The adventures of huckleberry
The adventures of huckleberryIn less than two years the twentieth century will come to an
amazing finale. Racism, prejudiced feelings and hate almost no longer
exist. These changes can be attributed to the education people now have
by reading such novels as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain
addresses these issues of racism, slavery and education in a humorous,
almost childish way, yet the effective themes are clearly visible. Twain
utilizes Huck Finn and Jim as the ideal characters because they are the
ones at the end of the novel who realize slavery is wrong. Mark Twain
establishes the ideals by portraying them through the protagonists and
criticizes the failure to live up to them by portraying them through the
antagonists.
Prejudice can be observed throughout the novel by the way the
other characters treat Huck. Twain portrays Huck as a average boy of his
time, being mischievous, adventurous and funny. The society Huck lives
in labels him "uncivilized" because he has an abusive, drunk father.
"... by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry and I couldn't stand
it. I was all over with welts." Here the reader can observe the
ultimate failure of an uncivilized person. Pap is an alcoholic, a dead
beat and a racist. Nevertheless, society also considered Huck
"uncivilized" because he did not wear shoes, did not always attend school
and he smoked. Society criticized Huck as uncivilized due to physical
appearance when really Huck turned out to be more civilized than any
other character in the novel because he learns how to respect Jim.
Through the ironic critizims of society trying to civilize Huck, Huck
teaches us a lesson on being civilized.
In the novel, Jim runs away from his slave owner Miss Watson. By
doing a thing like that Jim could have been killed or beat. The people
of Jims society would not have even listened to him or even considered
his reason. "Well, you see, it 'uz dis way. Ole missus-dat's Miss
Watson- she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she
alwuz said she wouln' sell me down to Orleans. ... but she could git
eight hund'd dollars for me..." Twain wanted to show through Jim just
how cruel people were in the past and how those feelings remained in his
society. Twain also shows the ideal of freedom through Jim and the
failure to live up to that freedom when Miss Watson sells him.
Ultimately Twain tries to point that we can still make up for the
injustices just as Miss Watson did when she set Jim free.
Twain's contemporary society did not react well to the hidden
messages in the novel, which would explain why people banned and burned
the novel. The people of Twains society did not like being told they
were wrong and they made that fact known. Another ideal Twain emphasises
is the idea that one should recognize their own fault and learn from
their mistakes. One way to solve this would by setting aside prejudice
feelings and just move on. An example of someone in the novel doing this
is Miss Watson, "... Ole Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was
ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and
she set him free in her will." Like many people Miss Watson finally
realized the wrong she did and put her "racist" views aside. Here Twain
shows how despite some people fail to live up to their ideals it is never
to late to make up for those failure and make them ideals.
Now that society has advanced more in its ways, and the Civil War
has ended, society should concentrate on moving into the twenty-first
century not as whites, blacks, hispanics, niggers, waps, micks or
wetbacks but as human beings sharing this precious world. People who
have a strong dislike for a certain race of people still exist today.
Through out history there have been a lot of people who wanted an end to
racism and prejudice. Mark Twain was one of them. Through his simple
novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain establishes the ideals of
society through his main characters and shows what happens when these
ideals fail. One lesson the reader gets is if a child who goes by the
name of Huck Finn can learn how to love some one criticized and hated by
society, so can we.