Mark Twain's Perception Of African Americans

A person’s perspective of another always dictates how a person treats someone else. When someone consistently portrays a group of people the same way, people will treat the group of people accordingly. Once the people entrench the perception, no matter how negative or cruel, into the public consciousness, one requires a herculean effort to change the public’s attitude. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a postbellum satire, Mark Twain attempts to change the public perception of African Americans in America through his character Jim, by giving him a different role and function than previous black characters in America. Twain makes Jim strong, parental, and most importantly, he makes Jim human instead of a caricature in order to make people
However, bigotry often pervades how people perceive how others practice religion, such as when whites negatively perceive the way blacks practice religion. The prejudice often manifests in way portraying blacks as fool, as ignoramuses who fear the cluck of a chicken as much as a gunshot. Twain counters the common misconception of the black fool by making Jim superstitious, but not dumb, as Brownell points out “Jim’s personality is strongly influenced by superstition,” (Brownell). Brownell implies Jim has a religious nature, not unlike many whites at the time. The utilization of Jim’s superstitious nature serves to equalize African Americans and whites as humans, as people who believe in something greater than themselves, creating a common ground. By pointing out the spirituality in Jim’s character, Brownell argues Twain uses Jim to demonstrate that he, and all blacks by extension, have another trait in common with whites, making them evermore human. By writing, “I had heard about some of these things before, but not all of them. Jim knowed all kinds of signs,” Twain furthers the connection between Huck and Jim’s superstitions, thereby establishing a connection between white and black America’s religious culture (Twain 56). He creates an equality between the two, as both respect powers beyond them. And in making such an equality between his two characters, Twain eliminates stereotypes portraying African Americans as irrational, having unfounded fears lurking around every corner by demonstrating they just believe the same as whites, equating Huck and Jim’s superstition with Christianity. And by showing the parity between the two races relating to religion, Twain bridges a vast divide between the groups, thus bringing them closer