Huck Finn Essay

Huck Finn Essay Huck Finn Essay Maddie Huckleberry Finn Essay 3/3/14 In the 1840’s society was taught that blacks were not the same as whites, not only by the color of their skin on the outside, but that they were different on the inside to. The way blacks were treated was unjust and dehumanizing. Throughout the novel Twain illustrates how poorly blacks were treated, but also shows that not every single person felt the same way towards blacks. Hucks relationship with Jim is a perfect example of how white people thought they were better than blacks, but as the novel goes on Huck seems to realize that blacks are just like whites. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, society believes that they are not racist because it was so natural at the time to have slaves, this novel demonstrates how society can be unjust, cruel, and inhumane, but also how not everyone feels the same towards blacks. For blacks in the 1840’s they barely had any rights and if they did have a certain right white people would become angry and tr y to get that right taken away. At this point in time free black men did have a few rights and one of them was voting. White people did not like this at all, especially Hucks drunk father, Pap. He was not so popular in the town because of his bad habits when he was drunk. â€Å"It was ‘lection day† (37) and Pap â€Å"was just about to go and vote† (37) if he â€Å"warn’t too drunk†. Pap had claimed that he â€Å"drawed out† (37) because he found out â€Å"there was a state in the country where they’d let that nigger vote† (37). Pap was furious that the government would let a black person vote because no one saw them as equal, so Pap claimed that he will â€Å"never vote ag’in† (37). Even though Pap was too drunk to vote he still would not have voted because they were letting blacks have the same right as them, which was completely against society at the time. This is another way that we can prove that society has taught white people to believe that they are better and more entitled then blacks. Majority of the white population in America at this time opposed blacks having any rights because they could not see them as equal, which just proves how unjust society was in the 1840’s. All blacks were treated as if they were animals that did not have any feelings. Their punishments for anything they did would have been extremely painful. You can see how white people think that blacks are animals when they chained Jim up and only have him bread and water, because he was not a human just an animal. Instead of leaving Jim there chained up he got him â€Å"out of the chains in no time† (303), which is another way Huck defies society. Huck truly cares about Jim, which was unheard of at the time because white people never saw a point in caring about blacks. The blacks enslaved in America for the most part were uneducated and had no idea about any of the outside countries or culture because their owners preferred that they were stupid. In chapter 19, Huck and Jim got into an argument about how much Jim can understand. Huck expected Jim to understand everything without any explanation, which was unreasonable of him because Jim has never had education. Huck was trying to explain to Jim that he wouldn’t understand some things because it’s in a different language and people speak differently, but Jim could barely even understand the concept that people spoke different languages. Jim repeatedly tells Huck that â€Å"dey aint no sense in it† (90) and how it is â€Å"ridicklous† (90). Jim had questioned Huck about how cats and cows don’t talk â€Å"like a man† (90), but the point of it was that if we were all the same than why did people own other human beings? How was that even Huck Finn essay Huck Finn essay Zoe Williamson English III AP, 3rd Hour November 29, 2014 Huckleberry Finn: Good vs. Evil The nineteenth century was a time of major moral conflict for those in the United States. In the years following the Civil War, both the north and the south were conflicted about whether or not their actions were morally just or not. In his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain pointed out both the good and rather unfortunate sides of humankind and showed not only the nation, but the world what it meant to either be a good person or a bad person. He displays mankind as courageous, senseless, and selfish through the depiction of his characters Huck, Jim, Tom, the Grangerfords, Huck's father, the "King", and the "Duke". Twain displayed the courageousness of humanity through Jim and Huck Finn. Huckleberry Finn was the most courageous of all the characters because he was never afraid to embark on any of his adventures. When he and Jim discovered a crashed steamboat that held a band of murderers, Huck was brave enough to try and stop them. "But if we find their boat we can put all of 'em in a bad fix-for the Sheriff 'll get 'em" (Twain, 52-53). Huck was courageous enough to risk his life all in an attempt to put some murderers in jail. He was also courageous when he decided to help Jim escape slavery even though he thought it would meant he wouldn't go to heaven. Twain showed that Huck knew that helping to free Jim was the right thing to do, even if it would condemn him when Huck thought, "All right then, I'll go to Hell" (Twain, 162). Jim was also very brave when he decided to run from slavery because he knew that to do so would put his own life in peril. He exemplified the amount of bravery and effort he put into escaping the holds of the Phelpses with the quote, "I laid dah under de shavins all day. I 'uz hungry, but I warn't afeared: bekase I knowed ole missus en de wider wuz goin' to start to de camp-meetn" (Twain, 33). Another time Jim proved to be exceedingly courageous was when he showed that he was willing to give up his freedom to save Tom Sawyer's life. The doctor that treated Tom for his wounds pointed out this valor when he said, "I never see a nigger that was a better nuss or faithfuller" (Twain, 215). Both Huck Finn and Jim proved to be courageous and selfless, thusly portraying Twain's belief of what a good person should be like. Mark Twain portrays the flaw of senselessness in mankind through his characters Tom Sawyer and the Grangerford family. Tom's schemes are what prove him to be absolutely the most irrational and absurd characters in the novel. Huck describes Tom's plan to free Jim by saying, "every time a rat bit Jim, he would get up and write a little in his journal whilst the ink was fresh" (Twain, 201). Had Tom not come up with such a ridiculous plan, he would have saved Jim a lot of pain. Another of Tom's plans that were completely absurd was when he said, "the plan was for us to run him down the river, on the raft, and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and tell him about his being free, and take him back home on a steamboat, in style, and pay him for his lost time... and then he would be a hero, and so would we"(Twain, 219). The Grangerford family was also a mere bit idiotic at times. When Huck questioned Buck Grangerford about the background of the feud between his family and the Shepardsons, Buck replied with a casual, "Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago" (Twain, 82). Though Buck acknowledged that fact that the feud was nonsense, he continued killing the Shepardsons, which proved him and his family to be irrational. Using the Grangerfords as an example, Twain was poking at the fact that during the Civil War, many people thought that the battling was pointless, yet they continued to participate in it because they were absolutely irrational. Selfishness is seen vividly through the characters of Huck's father, Pap, and the two nameless conmen who go by "King" and "Duke". Pap