Preview

Huckleberry Finn: Controversy Paper Essay Example

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
349 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Huckleberry Finn: Controversy Paper Essay Example
Huckleberry Finn: Controversy Paper

Huckleberry Finn sets each reader back in a time when we as humans where inhuman. All the faults of the world was just beginning to show through and some of the right was being shifted to the side. Just as in Huck Finn, we are reminded of the race relations that we all still face. Mark Twain does his best to show the reader the love for one another and the as people and the compassion we all have hidden inside of us. Ralph Ellison said, "The Negro looks at the white man and finds it difficult to believe that the "grays"-a Negro term for white people- can be so absurdly self-deluded over the true interrelatedness of blackness and whiteness". What are we too think of when we hear this? In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain brings out the obvious interrelatedness that we all share with each other. This book is in the hands of many intelligent readers and it should not be underestimated by the power that it may hold. Although, it must hold to its meaning, we can not allow it to steer us to the wrong's of the world today. Shelly Fishkin suggests Mark Twain has "obscured" the African American roots when writing Huck Finn. Jim, as suggested by Fishkin, has been plagued with a dialect that should not be represented by the African American race during that time. The question is raised by Fishkin as to if Huck Finn was black? This in turn would take away from the whole basic outcome of the moral lesson that we are all so desperately wanting to hear about. I found it almost appalling to see how one author could so easily turn the goodness of a young white boy and basically call it a lie in the eyes of
Mark Twain. It is up to us as the reader to close our eyes and open our minds to the whole heartedness of a man

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    2- “The best literature may entertain readers or disturb them, but above all, it must make them think.”…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the present day, controversy over several key issues in the world runs rampant. Controversy over race, gender, and identity values plague the day to day happenings of everyone connected to the outside world. This is not unusual, however. Even in the 1800s, controversy was unrestrained over issues that are similar to the ones today. A prime example of such controversy is demonstrated in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. The controversy centered around the moral and religious values of the book was pressing back in the 19th century, and is as present today. It is claimed that such controversy could have been avoided, simply if the book did not contain the controversial moral and religious aspects it is centered on, like the…

    • 1757 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    From that quote, it can be seen that Webb strongly appreciates the fact that the story is…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This short story ‘A Warm Golden Brown’ by Alexander Reid makes a strong point about direct and broad scope of racism. He shows that direct racism from the little boy’s mother to his friend comes through and influences him and also show the broad racism from his mother does not falter from personal feelings or experiences that she has or relating to her sons feelings.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In an attempt to rebuke the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s claim that controversial books damage the self-esteem of African-American children, Hentoff recounts an experience where he talked with a group of eighth-grade students who were studying Mark Twain’s Huck Finn alongside a history of cities with a reputation for having a high tolerance for racism. One student in the class was bold enough to comment that his class was taught that the “bigots” Twain referred to in his novel commonly referred to African-Americans as “niggers,” stating that just because of Twain’s over-zealous use of the term did not equate to an assumption that Huck Finn was a racist novel (Hentoff). On the contrary, this particular student claimed that as evidence that Twain was expressly critiquing the word and people who used it in order to write a very anti-racist novel.…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, I have learned this book is a great example of a coming-of-age novel. The main character, also known as the narrorator, Huck Finn faces many challenges throughout the course of the novel. A major challenge Huck faces is that his father, Pap is an alcoholic lowlife and he doesn’t care for him as a son should care for his father. In the beginning of the novel, Huck thought he would be better off without his father even though he lived with Miss. Watson. He didn’t care if his father died because Huck had never experienced death and how it felt. Later in the novel Huck abandons his father and left on the raft to Jackson island. When Huck and Jim find a house flooded down the river, Jim sees Pap and doesn’t let Huck see him for Huck’s sake. Throughout the novel, Huck experiences death at many occasions and now knows how it feels. Later in the novel, Jim tells Huck that his father won’t be coming back to St. Petersburg anymore. Huck wonders why, and Jim tells him his father was the one who died in the house. This shows Huck has seen death and actually cares what happened to his father.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huckleberry Finn Criticism

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain in 1884 is a classic example of American literature. It depicts the bond of a fourteen-year old boy and a runaway slave’s as they venture up the Mississippi River with hopes of finding better lives in the free North during the pre-Civil War era. One of the common criticism of the novel is Huck Finn is too wise beyond his years. Twain purposely depicted Huck to be this mature to attempt to change the American society through his art.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this modern day and age, everything offends someone. Eating at Chick-fil-A hurts the LGBT community, going to see the latest Adam Sandler movie gets the Jewish mad at you- so why is it surprising that Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is being changed to please people? Whether they be teachers, students, black or white, there need be no change in Huck Finn. And if any change were to be made- that would be censorship.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn and Racism

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    to look past conformist and the effects of his environment. Huck was born into a…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Huck Finn Synthesis Paper

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cited: Alberti, John. "The Nigger Huck: Race, Identity, and the Teaching of Huckleberry Finn." College English 57.8 (1995): 919-37. JSTOR. Web. .…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the noblest, greatest, and most adventuresome novel in the world. Mark Twain definitely has a style of his own that depicts a realism in the novel about the society back in antebellum America. Mark Twain definitely characterizes the protagonist, the intelligent and sympathetic Huckleberry Finn, by the direct candid manner of writing as though through the actual voice of Huck. Every word, thought, and speech by Huck is so precise it reflects even the racism and black stereotypes typical of the era. And this has lead to many conflicting battles by various readers since the first print of the novel, though inspiring some. Says John H. Wallace, outraged by Twain's constant use of the degrading and white supremacist word ‘nigger', "[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is] the most grotesque example of racist trash ever written" (Mark Twain Journal by Thadious Davis, Fall 1984 and Spring 1985). Yet, again to counter that is a quote by the great American writer Ernest Hemingway, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn…it's the best book we've had…There has been nothing as good since" (The Green Hills of Africa [Scribner's. 1953] 22). The controversy behind the novel has been and will always remain the crux of any readers is still truly racism. Twain surely does use the word ‘nigger' often, both as a referral to the slave Jim and any African-American that Huck comes across and as the epitome of insult and inferiority. However, the reader must also not fail to recognize that this style of racism, this malicious treatment of African-Americans, this degrading attitude towards them is all stylized of the pre-Civil War tradition. Racism is only mentioned in the novel as an object of natural course and a precision to the actual views of the setting then. Huckleberry Finn still stands as a powerful portrayal of experience through the newfound eyes of an innocent boy. Huck…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The edge of the hilltop we looked away down into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where there was sick folks, maybe: and the stars over us ever so fine: and won by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and awful still and grand.”(6).…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Quran

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Page

    says to share His message and love so that they will join his community and experience His…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn was a troubled kid who grew up and matured in several ways. Huck ran away and had to learn how to make it on his own, and as he went on that journey of going from boyhood to adulthood he learned so much about doing the right thing.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The chapter 9: The Scroll Marked II emphasized that we should greet each day with love in our heart is not only for writers but also for the humankind. I thank my professor demanded us to read this. I have been totally inspired on what it states.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays