Huck Finn Misconceptions

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Misconceptions and Realities of Mainstream Society
Mark Twain’s most famous novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is set during the pre-Civil war period in the southern areas of America where slavery was a frequent practice and black inferiority was an ingrained belief. Through his satirical writing style, Twain highlights the hypocrisy of society’s racist perspective on blacks during the antebellum south by making the only black character, Jim, the hero of the story, because he retains his morality and kind nature to whites despite their cruel treatment towards him, while the white characters commit more crime, and also shows symbolizes society’s struggle to break free of racism when Huck fails to abandon his racist views.
By contrasting …show more content…
This is shown after Jim criticizes Huck for toying with his emotions, and Huck thinks “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger” (Twain, 112). Despite his recognition of the cruelty of his trick, Huck still holds the idea that Jim is beneath him because of his race--as if an apology was a favor to Jim, not something he was entitled to. Huck’s racism is also apparent when he decides to free Jim from slavery, and believes, “all right, then, I’ll go to hell.”(Twain, 268). This statement is ironic, because freeing Jim would be a justified action; Jim was kidnapped and re-sold into slavery. However, Huck is unable to see this action as an admirable action because society has engrained in his mind that blacks deserve to be in slavery and are merely property, not human being. Twain shows Huck’s unwavering racism when Huck admires Jim for saving Tom, complimenting Jim by saying,“I knowed he was white inside,” (Twain, 343). This confirms that Huck still associates “being white” with “being good”, and “being black” with “being bad”. Huck’s failure to abandon the racist views he grew up believing, despite seeing first hand that race does not determine one’s behavior, mirror’s society’s failure to break free of racism and acknowledge that slavery is a corrupt
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