The Maturation Of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a prime example of a controversial novel. The book has been criticized since its publication about racism in the text. When reading the novel, one would find that to be untrue. In fact, the book is quite the opposite. In my opinion, the book is not one of my favorites, but still a good novel nonetheless. While in “Say It Ain’t So, Huck,” Jane Smiley is devastated that this novel is the roots of American literature, I am not. In fact, the maturation of Huck along his journey parallels the maturation and journey of America itself. 

The most repeated argument that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a racist text is the use of racial epithets like “N-----” and “Injun” to refer to slaves and Native Americans, respectively. However, one must look at the use of these words in the novel objectively. Mark Twain wrote this novel in the 1880s, and he is writing from the perspective of southerners in the 1840s. Under the laws of the time, America was not a land where all men were created equal. In reading the novel, I feel that Twain is providing historical context and immersing the reader in life along the 1840s Mississippi riverbed through his characters’ uses of the word. And, not every character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written as a role model. The word is used by pretty much every character in the book. Huck meets the Grangerfords, who own a large plantation that is home to dozens of slaves. They are also notoriously violent because of their family feud with another family, the Shepherdsons. The Duke and the Dauphin also use the word, and they are con artists with no redeeming qualities to them. The author is not using these words to diminish black people as Mark Twain, but he is using these words to portray and give detail to characters in 1840s pre-Civil War America. 

There are people and publishers who revise this book and replace racial epithets in it. The most common revision that exists and what many people have done with copies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is replacing the word “n-----” with the word “slave.” This compromise seems rather useless in the context of the novel. Using the same example as David L. Smith in “Huck, Jim and American Racial Discourse”, when Huck meets Aunt Sally, he tells her an elaborate fabricated story, as Aunt Sally is expecting Tom Sawyer. Huck describes his fake journey, telling Aunt Sally that a cylinder head blew off, and the following interaction occurs between Aunt Sally and Huck: “Good gracious! anybody hurt?” “No’m. Killed a n-----.” “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” (Twain 270) Now, if a writer were to replace the word “n-----” with the word “slave” in that quotation, does that make what Aunt Sally replies with any less disgusting? The point of her statement is still dehumanizing toward black people. She is saying that the life of the man who was killed does not matter because of the color of his skin. The tone is still racist. But either way, this reaction from Aunt Sally would have been a normal one in this scenario and time period. 

 What Twain does best in this novel is unfortunately overlooked by many readers. He creates a voice of reason as the protagonist. Huck is the character that has the most depth and logic to him. The most radical things he does are the things that contribute to the plot. He lies to get himself out of trouble on numerous occasions and fakes his own death and runs away. However, when Huck meets other characters in this novel, all of them seem either unintelligent, racist, or both. Even Jim, while portrayed as a likeable character with a good heart, is both uneducated, to no fault of his own, and therefore relies on superstitions in the novel. Although, in Chapter 10, even Huck shows his stupidity. Huck touches the shed skin of a snake, and Jim worries because, according to superstition,  that is bad luck. Sure enough, Huck places the corpse of a rattlesnake next to Jim as he is asleep. The snake’s mate then bites Jim. This sets a low bar for the character to grow out of. They both, though, eventually do. Merely 5 chapters later, Huck and Jim are separated by a huge fog. They soon find each other again, but both realize how much they need each other. Jim tells Huck:  “En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe en soun’, de tears come, en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo’ foot, I’s so thankful.” (Twain 116) This shows the amount of love Jim has for Huck, so much so that he is brought to tears when he sees him again. Huck resolves that they must stick together, and to not play any more “mean tricks”, as he did not know it would hurt Jim this badly. 

Furthermore, at the end of the novel, Tom Sawyer makes the climax more chaotic. Huck was planning to break Jim out seamlessly and easily after he was captured. However, Tom Sawyer thinks of Jim’s freedom as a comic book. Tom is Huck’s best friend, but when Tom takes over and describes his plan to free Jim, Huck goes along with it, but deep down is concerned for Jim and confused with Tom. Even when the operation goes south, and Tom ends up getting shot, Tom seems happy because the heroes of the books he reads always end up wounded. This shows that when it is time to be serious, Huck is the most sound and neutral person in the book, and that is why he is our protagonist. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is really not a racist text, but rather one that is quite the opposite.. Mark Twain’s use of certain racial epithets is just a testament to the time that the novel was written in (the 1880s) and the time that the novel takes place in (the 1840s).  Twain’s characters have some redeeming qualities, like keenness, logic, love, and humor, and some qualities that are downright awful like the racism that is unfortunately accurate for the time that the book is set in. Over the course of 100+ years, humanity has progressed since the 1840s. While racism should be a thing of the past, in 2021, it unfortunately isn’t. George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, once said “Those who fail to learn history are condemned to repeat it.” The horrors this book depicts about the life of a black man in the pre-abolition South is something nobody would like to return to, especially not Mark Twain, or anyone who has read this novel.