Black Like Huckleberry Finn Analysis

The United States of America, the land of the free and home of the brave; or so it is said to be. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn illuminates the hypocrisy of our country and the foundations that it was built on. The basics of the “free” country was built upon the Declaration of Independence which states “that all men are created equal” which was later proven to be false due to all the slaves that our country had. America’s past is often forgotten and overlooked as it is not one to proud of and one that the great nation should have. In Black Like Huck Stanley Crouch shows how racism has been a key founding element as our country has progressed and grown throughout the years. People think that since there are not any more slaves …show more content…
The first thing that most people think of when they hear United States of America is freedom and opportunity. America is a place that people scramble to escape their life in search of a new one. How did this “free” country gain the reputation of one that people will do anything to get into just to better their lives? A country brought up on slavery and discrimination is one that is now praised and rewarded for the exact opposite. Freedom for African American people did not happen overnight it took many people coming together in order to strive for a change. Crouch stated, “Twain knew that Negroes and whites would either achieve freedom together or share mutual diminishment. He knew that it was the duty of whites with moral courage to insure that bigots and opportunists not be allowed to sustain the immoralities of bias that petrify our nation”. Although Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published some years after the story was meant to take place Mark Twain was ahead of his time with his thinking. In the article Crouch explains how cultures have intertwined and there is no longer a “black” or a “white” culture. He demonstrates this when he says, “I went to a blues club with Larry Orick and found myself surrounded by white people who loved the blues, no matter who played them. The presence …show more content…
Although we do live in a free country it is still one with hypocrisy and racism. Many of us forget our past relations with slavery and how much of a struggle America had to conquer it. The United States of America was not always this “free” country for its existence, it was one with slavery and two different culture separations in society. Stanley Crouch’s Black Like Huck examines the progression of racism throughout the years and how it has helped shaped our country. Although some people choose to be ignorant and not pay attention to issues in our hypocritical society regarding racism, it still does exist. We must examine our society closely to try and stop the spread of racism and have different cultures of society all combine into