Huckleberry Finn: Equal Opportunity Wrongdoing by Whites
Huckleberry Finn: Equal Opportunity Wrongdoing by Whites
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, has been viewed as providing a very negative view of racism, but Twain also has a lot to say about Southern culture in general. The book does not just talk about the negative aspects of racism and slavery – the way that whites treated blacks. Twain also has many negative things to say about the way that whites treated whites. Huckleberry Finn is not just a book about racism and slavery before the Civil War; it is also a book about how bad white culture was in general at that time. At the time Twain was writing the book, the early- to mid-1880’s, the world that he was representing was already distant history for many Americans. Twain grew up in pre-Civil War Hannibal, Missouri, in the 1840’s and much of the setting of the book, as well as the characters, is based on his boyhood experiences and friends (Pflueger 17). Twain’s family was not rich and got into more financial trouble as time went by, meaning that they were not the kind of people who would have owned slaves (Pflueger 22). Twain nonetheless certainly would have seen the occasional slave and also learned much about the white culture of the time that stuck with him until later in life. He wrote both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) about his hometown of Hannibal and the people and life he had known there, but Huckleberry Finn is not a fun book about river rafting and fishing. As an older man, Twain remembered many negative things about the culture he lived in as a child, and he wrote about them, too. As Twain grew older, he learned more about the world and suffered losses. His son, Langdon, died of diphtheria when he was only 19 months old (Pflueger 40). Twain lived in the Northeast for many years and personally knew Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass. He learned more about the struggles of black people and women while he lived in
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, has been viewed as providing a very negative view of racism, but Twain also has a lot to say about Southern culture in general. The book does not just talk about the negative aspects of racism and slavery – the way that whites treated blacks. Twain also has many negative things to say about the way that whites treated whites. Huckleberry Finn is not just a book about racism and slavery before the Civil War; it is also a book about how bad white culture was in general at that time. At the time Twain was writing the book, the early- to mid-1880’s, the world that he was representing was already distant history for many Americans. Twain grew up in pre-Civil War Hannibal, Missouri, in the 1840’s and much of the setting of the book, as well as the characters, is based on his boyhood experiences and friends (Pflueger 17). Twain’s family was not rich and got into more financial trouble as time went by, meaning that they were not the kind of people who would have owned slaves (Pflueger 22). Twain nonetheless certainly would have seen the occasional slave and also learned much about the white culture of the time that stuck with him until later in life. He wrote both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) about his hometown of Hannibal and the people and life he had known there, but Huckleberry Finn is not a fun book about river rafting and fishing. As an older man, Twain remembered many negative things about the culture he lived in as a child, and he wrote about them, too. As Twain grew older, he learned more about the world and suffered losses. His son, Langdon, died of diphtheria when he was only 19 months old (Pflueger 40). Twain lived in the Northeast for many years and personally knew Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass. He learned more about the struggles of black people and women while he lived in
Cited: Chew, Robin. "Mark Twain American Author and Humorist."The Lucid Cafe. N.p., 2012. Web. 2 Feb 2012. <http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/twain.html>. de Koster, Katie., ed. Readings on the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. Print. Pflueger, Lynda. Mark Twain: Legendary Writer and Humorist. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 1999. Print. Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House, 1996. Print.