Racism Theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Essay Example

Racism in the Adventures of Huckleberry Fin Introduction The novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin” one of the most recognized works of Mark Twain presents a clear picture of the racist attitudes that were held against the black slaves during the era of 1880’s by the Southerners. The novel came into existence around two decades later after the event of the Civil War as well as the Emancipation Proclamation, but even at that time period, racist attitudes were alive and deeply embedded among the citizens of America, especially in the region of South. At the time when the novel was written, slavery had ended in the region, but still racism at the legal and the institutional level was being practiced in both covert and overt manner. Racism is clearly a central theme of the novel and was exhibited through the use of terms used to refer to characters, attitudes held by white and non-white characters, the differences experienced by the characters, changes in believes and attitudes. Body Racism is clearly evident throughout the novel of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin”, racist terms have been used throughout the novel. From the beginning of the novel, the most explicit form of racism exhibited in the novel was the use of term “nigger” and the same practice continues till the end of the novel. The term “nigger” is used by modern day Americans to differentiate between the blacks and the whites and the usage of the term again and again by Mark Twain is a clear reflection of how unjustly the blacks were being treated and Twain may have never given a second thought towards using such racist words as these words were commonly practiced (Twain 332). Huck throughout the novel can be witnessed exhibiting his racist attitude due to him being a white from the Southern region, even during the chapter 14 of the novel Huck states to himself “I see it warn’t any use wasting words …. you can’t learn a nigger to argue” (Twain 228). This sentence clearly shows how deeply the racist attitude held by the white Southerners have been embedded in Huck as Huck in this sentence clearly states that niggers are so mentally inferior that one can never argue with them as they won’t understand other side of the argument. This even shows that Huck had no respect for the intellect of Jim who may be rational and his argument may have been better than Huck’s own arguments and this even shows that due to Huck’s racist background, he fails to understand Jim’s side of the story. Racism is even clearly evident in the attitudes and opinions that are held by different characters throughout the novel. The novel clearly paints a picture of the times when blacks were very harshly treated and were considered as inferior and were not regarded as human beings, instead were considered as property and assets. Even during that time period, slaves were considered as property in legal context. Friedman states that slaves were considered as property and valuable assets and those who owned them wanted them in good shape to reap benefits out of their labor (Friedman 122). Similarly, even in the normal, blacks were referred to as property, For example: in the initial sections of the novel, the character Jim is not regarded by his own name and is instead regarded as property of Miss Watson. Jim later in the novel even ends up escaping from his owner due to the continuous humiliation of being tagged as a property and not a human being and he was even sold to another family that continued to treat him as property instead of human being. Another instance where blacks are not regarded as significant human beings is when Huck is indulged in a conversation with Aunt Sally and simple regards niggers (black slaves) as nobody. During this incident, an explosion had occurred and Aunt Sally inquired whether anybody or any human being was hurt due to the explosion, and Twain carelessly states that nobody was injured and only a nigger was killed. Twain states in the novel “No’m. Killed a nigger” (Twain 336). Mark Twain exhibits the attitudes that are racist in nature in his novel through the way one of the characters named Huck Finn refers to the slave population, especially Jim. The novel clearly shows that Huck has grown up in a racist environment where racism is quite a common practice and is not even aware that the attitudes and believes he holds for the blacks are inhumane and insulting for the black slaves. Due to the way environment and upbringing has impacted the attitude of Huck, he experiences difficulty in dealing with Jim who is a black slave. Initially while dealing with Jim, Huck is quite offensive towards Jim as he plays various tricks on him and even involves him in conversations in which Jim appears to look foolish and directly or indirectly tries to make Jim look inferior to him. One of the tricks played by Huck in order to degrade Jim was to make Jim feel stupid by making him think that he was dreaming and he was at the raft all along although he had escaped from the raft for a little while. On the other end Jim feels that he should have cared for Huck and Jim believes that Huck had drowned and Huck only tries to degrade Jim by making him believe that he was simply dreaming. Twain has again exhibited the racist attitude in this incident of the novel as Mark Twain tries to portray that Jim being black did not have high mental capability and he was easily trapped by Huck who is white and a Southerner and happens to have a higher intellect. Wells states that the white population of the Southern region believed that the blacks who were enslaved and even those who were free had lower mental capability as compared to themselves (Wells 21). In the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin”, racist attitudes of the white Southerners are quite evident because even after realizing that they are treating black slaves in an inhumane manner, they do not want to submit or apologize to them. Such attitude of Huck is exhibited in his dialect as he states “It was 15 minutes before I could work myself to go and humble myself to a nigger” (Twain 343). The time in which the incident of Huckleberry Finn took place is when blacks were considered as inferior and the whites were considered superior in intellect as well as physically. Even Huck holds his community responsible for holding racist attitudes towards the black. Later in the novel the racist attitude of Huck towards Jim and other Whites start changing and his attitude as well as behavior even changes towards the end of the novel. In the end, the differences between Jim and Huck come to an end and Huck even apologizes for his racist attitude and accepts his mistakes. Conclusion The theme of racism is quite evident within the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the start of the novel till the end of it. In different sections and chapters of the novel, the white Southerner, Huck is seen indulging in racist behavior and holding racist attitude towards his future friend who is black and a slave and is named Jim. Huck is brought up in a society that believes that the black slaves are inferior intellectually as well as physically and due to this form of brining up, he ends up indulging in racist behavior even if he wishes not to. Works Cited Friedman, Jonathan. System, structure, and contradiction: the evolution of "Asiatic" social formations. 2nd ed. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1998. Print. Twain, Mark, and Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1992. Print. Wells, Jonathan Daniel. Women writers and journalists in the nineteenth-century south. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Read More