Huck Finn Essay

Stephen Simmons
AP English 11/Mr. George
9/16/09
Huck Finn Notes

“Jim was most ruined, for a servant, because he got so stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches”(Twain 15)

“He dressed Jim up in King Lear’s outfit-it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theatre-paint and painted Jim’s face and hands and ears…Then the duke took and wrote out a sign on a shingle so-‘Sick Arab-but harmless when not out of his head.’”(169)

o Racism is a pressing issue in the novel and is used to bring awareness to the, what we would see as, as corrupt society. Twain uses the character of Jim to specifically let the reader and white people living in this society, that racism was not a good thing or something that should be considered acceptable. All people should be able to do the same things and be able to coexist and have emotions. In Jims case, he basically cant do any of those things, he isn’t allowed to be stuck up, or do whatever he wants.
o Although during that time period, blacks were the main focus of racism, they weren’t the only ones. In order to hide the fact that Jim was black, due to Jim not wanting to “play” the role of a slave any longer, the duke disguised him as a sick Arab. In today’s and in the mind of someone who is sane, that action is considered very disrespectful and offensive to Arabs. This just comes to show that people were racist, not just against blacks, but against other ethnicities. Twains main point here is that racism is a bad thing, and as he uses Hucks emotional and mental evolution throughout his journey to explain, that life without racial conflict can be good, and that home or society, can be a home or society without this conflict and other negative ideals (the raft as home).

“When I got down out of the tree, I crept along down the river bank a piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water…I cried a little when I was covering up Buck’s face, for he was mighty good to me”(127)

o Twain uses the example of the Gangerfords and Shepardsons to explain that there is a lot more to be changed than racial issues. As important as family is, and proper behavior is to some people in this society (Toms relatives)others seem to let is role off their back. In both the Gangerfords and Shepardsons family human life or death, or even morals seem to be out of the picture. They fight, some people die, and for a cause in which they cant even remember because it has been so long. When the violent fight between families has ended, Huck finds himself crying to the deceased body of a friend whom he had only known for a short while. Sure, Huck got over it, but what Twain is trying to say is that society and its inhabitants should not be so hateful, so corrupt, that they kill for a lost cause, and that Families should be more like the ideal family, happy, loving, caring, and most importantly, protective.

Other points:

Twain critiques society by basically stating that what society has done in the novel is the wrong path to take, and that in order to enjoy life like Huck, we have to let go of all the struggles and criticism, racism, and absurd behavior. He does this through Hucks journey and emotional, and mental transformation.
Society can also be critiqued by the society of the antebellum south. Society back then would critique others who do not believe in their ideals by saying that you should be racist and powerful. And that you should live life according to societies expectations, etc.
Even further, society can be critiqued through Huck. Although very similar to Twains critiquing, Huck critiques society by saying that life without all of the troubles of the one he grew up in and racism, sexism, and all of that good stuff, can be just as good, if not even better that life with all of those negative ideals.
Twain also critiques morals. When the “duke” and “king” make their big con, pretending to be the gentlemen who inherit their families gold, Huck hides the money from the duke and king in so they don’t get it and it is given to its rightful owner/the family of the deceased. In a way Huck is sort of Twain as a character in the novel in the sense he uses Huck, and small instances in the novel, to state what the right thing to do would be.