Novel Response Paper: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Novel Response Paper: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follows the life of Huck mostly living along the Mississippi live with different families, his drunkard father “ Pap” Finn, friend Tom Sawyer and runaway slave Jim. Mark Twain addressed individual freedom, politics and race with the relations between blacks and whites explored through slave holding and interactions. He also focused on class differences as Huckleberry was poor and lived with rich, older ‘adoptive’ parents. The novel is controversial for its use of ‘nigger’ many times, but the story shows the evils of slavery in dehumanizing people who are merely treated as property. The experiences of Jim and Huck highlight the complexities of race relations and prejudices in 19th century America.
Before Huck got to know Jim he merely saw him as a just another black slave kid. “We scrouched down and laid still. Miss Watson’s big nigger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door,” (Twain5). However, as the story progresses he is less inclined to call him this, and Twain challenges the social norm that placed people into distinct categories. Even after Jim and Tom t met at the Jackson’s island it was Jim who was more uneasy to interact with Huck. “He looked pretty uneasy, and didn’t say nothing for a minute,” (Twain 45). This indicates that Jim did not trust Tom who realized this, and highlights the uneasiness in relations between blacks and whites.
It is only when there was complete submission among slaves that the masters held complete power of them. Jim ran away and traveled with Huck despite him being black, and they agreed to work together so Jim would not be held again and when he was sold by some con artists Jim was there to help. Clearly, Jim had an aversion to slavery even as a teenager and it is the older adults who benefitted from slavery who supported the practice. Race relations were more complex and not merely black and white as even Huck is exposed to two different narratives of blacks that they are good as slaves and yet many still yearn for freedom just like Jim.
“Jim’s a nigger, and wouldn’t understand the reasons for it, and how it’s the custom in Europe; so we’ll let it go,” (Twain 220). In the passage, Huck and Tom discus the best way to free Jim from a cabin including sawing his leg and using a rope ladder. Considering the use of the word ‘nigger’ in the latte nineteenth century, the two appear not to have ill intentions, but they understand there is a difference between whites and blacks. The relations are complicated by expectations that the blacks were to be subordinate to white people and yet there were free slaves
There are differences in opinion on how Mark Twain addressed the issue of race in the novel. This has become more heighted because of the nature of the language used and this polarizes opinion and it is one of the books that have aroused controversy because of this (Fikes 242). One of the issues in interpreting the novel is whether Mar Twain was a racist or simp...