Opinion On Huckleberry Finn Essay, Research Paper

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Opinion on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel that will

continue to be read for many years to come. Why? This novel has

many themes that relate to society today and also did when it was

written. There is still talk about whether this book should be

read amongst students because society still deals with racism,

and this book effecting African Americans. Ever since its

publication in 1885, it has been subject to controversy. Is

this book a racist book? I believe it is not racist.

Mark Twain has been accused of being a ?racist writer,? to

black readers, represents trashy slave era hackneyed image and

should not be on bookshelves or read in schools. Some people

believe that this book isn?t racist. For some people it clearly

touches a nerve. But I think you need to look back at history.

First off Ernest Hemingway called this the starting point of ?all

American literature.? At a forum this year by The Mark Twain

House, a publisher Lewis Lapham said ?You can?t judge history by

the light of today. You have to understand what was going on in

1867.? Then Twain House executive director John Boyer said

?Twain?s stock is irony. Like any complex idea, if you don?t get

it, you?ll never appreciate the punch line.? The author of The

Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn, Jocelyn

Chadwick-Joshua argues that Twain?s novel, in the tradition of

all great literature, is invaluable for transporting readers to a

time, place, and conflict primary to understanding who we are

today. Without this work, a he argues, there would be a hole in

American History and a blank page in the history of African

Americans. She also shows how Twain has created not another

Uncle Tom but a worthy man of honesty and independence. Jim and

other black characters in this book demands a re-envisioning of

the southern slave. This novel, she states, ultimately questions

readers? thought of what freedom means and what it costs.

Racism is an apparent connection to today?s society. In

this novel there are over two-hundred times the word ?nigger? was

used. In one scene Aunt Sally hears a steamboat explosion.

?Good gracious! anybody hurt?? she asks. ?No?m,? comes the

answer. ?Killed a nigger.? Aunt Sally later refers to the

?nigger? as if they are not even a person, regarding death as if

it did not even matter. Mark Twain is using casual dialogue

ironically, as a way to underscore the chilling truth about the

old south, to drive the point the lady continues. Then she said

?Well, it?s lucky because sometimes people do get hurt.? I do

agree there a lot of racist sounding phrases, but it?s there for

a anti-racist purpose. Huck Finn talks to Jim the same way many

white people in 1885 talked to a black person. The racism is

because the time period it was written. Without the racism, the

book would lose a lot of it?s meaning. After you read the rest

of the book it?s clear that Huck is an anti-racist. He starting

out believing that slavery was a part of society and part of

natural order. But then he wrestles with has conscience, ad when

the crucial moment comes he decides he will be damned to the

flames of hell rather than betraying his black friend. And Jim,

as Twain presents him as the moral center of the book, a man of

courage and nobility, who risks his life and freedom for the sake

of his friend Huck. If this book is taught it could open

student?s eyes to the racial tension that ignorance causes. I

don?t believe that this book would cause any student to attain

racist beliefs or attitude.