Racism lays beneath the soil of American history and continues to seep through the roots. The foundations of the American Civil War lay in the racial tensions in the South, originating between black slaves and white owners. The end of the Civil War in 1865 marked the legal end of slavery in America. Social injustice continued to exist between blacks and whites, regardless of legal freedom. However, inequality prevailed and became a moral dilemma between the accepted racist beliefs of society supported by the law and individual opinions.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 marked the legal end of ownership of African American slaves. Although this should have triggered the beginning of a more equal society, division deepened. The “Civil Rights …show more content…
Twain proposed the solution displacement from a “‘sivlization’ riddled by racial division and prejudice” (De Koster 126). Because society influences one’s judgement, Huck’s racist influence floated away as he lived away from the rest of the world. Huck represented possible change in the influential youth of the South, to grow up without hate. Therefore, he built a friendship between the neglected, young Huck and escaped slave Jim with the common goal of freedom from their oppressive lives at home. This friendship caused Huck’s moral dilemma of breaking the law and aiding in Jim’s escape. Twain’s radical position to propose friendship between “one black and one white, is under attack today because many Americans,[were] guilt ridden over the racial divisions that [continued] to plague our society” (De Koster 123). Because the reality of an oppressive society is an unhappy one, most citizens ignored it and even boycotted Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The rebellious nature of a young boy to break the law and free a slave and feel emotion towards a black man was inconceivable therefore the book was perceived as trash. The moral growth that Huck experienced while “ alone with Jim in the raft drifting down the Mississippi River that Huck hears a voice of love that makes sense in a world of hatred, and can reply from his own heart with his apology and with his famous moral victory: ‘ All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Brownell 19). Huck’s ultimate sacrifice and act of friendship portrayed his view of Jim to be his friend and his equal. Although Twain’s clearly depicted that society’s problem was ignorance by support in numbers, people did not want to accept
The abolition of slavery in 1865 marked the legal end of ownership of African American slaves. Although this should have triggered the beginning of a more equal society, division deepened. The “Civil Rights …show more content…
Twain proposed the solution displacement from a “‘sivlization’ riddled by racial division and prejudice” (De Koster 126). Because society influences one’s judgement, Huck’s racist influence floated away as he lived away from the rest of the world. Huck represented possible change in the influential youth of the South, to grow up without hate. Therefore, he built a friendship between the neglected, young Huck and escaped slave Jim with the common goal of freedom from their oppressive lives at home. This friendship caused Huck’s moral dilemma of breaking the law and aiding in Jim’s escape. Twain’s radical position to propose friendship between “one black and one white, is under attack today because many Americans,[were] guilt ridden over the racial divisions that [continued] to plague our society” (De Koster 123). Because the reality of an oppressive society is an unhappy one, most citizens ignored it and even boycotted Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The rebellious nature of a young boy to break the law and free a slave and feel emotion towards a black man was inconceivable therefore the book was perceived as trash. The moral growth that Huck experienced while “ alone with Jim in the raft drifting down the Mississippi River that Huck hears a voice of love that makes sense in a world of hatred, and can reply from his own heart with his apology and with his famous moral victory: ‘ All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Brownell 19). Huck’s ultimate sacrifice and act of friendship portrayed his view of Jim to be his friend and his equal. Although Twain’s clearly depicted that society’s problem was ignorance by support in numbers, people did not want to accept