Huckleberry Finn

[Torianna]

I would not commend that this book be read at any age because it simply portrays blacks. It makes black people seem as if though they were not anything important. This book is AN INSULT too, and if one reads this book and feel the same way then their feelings are true to mines. The book made blacks feel stupid too, so to sum everything up Huckleberry Finn is a book of discrimination.

[musicman]

You really need to proofread your comments. Whether we like it or not, we are judged by the way we speak and write. More to the point, however, is your decision that this complex novel is racist. It is anything but!

If you seriously think that Huckleberry Finn is a novel that promotes or even abides racism, you need to learn to read more carefully.

The child that Twain uses as a "mouthpiece" is a product of his society, and that child rejects and flouts that society numerous times.

He loves and trusts Jim, and is puzzled by the society's code (which he continually questions) and his own feelings (of humanity). Twain is fully immersed in the character of this product of society. Because he is a satirist, he cannot step out of character to say, "See, I'm showing you here that Huck does what society thinks is wrong, and what we human beings should know is right."

I hope that, when you are older, you will try this book again. I think that a young person as thoughtful as you seem to be might profit mightily by a second reading.

[soccerfairy8989]

this book is a symbol and takes place back when slavery was okay, and not to mention when racism was tolerated.
This book is by far one of the most historically correct books i have read (in the matters of slavery.)
i might suggest re-reading the book and keep in mine twain didn't mean to insult anyone.

[Ravenna]

If the book was an insult, then why is it one of the most popular novels in world literature? I would say there are more insulting novels, politicians and media outlets now than there ever were back when Mark Twain was writing. Don't forget that Twain was a visionary - he could forsee problems on the horizon and only present them through literature (like most succesful writers).

[Coco]

The book is anything but an insult to blacks. It is a comment AGAINST slavery and the mistreatment of blacks. While many characters are pro-slavery, they are portrayed as jackasses in the novel. Jim himself is the most human character in the book. He is a better father to Huck than Pap ever is. He cries when he sees Huck after thinking he had lost him in the fog. He wants to be a better father to his children--more than can be said about the Grangerfords and Shepherdson fathers. Society says Huck will go to hell for not turning in Jim as a runaway slave . . . and Huck decides he'd rather go to hell than follow a "civilization" that treats blacks this way. This is whay he rejects the notion of being civilized at the end of the novel.

Mark Twain deplored slavery and used Huck Finn to tell us this, because to say it outright in 1845 was treasonous. So he let a kid tell us.

[ennison]

Huck Finn Great Book