Examples Of Racism In Huckleberry Finn
Michaela McCabe
English 11, Period 1
Racism in Huckleberry Finn
29 March 2013
Racism and Huckleberry Finn: A Look Below The Surface
“I see it warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.” Says Huckleberry Finn, the central character Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain 78). This casually racist comment—which, in itself, embodies several of the racism-based arguments for the censorship of Twain’s 1884 novel—is one of many that pervades the forty-three chapters of the classic American work. However, the portrayal of racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, though it has not gone uncontested by critics and readers alike, is one that should not simply be disregarded as …show more content…
Again with a strong use of satire, Twain effectively illustrates the offhandedly racist attitudes of many characters that Huck encounters on his journey down the Mississippi. Even Huck, himself, on numerous occasions displays such an attitude in his relationship with the loveable runaway, Jim, at one point claiming that he “knowed he [Jim] was white inside…” when Jim insists that Tom Sawyer see a doctor after being shot in the leg despite the fact that he is risking his freedom by doing so (Twain 264). This comment embodies the complexity of the relationship between the two characters. On the one hand, the pair’s journey down the Mississippi breaks down many of Huck’s misconceptions about Jim and Jim’s race. This becomes clear when, after hearing Jim lament his separation from his family and his mistreatment of his young daughter, ‘Lizabeth, Huck says, “ … I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It doesn’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so.” (Twain 150) It becomes clear again when Huck decides that he is willing to go to Hell for helping Jim escape from slavery, claiming, “I couldn’t strike no places to harden me against him…[he] would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was… I studied for a minute, and then says to myself: ‘All right, …show more content…
From the Southern dialect’s use of the “n” word to the controversially racist themes of the novel, many critics have opposed the novel’s inclusion, claiming that it has a negative effect on the racial pride of African-American students and the overall mentality of high school students in general. However, those who argue these points fail to realize the implications of such themes and dialect. One writer, Michiko Kakutani, agrees in his article “Light Out, Huck, They Still Want to Sivilize You” that such justification for the censorship or removal of the novel from high school curriculums on the basis of the “n” word is flawed. He states that, “Nigger, which appears in the book more than 200 times, was a common racial epithet in the antebellum South, used by Twain as part of his characters’ vernacular speech and as a reflection of mid-19th-century social attitudes along the Mississippi River… To censor or redact books on school reading lists is a form of denial: shutting the door on harsh historical realities.” (Kakutani) According to Kakutani, the “racist” aspects of the book are simply representations of a common regional patois and history itself – both of which are representations that help readers remember the past and allow them to better assess the present. In addition to this, the overriding themes in the novel,
English 11, Period 1
Racism in Huckleberry Finn
29 March 2013
Racism and Huckleberry Finn: A Look Below The Surface
“I see it warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.” Says Huckleberry Finn, the central character Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain 78). This casually racist comment—which, in itself, embodies several of the racism-based arguments for the censorship of Twain’s 1884 novel—is one of many that pervades the forty-three chapters of the classic American work. However, the portrayal of racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, though it has not gone uncontested by critics and readers alike, is one that should not simply be disregarded as …show more content…
Again with a strong use of satire, Twain effectively illustrates the offhandedly racist attitudes of many characters that Huck encounters on his journey down the Mississippi. Even Huck, himself, on numerous occasions displays such an attitude in his relationship with the loveable runaway, Jim, at one point claiming that he “knowed he [Jim] was white inside…” when Jim insists that Tom Sawyer see a doctor after being shot in the leg despite the fact that he is risking his freedom by doing so (Twain 264). This comment embodies the complexity of the relationship between the two characters. On the one hand, the pair’s journey down the Mississippi breaks down many of Huck’s misconceptions about Jim and Jim’s race. This becomes clear when, after hearing Jim lament his separation from his family and his mistreatment of his young daughter, ‘Lizabeth, Huck says, “ … I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It doesn’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so.” (Twain 150) It becomes clear again when Huck decides that he is willing to go to Hell for helping Jim escape from slavery, claiming, “I couldn’t strike no places to harden me against him…[he] would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was… I studied for a minute, and then says to myself: ‘All right, …show more content…
From the Southern dialect’s use of the “n” word to the controversially racist themes of the novel, many critics have opposed the novel’s inclusion, claiming that it has a negative effect on the racial pride of African-American students and the overall mentality of high school students in general. However, those who argue these points fail to realize the implications of such themes and dialect. One writer, Michiko Kakutani, agrees in his article “Light Out, Huck, They Still Want to Sivilize You” that such justification for the censorship or removal of the novel from high school curriculums on the basis of the “n” word is flawed. He states that, “Nigger, which appears in the book more than 200 times, was a common racial epithet in the antebellum South, used by Twain as part of his characters’ vernacular speech and as a reflection of mid-19th-century social attitudes along the Mississippi River… To censor or redact books on school reading lists is a form of denial: shutting the door on harsh historical realities.” (Kakutani) According to Kakutani, the “racist” aspects of the book are simply representations of a common regional patois and history itself – both of which are representations that help readers remember the past and allow them to better assess the present. In addition to this, the overriding themes in the novel,