Essay, Research Paper: Racism In Huck Finn

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a novel that focuses upon the racial issue that Huck, a young twelve year old boy must come to terms with. He concludes that he will follow his heart and mind and go to a higher truth. This higher truth for Huck is freedom. When the novel begins Huck believes that slavery is part of natural order in life. As we go on we see that he fights with his conscience and must make a choice between doing the right or wrong thing. (http://salwen.com/mtrace.html) In this situation, respecting property rights and returning Jim to Widow Watson for a reward is what society wants him to do which is wrong . To escape society and the hypocrites, Huck has to steal Jim to freedom, which stands for human rights. Leo Marx states that Even though Huck knows how he feels about Jim, he doesn t know what he is going to do about Jim. (Marx, Major Literary Characters Huck Finn, pp. 15)
Huck chooses to reject the right thing if it means turning in Jim. This is shown when he does steals Jim from where the King and the Duke had sold him. Huckleberry Finn critic Ralph Elliot states that the reason for this is, Huck doesn t see Jim as just a slave. (Ellison, Twentieth century fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity, pp. 27-28) Huck knows all of Jims desires for freedom, his great friendship, trust in Huck, and his love for his family. (Major Literary Characters Huck Finn, pp.17) In this novel Jim isn t just the slave, he stand for all of humanity, and when Huck frees Jim, he frees himself of all the racism and hypocrisy of the town. For Huck this shows how he has grown and matured though out the novel and how he would be incomplete without Jim. (T.S. Elliot Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol. 6 pg. 469).