Huck Finn and Social Justice
Huc Chenxing Ouyang
3/20/2013
American Lit-Social Justice & Huck Finn
“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” This notice at the beginning is controversial; some people say that it is a warning that was written for readers at the time when slavery was a sensitive issue to talk about, while others interpret it as a satirical comment about the way literature is scrutinized to find means and morals in a book. But I believe what Mark Twain is trying to say is: “Don’t try to analyze the book, just read it for fun, no pressure! “ In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the lifestyle of the Southerners in the mid-1800s are depicted through the eyes of a 13 years old boy Huck Finn living along the Mississippi River. It is a book about the search for freedom. Main characters in the movie seek freedom from social and moral constraints. Throughout novel, Huck learns to follow his own morals and values over what society deemed to be acceptable in the 1800 s. He eventually achieved what he desires the most-freedom. In Twain’s opinion, it is the "closed mindsets about slavery of the society prohibited the development of personal morality and social justice."
One of the most important issues presented in this book is slavery. The superiority of whites was one of the causes of slavery. At the time when Mark twain was grown up, White men were born with privilege and superiority whereas blacks were doomed to be slaves. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Papa says to Huck: “You're educated; too, they say; can read and write. You think you're better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you”. When Papa finds out that Huck is being sent to school by Ms. Watson and educated, he is intimidated by the fact that his son, is being civilized and going to be a better
3/20/2013
American Lit-Social Justice & Huck Finn
“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” This notice at the beginning is controversial; some people say that it is a warning that was written for readers at the time when slavery was a sensitive issue to talk about, while others interpret it as a satirical comment about the way literature is scrutinized to find means and morals in a book. But I believe what Mark Twain is trying to say is: “Don’t try to analyze the book, just read it for fun, no pressure! “ In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the lifestyle of the Southerners in the mid-1800s are depicted through the eyes of a 13 years old boy Huck Finn living along the Mississippi River. It is a book about the search for freedom. Main characters in the movie seek freedom from social and moral constraints. Throughout novel, Huck learns to follow his own morals and values over what society deemed to be acceptable in the 1800 s. He eventually achieved what he desires the most-freedom. In Twain’s opinion, it is the "closed mindsets about slavery of the society prohibited the development of personal morality and social justice."
One of the most important issues presented in this book is slavery. The superiority of whites was one of the causes of slavery. At the time when Mark twain was grown up, White men were born with privilege and superiority whereas blacks were doomed to be slaves. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Papa says to Huck: “You're educated; too, they say; can read and write. You think you're better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you”. When Papa finds out that Huck is being sent to school by Ms. Watson and educated, he is intimidated by the fact that his son, is being civilized and going to be a better