Racism is and may always be a sensitive topic for Americans to discuss. It is both unfortunate but true that in our past and present time, our country has struggled with racism. It’s a hard topic to tackle, and there are certainly times when we jump through hoops to ignore it. The question is, how do we handle something so fragile yet so imperative to discuss, without offending our fellow Americans? Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is a controversial novel that “has been criticized, censored, and banned for an array of perceived failings including obscenity, atheism, bad grammar, coarse manners, low moral tone, and antisouthernism” (Henry 360). The graphic dialect, including the repetition of the jarring epithet “nigger,” is a
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A major, and key difference, is that Huck Finn does not have the same extravagant and romanticized plot of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck himself is a very simple boy, who hates being “sivilized” (Twain 13). He is also our narrator, which means that Twain gave his readers the pleasure of seeing the 1800’s through a true Southern white boy. It becomes essential throughout the novel to differentiate between what Huck sees, and what Twain wants us to see. For example, when Jim was telling Huck all about his plan to go to a free state and buy his wife and kids back, Huck describes it as “such a lowering of him” (Twain 94). However, Twain wants the reader to see past the racism in this remark, and see how society has corrupted a young boy to believe that a slave should not have the same respect and ability that he does. Yet this is the same Huck who says, “Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me” (Twain 53). Huck is a naive white boy raised by society, and as much as we want him to always align with our own morals he is still struggling with his conscience and his heart, torn between the angel and the
A major, and key difference, is that Huck Finn does not have the same extravagant and romanticized plot of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck himself is a very simple boy, who hates being “sivilized” (Twain 13). He is also our narrator, which means that Twain gave his readers the pleasure of seeing the 1800’s through a true Southern white boy. It becomes essential throughout the novel to differentiate between what Huck sees, and what Twain wants us to see. For example, when Jim was telling Huck all about his plan to go to a free state and buy his wife and kids back, Huck describes it as “such a lowering of him” (Twain 94). However, Twain wants the reader to see past the racism in this remark, and see how society has corrupted a young boy to believe that a slave should not have the same respect and ability that he does. Yet this is the same Huck who says, “Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me” (Twain 53). Huck is a naive white boy raised by society, and as much as we want him to always align with our own morals he is still struggling with his conscience and his heart, torn between the angel and the