Social Incongruency Essay, Research Paper

Social Incongruency

As controversial as he is, Mark Twain has been accused by some, of being a racist writer, whose writing is offensive to black readers. His novels have also been labeled as promoting slave-era stereotypes. Therefore, many people believe The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn deserves no place on today’s bookshelves. To those of us who have delved wholeheartedly into Twain’s wisdom and humanity, such accusations come across as ludicrous. To Twain’s critics, the novel is superficially racist for the most obvious reason: many characters continually use the word “nigger”. Yet, since the book takes place in the south, twenty years before the Civil War, such semantics were common occurrences. Therefore, should Twain be criticized for being historically correct? One should hope not. A closer reading of the novel also reveals Twain’s serious satirical intent. In one scene, for instance, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion:

‘Good gracious! anybody hurt?’ she asks. ‘No’m,’ comes the answer. ‘Killed a nigger.’ ‘Well, it’s lucky, because sometimes people do get hurt.’ (213)

The people of this time period saw African Americans as expendable. If they were killed, it would be viewed simply as a financial loss. Twain is not being racist. He is simply conveying to the readers the nuances of everyday life in that time when slavery was common practice. That’s a small case in point. But what is the book really about? It’s about nothing less than freedom and the quest for one’s freedom. It’s about a slave who breaks the law and risks his life to win his freedom and be reunited with his family, and a white boy who becomes his friend and helps him escape. Because of his upbringing, the boy starts out believing that slavery is part of the natural order of life. Yet, as the story unfolds, he wrestles with his conscience. When the crucial moment comes he decides he would rather go against the malformed values he learned in his lifetime, rather than betray his black friend. Jim, as Twain presents him, is hardly a caricature. Rather, he is the moral center of the book, a man of courage and nobility, who risks his freedom and his life for the sake of his friend Huck. The fact that Huck does not turn Jim in show’s that Huck respects him, and has befriended him. By spanning their age and cultural differences with their friendship and trust, they form a bond:

‘Maybe I better not tell.’ ‘Why,Jim?’ ‘Well, dey’s reasons. But you wouldn’t tell on me ef I ‘uz to tell you, would you, Huck?’ ‘Blamed if I would, Jim?’ ‘Well I b’live you, Huck I-I run off.’ ‘Jim!’ ‘But mind, you said you wouldn’ tell-you know you said you wouldn’ tell, Huck.’ ‘Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun, I will. People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum-but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t a-going to tell…’ (50)

Huck is a simple boy who knows right from wrong and who his friends are and are not. It is Jim, albeit a southern black run-away slave, who confides in Huck. Their trust is reciprocal. Jim trusts Huck with the knowledge that he is a run away slave. Tom, in turn, makes good on his promise not to turn Jim in. It is at this time that they are equals. This friendship, camaraderie, and trust echoes throughout this historical novel. Although the vernacular may come across as harsh to a reader from the twenty-first century, one must consider the appropriateness of the time and place this book was written. It must also become clear that Jim and Huck overcame the racial barrier and became friends. One would doubt, that in the 1800’s the word ‘racism’ even existed. Therefore, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, should not be viewed as racist, but as a historical snapshot of what life was like in the 1800’s. It is a piece of history that reflects the ideologies of the time period in which it was written. Applying today’s values to yesterday’s culture breeds social incongruency.