The Racism of Huckleberry Finn

Addressing the Argument that Mark Twain’s Classic American Book is Racist

Although regarded as a classic, Huckleberry Finn has engendered controversy from the start. The Concord Public Library in Massachusetts banned it shortly after publication. In reporting approvingly of this action, the Boston Transcript noted that members of the library committee found the book 'the veriest trash' and 'rough, coarse, and inelegant.' The Springfield Republican found the novel 'a gross trifling with every fine feeling' and 'harmful.' These objections, grounded on the view that only idealized portrayals of young persons can be edifying, can be dismissed easily by contemporary readers; more serious, however, are charges that the book encourages racism.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain is not a racist book, rather, it is an anti-racist's attempt to denounce the injustices of slavery through the slave Jim, and the point of view of Huck, a young white boy. According to the Webster's Dictionary, racism is, "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others." The definition goes farther by also saying it could be, "a hatred or intolerance of another race or other races." What's important about the second definition is that it includes the idea of hate. Someone must do something out of hate for it to be considered racism. Many believe certain things about Twain's "Great American novel," makes it a racist book, like the overuse of the word, "nigger," and the given depiction of the black slave, Jim. However, there is a substantial amount of evidence that this book was not written out of hate, but in hope that Twain could change the ideals of skin color of the white people around him.

In 1957 New York City junior and senior high schools dropped the novel from a list of approved books because it uses the term 'nigger' and allegedly stereotypes Jim. More recently, a number of court cases have been fought to remove it from lists of required reading on grounds of racism. For example, in 1982 an administrative aide at, ironically, the Mark Twain Intermediate School in Fairfax County, Virginia, stated, 'The book is poison....It works against the idea that all men are created equal....anybody who teaches this book is a racist.'

Representation of Culture in Huckleberry Finn and the Ancient One

Literature has always been seen as the reflection of humanity, especially those works which are read over and over and often canonized. An author's good representation of culture and life in a certain time and place, calls out to what we as readers know of our world and our time. Even if our surroundings and culture are completely opposite of the author's representation, the connection is made through opposites, but the reader also gains that outside view of life. Two works which exhibit this are Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One. Both have young narrators who go on an adventure, and, through this adventure, they discover life lessons and views about the culture that surrounds them. The representation of the narrators, the settings, and the quests of the narrators are what connects the reader to the cultures of both novels.

The narrator of a novel, or any story, can tell the reader a lot. Both Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One use narrators in different ways, to different effects. The narrator for Huckleberry Finn is Huck himself. He is presented in a first-person point of view which gives the feeling that a story is being told to the reader. There is a long story-telling tradition in the south, and this presentation of Huck follows that. The Ancient One has a teenage girl as a narrator. Kate is presented in a third-person limited point of view. This allows the reader to enter the story rather than have the story told to them by a first-person narrator like Huck. Both narrators and the points of view they are given vary the way the reader is able to experience the text and both are effective at conveying meaning and the overall intended feeling to the reader. Huck's southern language conveys his status, location, and gives the text an "old timey" feel, while the third-person view that follows Kate gives a wider view of the surroundings, both physical surroundings and the surrounding views of others. The methods of narration are very different, but they both allow the reader to get a clearer idea of the culture and the author's idea.

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