РефератыИностранный языкAdAdventures Of Huck Finn And Racism Essay

Adventures Of Huck Finn And Racism Essay

, Research Paper


There is a current debate that the description of Jim in the novel


"Huckleberry Finn" is racist leading to some schools banning it from


their libraries. Jim?s character is described as an uneducated and simple


sounding; illiterate slave and some people have looked upon this


characterization as racist. Jim is depicted as a slave in the south during a


period when slavery was common place and widely accepted as the way of life.


Slaves of this time period were not provided any formal education; never allowed


any independent thought and were constantly mistreated and abused. The author in


my opinion is merely describing how a slave spoke in those days and was trying


to give you the true feeling behind his thought, while writing this tale.


Despite a few instances in which Jim?s description might be misconstrued as


being racist, such as the use of the word "nigger", the reader should


be able to understand that this is a fictional portrayal of two boys, one white


and one black, during a time when slavery was common place. There is an obvious


contrast of the mind set depicted in Twain?s novel compared to then and now.


The use of the word "nigger" is most certainly a very slanderous slang


term that is not socially acceptable in present t

imes. The dialect in which Jim


is speaking indicates how Jim spoke do to his lack of education and refinement


that white people refused to provide to slaves. This provision was not permitted


as white slave owners viewed blacks as property and as being unable to learn


proper grammar and structure of the English language. Some historians have


stated that this was also so because it allowed the white?s to maintain


control over their slaves in order to "keep the upper hand", so to


speak. We as a modern society should maintain an open mind when dealing with


literary works such as Huckleberry Finn and bare in mind that novels such as


these are written during socially diverse and sometimes opposite ways of


thinking. We should not ban a literary work such as Huckleberry Finn simply


because it is not accepted by modern day standards. As we look further into the


character?s( Jim?s) dialogue we find that Twain has written as accurately as


possible the way that he would sound and also to make you stop and think and


picture in your mind him speaking that way. Though difficult to interpret at


times, it gives you an authentic feel of this character?s persona. For those


that are die-hard readers, that "lose themselves" in what they are


reading, this approach is ideal.

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