According to the Webster’s College dictionary racism is defined as prejudice against certain peoples. But what really is racism? In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the discussion of racism has increased since its debut. The novel has been banned by some public school systems and even censored by public libraries. But still many people defend Twain supposed racist efforts. Julius Lester and Justin Kaplan who critique Mark Twain’s work of Huckleberry Finn, both have their different points of view, but is Twain really speaking from a racist perspective? Through certain attributes, I believe Mark Twain is heartfelt towards the black people in the pre-civil war era.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is considered a masterpiece in American literature. The story is about a young boy, who is abandoned by an abusive, drunken father, and dead mother. Huck was raised in a southern society during the late 17th century by Miss Watson who wants to “civilize” him. He finds companionship in his caretaker’s (Miss Watson) runaway slave named Jim. Huck and Jim both identify with each other on different circumstances but on equal emotional levels. Together they both escape enslaved lives, Huck from his abusive father and civilization, and Jim from southern society. Through their friendship and protection Huck strays away from the southern traditions that would tear them apart.
Julius Lester author of Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has his own interpretation of the literature. Lester has not any real knowledge of reading Huckleberry Finn, and from accusations held by what he perceives as a being black American, is prejudice about the story. With his bias view, Lester claims that “Jim does not exist with an integrity of his own,” (Lester, 1984), in Huckleberry Finn, and paints a portrayal of uneducated ness with blacks. He also feels that it should be banned in the public school system and Jim is the adventure of the title (Lester, 1984).
In contrast, Justin Kaplan author of Born to Trouble: One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn, he exposes how Mark Twain actually sympathies with Jim. Kaplan states “Jim, unquestionably the best person in the book, reflects the authors affection, humanity, and more passion,” (Kaplan, 1984). He also feels the novel is just “dangerous ground” to write about, (Kaplan, 1984). Kaplan does point out a most likely misguided phrase that could be seen as racism. “Aunt Sally’s response to a steamboat explosion as described by Huck: ‘Good gracious! anybody hurt?’ ‘No’m. Killed a Nigger.’ ‘Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt'” (Kaplan, 1984). One has to be deliberately dense to miss the point Mark Twain is making here and to construe such passages as evidences of his ‘racism” (Kaplan, 1984). The readers need to read between the lines to actually see the theme of what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is truly about.
It is very understandable that Huck has a hard time coming to reality with Jim and their friendship. Huck was raised in a “slave-holding” society. He doesn’t know any other way to treat black people, he knew them as slaves and as divided from whites, but he still decided to “go to hell” for Jim’s freedom. It does not matter how old he is, or even if his father’s a drunk or not, he is still white and thus Jim inferior to Huck. Beyond the color barrier, Jim and Huck come together risking their lives for freedom.
As an African American, I truly believe in the racism in Huckleberry Finn. It isn’t sugar coated to put readers in a different perspective. The novel is set in the south, where black have no legal rights, are faced with discrimination on a daily basis, and have not had any formal education. “These characters belong to their place and time, which is the Mississippi Valley thirty years before Emancipation,” reveals Kaplan. I agree that Twain challenges racism with historical accuracy and doesn’t commend it. What Twain did do, is writing with humor, truthfulness, and in the end outlasted with fame with an aware of cultural identity. Readers with such degree to not look past real society, need to separate the words of an author from the words and ideas of the character.
Kaplan, J. (1984). Born to Trouble: One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn. The Controversy over Race: Does Huckleberry Finn Combat or Reinforce Racist Attitudes?, , 349-359.
In Born to Trouble: One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn by Justin Kaplan deals with misguided racist statements; spoken from a point of view of Caucasian American. Kaplan reiterates the process of misinterpreted paragraphs of racist conversations to not beautify the time in which racism was apparent, but to make the legitimacy of racism in its era.
Lester, J. (1984). Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Controversy over Race: Does Huckleberry Finn Combat or Reinforce Racist Attitudes, , 341-348.
Julius Lester reveals the racism in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of an African American man. He discloses his thoughts of the novel being banned in the education system and what it perceived of the Black slave, Jim, as an uneducated man. Lester feels there is not any reason the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be read and misleads the public into racism.
The Norton Anthology (2001). The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Rev. ed.). New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature is a series of stories and/or poems of American Literature writers from the time of existence to today. A quality of explicit literature work, it reveals the eras and different forms of writing expressed over generations of time.
