Mark Twain and Slavery
Mark Twain, a famous American writer wrote many books highly acclaimed throughout the world. For his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the literary establishment recognized him as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. This novel is about a teenage boy by the name of Huck Finn. He is living with Miss Watson and Widow Douglas who have adopted him. He decides that civil life is not for him and that he is going to run away. At the beginning of his adventure he runs into Miss Watson's run away slave Jim. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck goes against society and makes a decision to help Jim break free from slavery. As they travel together, Huck learns more and more about Jim and starts to understand that the common stereotype of black people is wrong. Huck sees there is no different then anyone else. He starts to see that Jim is a loving caring person just like anyone else. My argument is that Mark Twain portrayed Jim in this way because that is how he really felt about slavery. He felt that African Americans are our equals and that the act of slavery should not be allowed.
Raised in the slave state of Missouri, Mark Twain grew up with slaves. His father owned slaves and his uncle actually owned twenty slaves. He saw the way slaves were treated on the everyday bases especially when he went to his uncle's farm for the summer. At a young age Mark Twain witnessed a slave being killed just because he did one thing wrong (Lombardi 1). These things in his childhood lead me to believe that Mark Twain felt bad for African Americans and feels that they should be free.
I have chosen to use the literary theory structuralism. "In literary theory structuralism is an approach to a...
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...his is how American should start to realize that African Americans are our equals. He depicts many of the white people in this story as thieves, murders, or all around bad people. He never once says anything bad about Jim even though he would normally be stereotyped as the person that would do all these things merely by the color of his skin. Mark Twain portrays his feelings through this story. Race is the underlining theme in this story. If you read the story closely you can see all the different things that point this out. Mark Twain felt that African Americans are our equal and through this story he shows this very well.
Work Cited
Lombardi, Esther. "Mark Twain - What Did Mark Twain Write About Slavery? Was He a Racist?" About.Com. .
"Structuralism." Wikipedia. .
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New Yrok: Pocket Books, 2004.
Mark Twain was for slavery because he grew up in a time period where it was okay to have slaves and it even boosted your social status, to own slaves. “He cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural...”(155). Mark Twain thought that black people were on a lower level of social status than white people, and that they did not care for their families as much as white people did. “And then think of me! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom, and if I was ever to seen anybody from that town again I’d be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame”(212). In the 1860's it was considered immoral and a sin to help a slave into freedom. Mark Twain’s character, Huckleberry Finn, is ashamed that he helped the slave Jim to escape, yet he is good to Jim, so there is a bit of conflicting interests in Huck’s and Jim’s relationship.
Many words the book contains are full of vivid disgust towards black slaves. Every single line talks about how white people despise and refuse to accept the black race. Answering Aunt Sally's question about whether or not anyone is hurt Huck answers, "no mum, just killed a nigger."(Twain 213) This is the one and only acceptable way to talk about black people in the "white" society. In addition to this, not only is the black people treated differently from the white, they are also considered to be one's property. "He is the only property I have," (Twain 122) Huck is perforce to say in order to save Jim. This is the only way to get through without the essence of suspicions. Though Huck shows racism in public as society teaches him, deep inside he understands that Jim is a great person. Through the eyes of Huck Finn, Mark Twain shows that there is more to people then looks and race, showing the importance of beliefs and character.
Why would a man who fought against slavery, injustice, and discrimination write a racist book ? For some time, many students, educators, and scholars debated whether The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain deserves its place in our literary canon. Certain readers find the relationship between Huck and Jim especially problematic due to abundant use of the N word and Twain’s stereotypical depiction of Jim. On one hand, Jim is viewed as an uneducated slave who is always in peril due to Huck’s playfulness and immaturity. Yet, on the other hand, Jim is a complex secondary character crucial for Huck’s development from naiveté into maturity. Despite, the glaring overuse of racial epithets, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn should remain in the literary canon and continue to be taught as it allows readers to address racial misconceptions, such as racial
Mark Twain throughout the book showed Huckleberry Finns personal growth on how he started from the bottom as a lonely, racist, immature kid who knew nothing to where he is now, by finally breaking away from society’s values he was taught in the beginning. He has alienated himself from the from that society and revealed how in fact these values were hypocritical. He realized that he can choose his own morals and that the one he chooses is the correct one.
Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn depicts how he is a racist. He shows it in many ways in which his characters act. All of the people in the towns are slave owners, and treat black slaves with disrespect. In the time period of the novel slavery was not legal, but racism was. Many scenes in his novel make slaves look like fools. Mark Twain does this purposely to make colored people look and sound like fools, because he is a racist person.
Mark Twain opposed many of the ideologies of his time. Through his novel Huckleberry Finn, he explored human nature and the society. He made apparent his dislike for them. The book focus’s on the general treatment of black people during this time. Specifically, the author criticizes morality, slavery and racism.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain’s main characters depicted the societal issues of racism in the South. Huck Finn, a poor white boy, and Jim, an African American slave, both encounter situations that cause these characters inter turmoil because of the societal standards of the time. According to Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
The subject this book revolves around slavery, and how white folks’ mindset on black people was popular at that time. Their mindset involved treating black people as inferior to them, and how to them, they were not even considered human but property. Twain also shows how sometimes a fourteen year old boy (Huck) was more morally correct towards treatment of black people than many adults of his time. Twain presents this in a humorous way with its serious points. The issue is obvious throughout the story and makes the reader wonder how even “good” characters treate...
Moving Forward, Twain is anything but subtle with his regards to racism in Huck Finn. In chapter VI Huck’s father (Pap) curses the government when he takes notice of a particular fellow who happens to be of mixed race in town. Pap is disgusted that such a man is able to roam free he states “when they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let a nigger vote, I drawed out….I’ll never vote again” (Pg.38). Pap would give up his own right to vote just to spite black people. Twain uses Pap to display how there are people in society who are willfully
Mark Twain, who is a realistic fiction writer, incorporates satire and humor in his writing, including Archetypal elements to modify how the reader interprets the story. He uses many archetypal characters like Huck and Jim who both can be argued as the heroes. They both have good intentions and help others. Mark Twain portrays Jim as a deeply caring and loyal friend. Jim becomes a father figure to Huck, helping him realize the human face of slavery. Twain Portrays Huck as a young and naive boy who has been under the wrong influence for a long time. Another archetypal element that Mark Twain uses is Jims Quest for freedom. This was a quest for most all African Americans, to run away north so you could be free. But Jim was one of the few who was brave enough to do so; that’s he can be classified as the hero in the story. But Jim’s life is not too bad compared to historical records about the lives of slaves. Even though he had to struggle for his freedom, he didn’t have any good reason to leave. His life contested of helping round and not doing hard enduring work like some of the other slaves. The way Jim’s life is portrayed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Mark Twain criticizes the life of African Americans at the time.
racist and stereotypical, the novel should be taught to high school aged students because it teaches them the lessons of the bigotry and prejudice of the past. Twain’s novel focuses on slavery in the southern United States during the 1840’s. The novel tells the story of the journey of
Every serious Twain scholar knows of Twain’s reputation as a burlesque humorist/satirist as well as his anti-imperialist and anti-religious tendencies. The scholar must be careful when labeling or categorizing Twain’s work because of his frequent use of sarcasm but Twain definitely liked blacks and abhorred slavery. His treatment of Natives and the Chinese was questionable when looked at apart from his work as a whole, but he slammed the white race more mercilessly than he ever condemned any other race. Sadly, the cynical and sarcastic Mark Twain can never be fully understood because only he knew what thoughts he was trying to convey.
Twain himself has been suggested as a racist based on the fact that he uses the word "nigger" in his book. However, Twain was an avid abolitionist. For those who claim that Twain was a racist must have only been looking out for themselves and not those who are willing to learn about the past whether it be ugly or perfect. Racism was and forever will be a dark part of the American past, and no one can change that, no matter how many books one may alter.
And, as many of mentioned in Peter Salwen’s article that, “(Twain’s) writing is offensive to black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves...
Another theme that is dealt with in this book is slavery. In fact, slavery is one of the main topics that has been frequently debated in regards to Huckleberry Finn since it was first published. Twain himself was vehemently anti-slavery and Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as an allegory for why slavery is wrong. Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one of the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions: Jim runs away because Miss Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family; Jim is trying to become free so he can buy his family's freedom; and Jim takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very materialistic manner.