Racial Politics in "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the history of controversy that surrounds Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", with an emphasis on critics' recent readings of the interracial friendship between Huck and Jim. The paper explains that, by ignoring the novel's historical context and the fact that the story is told by an unreliable narrator, much recent criticism has misinterpreted Twain's work, including its much maligned ending.

From the Paper:

"Twain's antisocial sentiments did not just affront the Concord Library committee, a number of book reviewers followed suit in censuring the novel. On April 2, 1885, the Springfield Daily Republican asserted that Twain's "bitter vein of satire on the weaknesses of humanity is sometimes wholesome, sometimes only grotesque, but in certain of his works degenerates into a gross trifling with every fine feeling. . .The advertising samples of this book, which have disfigured the Century magazine, are enough to tell any reader how offensive the whole thing must be"(4) The Boston Daily Advertiser escalated the attack upon Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with a sweeping condemnation the book, the writer, and indeed, any of Twain's admirers."

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