"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

Paper Summary:

A controversy has developed around the inclusion of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain in high school classes with charges that the book is racist because it includes the word "nigger" and because it does not offer a flattering portrait of Jim, the slave who travels down the river with Huck on the raft. The paper argues that the second complaint is simply a false reading of the book, for indeed Twain does show Jim to be not an object but a human being. If he does not have the same sensibilities as a modern black would, that is hardly surprising given that he is representative of his time and place and not of some later social milieu. The paper argues that to claim that the book is racist simply because it includes the word "nigger" is also false. A character using the word might or might not be racist, but the fact that the word is used at all reflects the mores of the time more than approval, especially in a book where Huck learns that Jim is not simply the less-than-human he may have assumed because of the way slaves are treated by everyone else. Huck is, after all, a character shown to be out of step with "civilized" society and usually proud of it.

From the Paper:

"The slave Jim has been treated relatively well by his masters, but he is still a slave and knows the value of freedom. His journey with Huck makes this a reality. Completely innocent characters in fiction are often used by writers as a way of creating an ironic comment on the society in which they live, a society the innocent may not understand but which he or she can still convey to the reader by contrast, understatement, and an ironic counterpoint. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain depicts what could be called "The Education of Huck Finn" as the young man travels down the river and experiences different aspects of the society of his time. Huck is intuitive about what is right, and in the long term what he learns is to trust his intuition, his own innate sense of right and wrong. Huck Finn is the innocent who serves to illuminate the hypocrisy and corruption of society through his pragmatic nature, his willingness to accept others until they show their true colors, and his innate sense of honor and fairness. He extends this to Jim as the two share the dangers of their flight for freedom."

More papers on "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn":

• Analytical Essay # 57709 : "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
• Analytical Essay # 6308 : "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn": Character Analysis"
• Book Review # 98305 : "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
• Book Review # 71160 : "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

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