Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name “Mark Twain”, was born in November of 1835. His father descended from the FFV (First Families of Virginia), and due to his wealth, Sam grew up with slaves. For Twain, slavery was a fact of life, which is why he set his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with the intent to show nothing in the post-civil war minds of society had changed, especially regarding the treatment of African Americans. Twain believed all people were equal and deserved respect, which is something the majority of the 1880s society did not believe.
Much like Harriet Beecher Stowe used Uncle Tom’s Cabin to lay the foundation for civil war, and show the injustices of slavery, Twain used his novel to show how prejudice and racism replaced slavery. To do this he used social commentary to portray the society of the 1880s as a group of sugar coaters and hypocrites. This made it clear to readers that post-war racism didn’t change and although slaves were considered free, they were now slaves of prejudice.
Twain set the novel along the Mississippi River, and branched off into other locations in the south. This is where the worst of the racism and slavery occurred, the creation of the Jim Crow laws was mainly in the south. They supposedly made society “separate …show more content…
Pap is a self-destructive man who takes Huck’s money and gets drunk every chance he gets. Although he’s obviously not father material, the judge claims that Pap has a legal right to Huck. Pap proves himself to be a horrible guardian, denying Huck the opportunity to an education, and imprisoning him in a cabin isolated deep in the woods. Pap tries to kill Huck in a drunken fit, and it becomes apparent that Pap’s “legal right” to Huck, compromises Huck’s welfare and health. Twain uses Pap’s imprisonment of Huck as comparison to the enslavement of black people, and the “legal rights” that slave owners hold to
Much like Harriet Beecher Stowe used Uncle Tom’s Cabin to lay the foundation for civil war, and show the injustices of slavery, Twain used his novel to show how prejudice and racism replaced slavery. To do this he used social commentary to portray the society of the 1880s as a group of sugar coaters and hypocrites. This made it clear to readers that post-war racism didn’t change and although slaves were considered free, they were now slaves of prejudice.
Twain set the novel along the Mississippi River, and branched off into other locations in the south. This is where the worst of the racism and slavery occurred, the creation of the Jim Crow laws was mainly in the south. They supposedly made society “separate …show more content…
Pap is a self-destructive man who takes Huck’s money and gets drunk every chance he gets. Although he’s obviously not father material, the judge claims that Pap has a legal right to Huck. Pap proves himself to be a horrible guardian, denying Huck the opportunity to an education, and imprisoning him in a cabin isolated deep in the woods. Pap tries to kill Huck in a drunken fit, and it becomes apparent that Pap’s “legal right” to Huck, compromises Huck’s welfare and health. Twain uses Pap’s imprisonment of Huck as comparison to the enslavement of black people, and the “legal rights” that slave owners hold to