Racial controversy

[AJD]

In my opinion the cloud of racial controversy surrounding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not justified. I believe this because this story was set and written in the 1800's and during that time it wasn't considered immoral or erroneous to consider black people nothing more than property. In chapter 15 when Huck plays a joke on Jim, Jim reacts in such a way that it shows that even slaves wanted to be treated like human beings. The way he reacts causes Huck to make what I think was the most meaningful and most moving statement in the book, " It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a @#$%; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t’a done that one if I'd 'a' knowed it would make him feel that way."
Again in a dialogue between Huck and Tom's Aunt Sally in chapter 32, (“Good gracious anybody hurt?” “No’m, killed a @#$%” “Well it's luck; because sometimes people do get hurt”), Twain shows the times Huck lived in. Huck’s lack of emotion in the above statement makes him seem like a racist, but I think that Twain is satirizing the southern culture. I think that over the past fifty years people have become more and more sensitive to anything that could possibly be considered racial. It has been in my mind that nobody in this book is racist, not even Tom Sawyer. I say this because in the end of the book Huck has a talk with Tom when they are going to save Jim. Huck tells Tom that he was raised proper and doesn’t need to risk getting caught. Tom says, “Don’t you reckon I know what I’m about? Don’t I generly know what I’m about?” Huck said, “Yes.” Tom, “Didn’t I say I was going to help steal a @#$%?” With that I know that this book was not meant to be racial.

[Hunter Berg]

In my personal opinion I don't believe that the book was meant to be any kind of racial undertone. I feel that people are overly sensitive to the subject and will look to accuse anything that gives off the slightest hint of offensive material. They should keep in mind that it was a different time then and they can't judge things the way they would be taken for today. For instance, in chapter fourteen when Huck says "I see it warn't no use wasting words-you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit." Now this does sound very racist but in that time it was common thought that blacks weren't as smart as whites, I believe Twain was satirizing that common thought.

You will also notice that Twain shows the sensitive side of Jim more than any other character in this book. I believe he did this to help people realize that blacks do have feelings and emotions as well. Like when Jim says to Huck "Goodness Gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain' dead-you ain' drownded-you's back ag'in? It's too good for true, honey, it's too good for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you. No, you ain' dead! you's back ag'in, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck-de same ole
Huck, thanks to goodness!" He could have just as easily made Jim out to be a rude inconsiderate slave, but he didn't. That is why I believe that Twain didn't mean anything racist by this book, other than trying to help the fight against racism.

[John Marshman]

I believe that this book was in no way meant to be racial. In the 1800's, people did not even consider "mistreating" blacks to be racial. Twain was just satirizing the common viewpoint of the day, not making a racial stand.

Perhaps the best way to see that this book is not racial is to examine the relationship between Huck and Jim. In the beginning of the story, Huck just thought of Jim as a slave, as evident by the practical joke that he and Tom played on him, but as the story continues, the bond between them grows. "They light up their pipes, dangle their legs in the water, and talk 'about all kinds of things- we was always naked, day and night, whenever the mosquitos would let us." This quote shows how strong the bond between the two has become, and the trust that they built gave Huck the ability to rescue Jim, even when his life was on the line. By merely examining the relationship between the two characters, it is easy to prove that this book is not racial.

[Nate Swanson]

I just finished reading Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I believe that Twain was not being racist simply because of the fact that he wrote this book completely on satire, he was not being racist but merely placing the reader in a more submursive, more realistic, world. Both my father and my mother have read this book at different times and points in society and neither of them have thought the book to be racist in the least. If Twain was racist at all he would not have described Jim as such a kind hearted and loving person, instead he has Jim saying things like "Dah you goes, de ol true Huck;de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim" and "Goodness Gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain' dead-you ain' drownded-you's back ag'in? It's too good for true, honey, it's too good for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you. No, you ain' dead! you's back ag'in, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck-de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!" to me that does not bring uon the kind of thoughts against blacks that a racist statement would.

I believe that Twain's work should not be looked upon as a work of racism but as an example of the times when racism was unabound. There was no "OH my GOD Your such a racist you said NIGGER!!" in Twain's time, it was simply "Nigger get out in that field or theres gonna be a whippin". When Twain wrote this book the kind of things he wrote were just part of daily life and so the book cannot be considered a racist work of literature.

[iamasatire]

What luck, I have just finished reading Huck Finn also. Anyway, as I read the book, I noticed that there were points referring to the state of slavery and racism in that day. Pretty much, the slaves were just walking, talking property to their owners. The book would have been less of a book if these portrayals were omitted. The words written and the actions and thoughts spoken aloud were necessary to give the story its structure. Face it, slavery did happen. People in that time found it very normal. Twain shows Huck as a naive boy that is used to slavery, but not entirely sure about why it is in effect. Jim is shown to be loyal and devoted to his friend, Huck.

As stated before in the above posts, in the following quote Twain shows how the slaves of the time were not just workers that could be replaced easily, but real people. Real people that really cared; "Goodness Gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain' dead-you ain' drownded, you's back ag'in? It's too good for true, honey, it's too good for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you. No, you ain' dead! you's back ag'in, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck-de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!" Huck decides that freedom is the best thing in the world. It's how he lives. This story shows how he shared that freedom with someone who would not have experienced it otherwise. Calling it racist would be in line with calling a historian racist, this is how it was back in that period.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

So many first posts in a single thread Welcome all of you, and keep posting

As for the subject at hand, I agree with what seems to be the concensus here: The book reflects the normal views of the era when it was written, that's all. We simply cannot judge it by todays standards.

/Claes

[Nomansland90]

Upon reading Huckleberry Finn if you wouldnt have understood the era in which Mark Twain lived which were in the 1800s then according to todays standard yes you could say that the book was raciist. Yet what isnt realized is that as many before me have said the book was written in a time when slavery was commonplace and using words such as nigger just was commonplace. Because no matter if the person was a kind and polite or amean rude person the word nigger was used regardless. For example Huck Finn, who at first at a crossroads of whether to help Jim further along or whether along or turn him in creating a conflict within himself a man vs. self conflict to a point where he would have had Jim sent back to his master. However as has been said Huck grew to become fond of Jim to the point where when the conflict between him and his inner self came up for the last time writing down that he Jim had run away from his master thinking that this was a way to go to heaven and live right, thinking of the times he and Jim spent together Huck tore up the paper saying " All right then, I'll go to hell..." and with a new found reslove hatchs a plan to save Jim in which he accomplished his goal. ANother character in the novel that one would consider kind and polite would be the Phelps. Now even though the family were God fearing, polite, most likely the most kindest people you could have met still used the term nigger when they referred to the slaves. They treated their slaves with care Jim included especially after his "escape" the ones who captued him putting in good words about Jim about how "he acted very well, and was deserving tp hsve some notice took of it, and reward" . With such evidence I believe the book isnt racial because even though Huck considered Jim his friend he stilled used the term. It was just the time and place he grew up thus leading me to believe the book is not racial.

[blondatheart390]

After reading Huckleberry Finn, I realized that this book was not meant to be racist. It was written in a time when blacks were slaves and referred to as niggers. It was just a name, not really meant to be rude. I don't think Twain wrote this book trying to upset people 100 years later.
If Twain was writing the novel as racism, I believe he wouldn't have made Huck and Jim become so close of friends? When Huck plays the trick on Jim, he feels bad enough "to go and humble myself to a nigger - but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards either." If Jim meant nothing to Huck, he would have just blown him off. This book is nothing more then a story about Huck Finn. Not one thing in this book was meant to be racial. Even though there are instances when it does seem to me that Twain makes Jim sound stupid. For instance, "I see it warn't no use wasting words - you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit." Everybody has different view points but Jim is made out to sound dumb because of his even if they were wrong. Bit I still believe the book wasn't meant to be racist. You can't judge the book by today’s views which don't reflect the views of the time the novel was written.

[LunchAtTiffs]

It has been said time and time again that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is one of the greatest books ever written dealing with the topic of racial controversy. I both agree and disagree with this notion.

On one hand, the book makes a very big impact on its readers by even discussing the ins and outs of slavery in a social manner. Around the time when the novel was written, slaves were seen as nothing more than their owner’s property – a heartless way of pursuing labor. They were not respected, to say the least, and the thought of their opinions or hopes mattering at all was an utterly disputable concept in society. What’s more, if someone were to agree with a “Nigger” or care for them in more than a slave-owner-to-slave way, they were exiled almost more than the slaves themselves were. To be real friends with a slave was total sin and completely unthinkable. That’s why it was so shocking to see Huckleberry Finn and Jim take to one another the way they did. Jim considered Huck his savior, and his best friend, and even “de only fren’ ole Jim’s got.” But it was difficult for Huck to accept his emotions about feeling the same way back. For example, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither.”

On the other hand, I was considerably let down about the amount of slavery that the book did not talk about. I thought it was good that the text actually got inside Jim’s mind and let him express things that made him seem more human and less of a slave. He talked about his family and you could tell he loved them as he said “he would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he got enough he would buy his wife… and then they would both work to buy the two children…” But all the while there was this good intimate connection with Jim, there was hardly anything in the book about actual slave life. I think if Mark Twain would’ve written more about the specific hardships that most slaves endure, whether they be physical or social or mental, it would’ve opened up still more peoples’ eyes to the awfulness of it all.

By and large this is not a racist book. It is a book of fiction and entertainment, which was also intended to open up the mind of the reader (especially during the time it was written) and cause them to think outside the box. What better way to do that than to give them something to relate to? A common white person could be reading this book, identifying with a young white boy who’s the main character, and all the while is lapping up these peace-encouraging inter-racial thoughts that Huckleberry Finn sets out subconsciously. This book is growing experience for everyone who reads it.

[james gillen]

I just read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and in the end, i didn't think it was racist, but it did have a lot of racism in it. I like the way that Twain told the story from the perspective of an innocent young boy to bring out the flaws in society at the time. Probably one of the biggest flaws was the attitude of people towards slaves. They had a total disregard for the value of life of a slave and did not see them as actual people. Even Huck himself sometimes would make racist comments, but you have to remember that it was a different time and people were taught differently about what was right and what was wrong.

I found it very interesting how Twain used characters to represent different aspects of society. He used Miss Watson to represent strong religious values and Huck's father to represent dysfunctional and abusive families. The character who was the most responsible and most mature throughout the entire story just happened to be Jim, the slave. I believe that Twain used Jim to represent the slaves and made them seem more humane than whites and slaveholders. So in conclusion i think Twain wrote the story to bring out the evils in racism, but to do so he had to use it in his novel.

[drewl16]

I agree with those of you who say that the racism in this book doesn't come from a hatred towards negroes but that it's all due to the time period in which this book was written. Back then, having black colored skin only meant that you were inferior to white people and most blacks in the south were slaves. You were only considered property and weren't viewed as another human being that had the same emotions as white people. Huck obviously had this mindset seared into him and so he didnt know any better than what society had taught him. He played some tricks on Jim throughout the novel and he ended up regretting each time he did something to Jim. Since Huck was with Jim most of the time, he started to notice that he wasn't so different from Jim. Huck definitely understood that society must be wrong and that Jim was just as much a human as any white man.

The way that people back then used the word "nigger" is very similar to the way we might describe someone as a "black person". We don't mean any harm in this but sometimes we'll just say it to point someone out in a large group of people. It's virtually the same as saying "Hey look at the guy wearing glasses. He..." We're not calling that person a bad name, we just wanted to make it easier to get someone's attention on a particular person if we were saying something about them. Nigger was just another label to use back then that just so happens to be very offensive in the present culture. If Mark Twain had written this book in the present, he would've used another word choice instead of using the word nigger. In no way did he try to insult black people. He just wanted to illustrate in a way people could relate to the story in his time. This made his book very realistic.

[ARMO4Life]

This book had lots of different racial controversy such as using the word nigger in this book. I know that this may offend many people but considering the time which this was written, all racial behaviors/comments were accepted. I think Mark Twain did a very good job at showing how slavery worked exactly and how Huck was a white boy but his desicions were critical to another human being who happened to be a slave.
Jim is the runaway slave and Huck is the young white boy. Huck and Jim were thinkin only of not getting caught. There came a place where Huck felt guilty for helping Jim. Which i thought was obvious that that was going to happen because he was helping a slave which obviously was not accepted in the white society. Then when Huck said "All right then i'll go to hell" i thought that was probably the biggest deal in the book because it seems as if Huck is now thinking for himself, and it also seemed like it was a fight between Huck within himself.
There was also one thing i found kind of weird which was the fact that slaves were treated differently in the north and south. It was weird because when i read it, i had this image in my head of the south slavery as a brutal place where you didn't even see your family or anything. then there was the north where the image in my head was slight bit of freedom and better lifestyle. That part was a bit confusing because i figure its in the same country but its all so different.

---Tatevic---

[Jean-Baptiste]

I definitely feel that this book should be judged by today's standard, being a brilliantly executed satire, which may be held responsible for the shift in perception concerning racial issues that gained momentum in the nineteenth century. There is a beautiful essay by Jonathan Bennett, "The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn," which outlines Huck's dilemma with regard to helping Jim gain his freedom. I think of this essay especial for the point that it makes about Huck deciding to go to Hell for commiting the "immoral" act of setting a slave free. Huck feels that he's never been good at doing the right thing anyway. The interesting thing about this is that Huck actually decides that he is damned for his action, rather than convincing himself that it is the right thing to do. So, as a satire, the situation says much about the resistence to change felt even by those who sympathized with the plight of the slaves.

As for Twain having any prejudicial motivation, I don't think such a thing could be possible, as he was fond of writing essays mocking the prejudices of America, viz.: speaking out on behalf of the Chinese miners in California.

[CandaceWilson]

In my opinion the cloud of racial controversy surrounding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not justified. I believe this because this story was set and written in the 1800's and during that time it wasn't considered immoral or erroneous to consider black people nothing more than property. In chapter 15 when Huck plays a joke on Jim, Jim reacts in such a way that it shows that even slaves wanted to be treated like human beings. The way he reacts causes Huck to make what I think was the most meaningful and most moving statement in the book, " It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a @#$%; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t’a done that one if I'd 'a' knowed it would make him feel that way."
Again in a dialogue between Huck and Tom's Aunt Sally in chapter 32, (“Good gracious anybody hurt?” “No’m, killed a @#$%” “Well it's luck; because sometimes people do get hurt”), Twain shows the times Huck lived in. Huck’s lack of emotion in the above statement makes him seem like a racist, but I think that Twain is satirizing the southern culture. I think that over the past fifty years people have become more and more sensitive to anything that could possibly be considered racial. It has been in my mind that nobody in this book is racist, not even Tom Sawyer. I say this because in the end of the book Huck has a talk with Tom when they are going to save Jim. Huck tells Tom that he was raised proper and doesn’t need to risk getting caught. Tom says, “Don’t you reckon I know what I’m about? Don’t I generly know what I’m about?” Huck said, “Yes.” Tom, “Didn’t I say I was going to help steal a @#$%?” With that I know that this book was not meant to be racial.

[Coco]

I agree with James Gillen that the book itself is not racist, but many characters are. There is a HUGE difference. Twain portrays the racist characters as insensitive, ignorant boobs. Even Tom Sawyer toys with Jim in the whole "rescue" plot instead of simply telling him that he is free.

Twain is showing the folly of traditions. The Shepherdson-Grangerford feud is an example. Neither side knows what the feud is about, but they keep it going until all the sons are dead. Does this make a lick of sense? NO! Neither does treating blacks like property.

Huck Finn lives in a racist society--a "civilization" which he rejects when he decides to go to hell rather than turning on Jim, and at the end of the novel when he expresses his desire to excape. Twain wants us readers to reject the racism, too.