Huckleberry Finn Racism Analysis

In the novel The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain analyzes many issues that were relevant at the time the book was written and are still relevant today. In his travels along the Mississippi River, Huck Finn and his companion, Jim overcome many obstacles. The most outstanding theme in Huckleberry Finn is racism. Racism is discussed throughout the entire book as seen through the eyes of Huck Finn. Going hand-and-hand with racism is Huck’s struggles with morality. Huck wants very much to be a righteous person, but struggle to reconcile the racism all around him with his own morality. When Huck first meets with Jim on Jackson’s Island he is torn on whether or not he should turn Jim in for being a runaway slave; he knows the right thing to do, would be to hand Jim over to the authorities. Huck is lonely and figures he is going to hell anyway, so he decides to travel with Jim as two runaways. Along the adventure Huck starts to depart from the racist thoughts that were ingrained in him. After playing a mean trick on Jim, Huck decides he should apologize, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither” (Huck Finn). At this point Huck still has some racism in his mind, but he slowly began to realize that Jim is human, just like he …show more content…
The adventure that Huck took with Jim was important for him, it gave Huck a new perspective. His internal struggles with racism and morality are still relevant today. Some schools have banned The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I believe it should be a required reading in all middle schools. Although times have gotten better, humanity can still learn lessons from Huck, not only about racism, but also about morality. We may have different skin tones, or speak different languages, but in the end we are all