Реферат: Racism In Huck Finn Essay Research Paper

characters point to things being wrong with society, not to point a finger at

blacks. Because Jim lives, as the Times column pointed out, “on a higher ethical

level than anybody else in this book including Huck. He is a hero in the novel

but not enough of a noble hero to be considered politically correct in today’s

society? (Times 6). In fact, many people have noticed this about the novel:

Twain is using this casual dialogue ironically, as a

was to underscore the chilling truth about the old

south, that it was a society where perfectly “nice”

people didn’t consider the death of a black person

worth their notice. Because of his upbringing, the boy

starts out that slavery is part of the natural order; but

as the story unfolds he wrestles with his conscience,

and when the crucial moment comes he decides he will

be damned to the flames of hell rather than betray his

black friend. And Jim, as Twain presents him, is hardly

a caricature. Rather, he is the moral center of the book,

a man of courage and nobility, who risks his freedom ?

risks his life — for the sake of his friend Huck. (Swalden 2)

Booker T. Washington noted how Twain “succeeded in making his readers

feel a genuine respect for ‘Jim,? and pointed out that Twain, in creating Jim’s

character, had “exhibited his sympathy and interest in the masses of the

Negro people.” The great black novelist Ralph Ellison noted how Twain

allows Jim’s “dignity and human capacity” to emerge in the novel. He stated:

Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark Twain, that Jim

was not only a slave but a human being, a symbol of

humanity . . . and in freeing Jim, Huck makes a bid to

free himself of the conventionalized evil taken for

civilization by the town.

And on those occasions when Twain does compare blacks and whites, the