Maddie
Huckleberry Finn Essay
3/3/14
In the 1840’s society was taught that blacks were not the same as whites, not only by the color of their skin on the outside, but that they were different on the inside to. The way blacks were treated was unjust and dehumanizing. Throughout the novel Twain illustrates how poorly blacks were treated, but also shows that not every single person felt the same way towards blacks. Hucks relationship with Jim is a perfect example of how white people thought they were better than blacks, but as the novel goes on Huck seems to realize that blacks are just like whites. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, society believes that they are not racist because it was so natural at the time to have slaves, this novel demonstrates how society can be unjust, cruel, and inhumane, but also how not everyone feels the same towards blacks. For blacks in the 1840’s they barely had any rights and if they did have a certain right white people would become angry and try to get that right taken away. At this point in time free black men did have a few rights and one of them was voting. White people did not like this at all, especially Hucks drunk father, Pap. He was not so popular in the town because of his bad habits when he was drunk. “It was ‘lection day” (37) and Pap “was just about to go and vote” (37) if he “warn’t too drunk”. Pap had claimed that he “drawed out” (37) because he found out “there was a state in the country where they’d let that nigger vote” (37). Pap was furious that the government would let a black person vote because no one saw them as equal, so Pap claimed that he will “never vote ag’in” (37). Even though Pap was too drunk to vote he still would not have voted because they were letting blacks have the same right as them, which was completely against society at the time. This is another way that we can prove that society has taught white people to believe that they are better and more entitled then blacks. Majority of the white population in America at this time opposed blacks having any rights because they could not see them as equal, which just proves how unjust society was in the 1840’s. All blacks were treated as if they were animals that did not have any feelings. Their punishments for anything they did would have been extremely painful. You can see how white people think that blacks are animals when they chained Jim up and only have him bread and water, because he was not a human just an animal. Instead of leaving Jim there chained up he got him “out of the chains in no time” (303), which is another way Huck defies society. Huck truly cares about Jim, which was unheard of at the time because white people never saw a point in caring about blacks. The blacks enslaved in America for the most part were uneducated and had no idea about any of the outside countries or culture because their owners preferred that they were stupid. In chapter 19, Huck and Jim got into an argument about how much Jim can understand. Huck expected Jim to understand everything without any explanation, which was unreasonable of him because Jim has never had education. Huck was trying to explain to Jim that he wouldn’t understand some things because it’s in a different language and people speak differently, but Jim could barely even understand the concept that people spoke different languages. Jim repeatedly tells Huck that “dey aint no sense in it” (90) and how it is “ridicklous” (90). Jim had questioned Huck about how cats and cows don’t talk “like a man” (90), but the point of it was that if we were all the same than why did people own other human beings? How was that even
Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain, who first appeared in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . He is 12 or 13 years old during the former and a year older at the time of the latter. Huck also narrates Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective, two shorter sequels to the first two books. Huckleberry Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is the son of the town's vagrant drunkard, "Pap" Finn. Sleeping…
the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the main character, Huck Finn, leaves society to live on a raft with a runaway slave, who becomes his best friend and teaches him how to care for someone. Huck, originally raised by the town drunk of a father, never goes to school or wears clean clothes; however, when the widow, Mrs. Douglas, adopts him and seeks to “sivilize” him, Huck prefers life with this father. Forcing “sivilization” on Huck causes him to reject the Widow Douglas and…
Zoe Williamson English III AP, 3rd Hour November 29, 2014 Huckleberry Finn: Good vs. Evil The nineteenth century was a time of major moral conflict for those in the United States. In the years following the Civil War, both the north and the south were conflicted about whether or not their actions were morally just or not. In his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain pointed out both the good and rather unfortunate sides of humankind and showed not only the nation, but the world what…
January 1, 1863. In Mark Twains novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn both Huck and Jim endeavor on an adventure on the mighty Mississippi River to obtain a sense of humanity within themselves. The river they travel on through out the novel symbolizes freedom, comfort, and adventure. In this novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain delineated the question, does the symbols of the river mean as much to Huck as they do to Jim? Huck ponders over the fact (Twain 1): The Widow Douglas she took…
government, society, etc.” Modern examples of satire are South Park and The Colbert Report. Some say that all American satire began with Mark Twain, the author of the fiction novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that was published in 1885. Twain uses the young protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, to satirize society and the tendencies of the mass to believe exactly what it is told, without reflecting or forming individual opinions. Through custody battles, family feuds, and most importantly, slavery and…
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twains most prominent piece of writing displaying realism. William Dean Howell, considered to be the father of realism and an inspiration to Twain declared “let fiction cease to lie about life... let it not put on fine literary airs; let it speak the dialect, the language, that most Americans know the language of unaffected people everywhere…”(Wagg). Twain used The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to portray the world as it really was by revealing how a child’s…
FCA’s Marilyn Taveras 1.At least 1 outside source English Essay 2. 5 Huck Finn Quotes April 26, 2014 3.Clear Precision Ms. Wedegartner 4.Clear Beginning,Middle & End 5.Conventions The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has become a controversial issue throughout the American education systems. There is much controversy over whether the novel should be taught in American high…
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Huck Finn’s innocent is set against the distrust of human integrity as well as the hypocritical world. Huck changes in the course of the novel because of the people he meets and has known through out his life while retaining a degree of innocence. Huck shows the growth of all people, from childhood through the loss of his innocence to searching for his own identity but Huck still carries some innocence that sets him apart and that becomes his identity…
Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” published in 1884, is a picaresque novel, said by Ernest Hemingway to have changed American literature completely. The plot and characters of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” are heartfelt and sweet, and equally as frustrating. Twain tackles aspects of morals and adventure, while proving a point against slavery as well, although often interpreted to be discriminatory itself, and even becoming one of the most frequently banned books in American literature…
Should Huck Finn be taught in schools? This question has been widely debated over the past years and is continued to be debated today. Many say that the book should be banned from schools because of the racial comments in the book; people claim that it could offend or “scar” the youth, but all the book does is enlighten the youth on the history of slavery. The book does use the racial term “the n-word” and today that word is very hurtful and offensive to people. But back in the day it wasn’t like…