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...
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