous, stealing, or criminal drunkards. The Duke and the King are two prime examples of this. After they meet Jim and Huck on the river they try to trick Huck in order to collect the reward money. In chapter 26 the Duke also makes a comment expressing his

A quote from chapter 32 that shows this is when Aunt Sally asks Huck whether anyone is hurt or not. He says, “no mum, just killed a nigger.” Whites back then portrayed blacks as only slaves; they were not even considered human but lower than human. Twain does a good job of this through Aunt Sally’s complete dismissal of the topic instead opting to tell about a white man who had gotten hurt in the same way. Aside from not only being considered non-human, Twain also makes the commentary that slaves are only worth money. “Well, I RECKON! There’s a two hundred dollars reward on him. It’s like picking up money out’n the road (pg 31 para 13).” The boy Huck meets on the road doesn’t see Jim as a person, but as a large pile of