Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Huckleberry Finn
Marina Tseng
August 21, 2014
AP Lit
Up until 1865, slavery and all of its violence and cruelty was accepted across the United states. The self-acclaimed "Land of the Free" was not a free land for slaves like Fredrick Douglass, or even Jim, a fictional character in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Slavery depicted in the previously mentioned novel is very much cushioned when compared to the reality of slavery depicted in the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. However, Mark Twain, author of the former manages to capture some realities within his satirical version of life before the American Civil War. Both novels portray the classic version of slavery, where Africans are inferior to the English, but Twain's …show more content…
In Twain's novel, Jim is loyal to his owner Miss Watson, but when Miss Watson finds out "she could [get] eight [hundred] dollars for [Jim]" (42), she plans to sell him. Miss Watson had promised Jim that she would never sell him, and knows that, by selling Jim, she would be separating him from his wife and children. However, with the offer of eight hundred dollars for Jim, Miss Watson's own greed overrules the destruction of a slave family. In this novel, eight hundred dollars for the white lady is worth destroying a black family over. Similarly, Douglass experiences his life being toyed with over "a misunderstanding [that] took place between [Douglass' owner] and Master Hugh" (41), his temporary owner. Because of an insignificant argument, Douglass' entire life is once again moved to a new location. In both the narrative and the novel, the lives of slaves are not worth even the menial conflicts of a white slave …show more content…
Throughout the duration of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim, the slave, has never been whipped. That may partially be due to Jim being a runaway, but simply the fact that Jim was able to "set down on the ground betwixt [Huck] and Tom…[and] begun to snore" (9) reveals Twain's inability to portray the true life of a slave. Here, a slave is able to just sit down and take a nap without a second thought. In comparison, Douglass writes of when "a young girl between fifteen and sixteen years of age…lost her rest for several nights previous, [and] did not hear the [baby] crying… [Her owner], finding her slow to move, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and with it… ended her life" (26). For Jim, when he fell asleep, nothing of consequence happened to him. In fact, he got a nice rest. The young girl in Douglass' story, on the other hand, was brutally beaten to death for the same offense. Whether it was on purpose or not, Twains satirical version of slavery is an insult to the brutalities millions of slaves suffered at the hands of white men and
August 21, 2014
AP Lit
Up until 1865, slavery and all of its violence and cruelty was accepted across the United states. The self-acclaimed "Land of the Free" was not a free land for slaves like Fredrick Douglass, or even Jim, a fictional character in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Slavery depicted in the previously mentioned novel is very much cushioned when compared to the reality of slavery depicted in the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. However, Mark Twain, author of the former manages to capture some realities within his satirical version of life before the American Civil War. Both novels portray the classic version of slavery, where Africans are inferior to the English, but Twain's …show more content…
In Twain's novel, Jim is loyal to his owner Miss Watson, but when Miss Watson finds out "she could [get] eight [hundred] dollars for [Jim]" (42), she plans to sell him. Miss Watson had promised Jim that she would never sell him, and knows that, by selling Jim, she would be separating him from his wife and children. However, with the offer of eight hundred dollars for Jim, Miss Watson's own greed overrules the destruction of a slave family. In this novel, eight hundred dollars for the white lady is worth destroying a black family over. Similarly, Douglass experiences his life being toyed with over "a misunderstanding [that] took place between [Douglass' owner] and Master Hugh" (41), his temporary owner. Because of an insignificant argument, Douglass' entire life is once again moved to a new location. In both the narrative and the novel, the lives of slaves are not worth even the menial conflicts of a white slave …show more content…
Throughout the duration of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim, the slave, has never been whipped. That may partially be due to Jim being a runaway, but simply the fact that Jim was able to "set down on the ground betwixt [Huck] and Tom…[and] begun to snore" (9) reveals Twain's inability to portray the true life of a slave. Here, a slave is able to just sit down and take a nap without a second thought. In comparison, Douglass writes of when "a young girl between fifteen and sixteen years of age…lost her rest for several nights previous, [and] did not hear the [baby] crying… [Her owner], finding her slow to move, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and with it… ended her life" (26). For Jim, when he fell asleep, nothing of consequence happened to him. In fact, he got a nice rest. The young girl in Douglass' story, on the other hand, was brutally beaten to death for the same offense. Whether it was on purpose or not, Twains satirical version of slavery is an insult to the brutalities millions of slaves suffered at the hands of white men and