What is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’s true meaning? Is it simply a chronicle of a young boy’s adventures? Is it rather a critique of southern racism? Or is it neither? Many critics debate this popular novel by Mark Twain about a boy, Huck and a runaway slave, Jim’s, adventures on the Mississippi River trying to get Jim to freedom. Their trials and interactions offer insight and commentary on Southern life during this time, but while Twain’s supposed critique of southern racism is successful in the sense that he shows a positive relationship between a white boy and a black man, his message is ultimately limited by the ambiguity of said message, as is evident though Jim’s embodiment of typical African American stereotypes, Huck’s lack
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When going to save Jim from slavery at the Phelps farm, he runs into Tom Sawyer, who wants to help him in this endeavor. Huck is shocked when he hears this, thinking, “I 'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell considerable in my estimation. Only I couldn 't believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger-stealer!” (Twain 235).Though at first one may think Huck’s decision to break Jim out of slavery is serving a higher purpose and related to Huck’s disagreement with slavery and Twain’s supposed critique of racism, when he meets Tom and shows disbelief and reproach at Tom being a “nigger-stealer!”, one sees now that really it is not about race for Huck, but rather one personal relationship. Although this shows their good relationship, Huck’s lack or stagnant views on race fail to make the argument against it. This all culminates though, when at the end of the novel, after Jim has helped Tom Sawyer and everyone is praising him, Huck thinks happily to himself, “I knowed he was white on the inside”(Twain 279). When Huck says this, although it shows that he holds Jim in higher regard, this belief does not translate to any other slaves, nor does not show any change in his beliefs about race. By saying he thinks Jim is ‘white on the inside’, it shows he still believes whites are superior,
When going to save Jim from slavery at the Phelps farm, he runs into Tom Sawyer, who wants to help him in this endeavor. Huck is shocked when he hears this, thinking, “I 'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell considerable in my estimation. Only I couldn 't believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger-stealer!” (Twain 235).Though at first one may think Huck’s decision to break Jim out of slavery is serving a higher purpose and related to Huck’s disagreement with slavery and Twain’s supposed critique of racism, when he meets Tom and shows disbelief and reproach at Tom being a “nigger-stealer!”, one sees now that really it is not about race for Huck, but rather one personal relationship. Although this shows their good relationship, Huck’s lack or stagnant views on race fail to make the argument against it. This all culminates though, when at the end of the novel, after Jim has helped Tom Sawyer and everyone is praising him, Huck thinks happily to himself, “I knowed he was white on the inside”(Twain 279). When Huck says this, although it shows that he holds Jim in higher regard, this belief does not translate to any other slaves, nor does not show any change in his beliefs about race. By saying he thinks Jim is ‘white on the inside’, it shows he still believes whites are superior,