In the pre-Civil War era, society was a completely different beast than it is now. Different standards were set for different groups of people and, if you didn’t abide by them, you could find yourself an outcast. Many different factors played a part in how people behaved: race, wealth, intelligence, culture, and your familial background. For example, Huck Finn is the child of a poor, white, drunk. Huck’s father is abusive and overbearing which, eventually, leads to Huck running away and meeting up with runaway slave Jim. In the 19th century novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain emphasizes the stereotypes placed on certain groups of people. He then shows how people are more than they’re perceived to be, through his character
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The critic Nicole Smith explains how Jim at first “seems to embody many of the stereotypes of slaves or african americans” but eventually becomes “one of the most reliable, least hypocritical, most honest and caring characters in the text.” She reveals how Twain intends to expose the hypocrisy of slavery and racism even in the post-slavery America. Through his appealing character traits, Jim is able to show that the difference between slaves and white men is not all that great. They are, in essence, the same but for the color of their skin. Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua also states how “some people prefer to regard him as yet another, degrading, racial stereotype.” She goes on to argue that Jim’s character is more than a stereotype. He is a vessel to convey to the public that slaves, or former slaves, are more than property, they are people with family and friends and their own, unique selves, just like any white …show more content…
The white man spoke- mostly- with clean, thought-out sentences and their words had clear meaning. Slaves spoke with harsh slang and with words that had meaning only to the speaker and his family. When Jim and Huck are discussing kings, their conversation is but one of many where one side speaks in barely decipherable english: "I hain 't hern 'bout none un um, skasely, but ole king Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat 's in a pack er k 'yards" and the other with more precise language (86). Jim never had an education. He was taught by his parents and them by their parents before them. Slaves such as Jim are not educated by their masters because it would be a waste of time since all they needed to know is how to plant in a field. This made conversation between the two races- blacks and whites- difficult since their way of speech was
The critic Nicole Smith explains how Jim at first “seems to embody many of the stereotypes of slaves or african americans” but eventually becomes “one of the most reliable, least hypocritical, most honest and caring characters in the text.” She reveals how Twain intends to expose the hypocrisy of slavery and racism even in the post-slavery America. Through his appealing character traits, Jim is able to show that the difference between slaves and white men is not all that great. They are, in essence, the same but for the color of their skin. Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua also states how “some people prefer to regard him as yet another, degrading, racial stereotype.” She goes on to argue that Jim’s character is more than a stereotype. He is a vessel to convey to the public that slaves, or former slaves, are more than property, they are people with family and friends and their own, unique selves, just like any white …show more content…
The white man spoke- mostly- with clean, thought-out sentences and their words had clear meaning. Slaves spoke with harsh slang and with words that had meaning only to the speaker and his family. When Jim and Huck are discussing kings, their conversation is but one of many where one side speaks in barely decipherable english: "I hain 't hern 'bout none un um, skasely, but ole king Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat 's in a pack er k 'yards" and the other with more precise language (86). Jim never had an education. He was taught by his parents and them by their parents before them. Slaves such as Jim are not educated by their masters because it would be a waste of time since all they needed to know is how to plant in a field. This made conversation between the two races- blacks and whites- difficult since their way of speech was