Huck Finn Essay, Research Paper

Blast the Human Race

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain there is a sense of downright bashing of the human race. From the beginning, someone is either despicable, a cheater, or just plain nasty. Mark Twain shows us the inhumanity, selfishness, and horrible acts of the human race, all through the eyes of one young boy, Huckleberry Finn. Although Twain writes about a lot of bad things, he doesn?t lead us to believe that the human race is beyond hope. If he thought the human race was hopeless, we wouldn?t meet people like Jim, Mrs. Watson, and the harelip.

Hucks own father, Pap, is about as bad as they get. Pap is a crazy drunk who has no sense of right and wrong. He thinks the government is corrupt because, ?there was a nigger? who could speak all kinds of languages? and as a free nigger ?he could vote when he was at home.? Twain illustrates how Pap couldn?t get over the color of someone?s skin to see what was on the inside of a person.

The King and the Duke are just as bad. The King and Duke are mischievous scoundrels. They give themselves great titles and names to lure people into their traps. For instance one of the names they use is, ?The world renowned tragedians, David Garrick the younger, of Drury Lane Theatre, London. . . etc.? They take people?s hard earned money without thinking about how hard they have worked to save. The innocent people throw their money away for a worthless show. Then the King wrongs Jim. Jim is the only person that the King ever knows who is nice, and shows him respect. Yet the King sells Jim into slavery, ?All for measly $40?. Later the Duke and the King get tarred and feathered after getting caught trying to pull another scam. While they deserve this horrible punishment, Twain uses it to demonstrate another inhumane act.

For two-thirds of the book we think that humanity is beyond hope. We get a glimpse of hope when Tom Sawyer returns. If Mark Twain wanted us to believe otherwise then the last 70 pages wouldn?t have been written, with the last scene, the freeing of Jim, and characters like Huck and Mary Jane, we see that the generations to come do have hope. Although there are a lot of dents and scratches in the mirror of humanity, the true goodness of people can still be seen.