How does Mark Twain address the issue of slavery in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? How is racist language used in the text and should it be omitted?
13 Comments
Trent W.
2/23/2015 05:49:47 pm
Mark twain discusses the issue of slavery in his book Huckleberry Finn. He shows the harsh environments that slaves were in at the time and how they were treated. Mark twain shows that Jim and Huck become friends and that a nigger and a white man can be friends. Jim is a runaway slave that was going to be sold for quick money. I that it should be omitted because it shows what slave went through and how they were treated.
Reply
Hannah S.
2/23/2015 09:45:00 pm
How does Mark Twain address the issue of slavery in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? How is racist language used in the text and should it be omitted?
Reply
M. Lid
2/23/2015 09:49:40 pm
Mark Twain addresses slavery with caution. Jim, the one slave actually mentioned in this book, is not shown actually abused, but it is indicated that he sometimes gets beat by his master. There is still a lot of brutal honesty about slavery, like Jim running from a life he knows will be worse if he is sold again. Jim’s constant fear of being captured shows how oppressing slavery was. When he discovers Jim’s plan to run away, Huck is deeply shocked; but because Jim is a friend of his, it never occurred to him to expose him.
Reply
Seren G
2/24/2015 06:11:38 pm
Mark Twain addresses the issue of slavery in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", by showing how Jim was treated as a slave. People were calling him a "nigger" most of the time. He wasn't treated like white people. A good example about this is that Jim escaped from Mrs. Watson because she wanted to sell him to someone and this shows that Mrs. Watson was treating Jim ruthless and Jim’s feelings were ignored. Mark Twain shows the black people's negative feelings toward the slavery in the past and shows their difficult times during slavery. Mark Twain shows how black people like, Jim had difficult times during slavery and describes how he was struggling to gain a freedom. I think the racist language used in the text should not be omitted because it shows what happened in the past and gives information about the past.
Reply
Jasmin Church
2/24/2015 11:40:09 pm
Mark Twain is telling a story about slaves and also Jim is one his characters that he made and developed him to show how other people would feel the same. Honestly it doesn't matter how much of a pain it was like to be a slave, or even slave owners having to deal with slaves who keep running away, understandable that they want freedom. Otherwise they would most likely kill all the slaves and never even have a slave army fight for their own freedom. The racists language is used in the text by not trying to be mean but using the terms like "negro" stating that how they called them back then, also they were either not able to sit with whites or even use the same toilet, or even shower. It was hard on blacks, either way the would try to understand how it felt for others to be defeated in life and not be on the contrary of having a new normal life.
Reply
Alberto L.
2/25/2015 12:43:59 am
In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain addresses the issue of slavery through the character Jim. The treatment and actions towards Jim are a reflection on the treatment of slaves, but instead of depicting the real horrors of the institution, Twain has managed to create a sort of humoristic and somewhat mocking representation of slavery. The first incident showing the treatment of Jim is when Huck and Tom decide to prank him and make him believe witches had been flying around him. This incident is intended to mock and stereotype the African Americans as being gullible and superstitious. Another incident in the end of chapter 15, which tells about Huck attempting to tell Jim different stories, which he does not seem to understand. The whole section and the chapter ends with Huck becoming frustrated and saying that “[there] warn’t no use in wasting words – you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit” (95). The whole section reflects on the widespread white belief that African Americans were impossible to educate and make think.
Reply
Anthony Doerfer
2/25/2015 02:12:46 am
In The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain addresses the issue of slavery with his tone and the use of dialect, events, and situations that Twain creates. He uses the “N” word frequently which was the name that was given to people of color to show the levels of disrespect in which are shown towards the blacks or slaves. “The n***** run of the very night Huck Finn was killed”(pg.67) this shows how immediately they blamed a runaway slave because of his color, no one had accused Huck’s father first after knowing he was an abusive drunk, they first called out the slave Jim. He creates the character “Huck Finn” who dislikes slavery especially since he becomes friends with a runaways slave named “Jim” who Huck looks up to as a sort of father figure. They run away from their town together and go through the struggles of surviving and not being caught, they supported each other very much. Huck was actually excited when he found Jim had run away too the same time as he did “It was Mrs. Watson’s Jim! I bet I was glad to see him” (pg.49). I think the way Twain shows the reality of the life in the south is quite appropriate, without the dialect and truth he puts in, a lot of information would be left out.
Reply
Natasha A.
2/25/2015 03:08:31 am
Mark Twain approaches the issue of slavery in his novel of Huckleberry Finn with the character of Jim portraying a slave who belongs to Miss Watson. Twain depicts slavery by utilizing regionalism. For example further in the book where Jim is worried about drowning but he knows if he is found that there's the possibility of him being sold away. Twain' s racist language shows the intensity of that time period and how slaves were talked about and how they were thought of. I don't think that it should be omitted from the text because it's showing history and a different way of presenting that kind of history.
Reply
Dylan N
2/26/2015 01:14:07 am
Mark Twain addresses the issue of slavery through the interactions between Huck and Jim. Jim is the runaway slave that Hick has agreed to help get to the northern states and to freedom. But even when they have become friends Huck still has second thought about helping Jim and thinks of Jim as someone else property. The way Jim is treated throughout the book reflects peoples thought s of slavery. The book reflects how slavery is seen through the eyes of a kid. He is not as committed to the idea as an adult might be. Rather than treating him harshly the kids play small tricks and pranks on him and give the idea that through age the way they might have treated a slave might be escalated. Pap reflects the racist ideas that some people at the time of the book might feel toward blacks and the idea of slavery when he goes on about the black man voting and how they should make him a slave. Racist language is used in the text and should not be omitted. It is written about a time period and it is history, this is how people really were.
Reply
Ida-Kristine H. Aukan
3/1/2015 11:43:48 pm
Mark Twain addresses the issue of slavery by using one of the characters in the story as an example, the slave Jim who belongs to widow Douglass and Mrs. Watson. Twain addresses slavery by using a certain tone, different events, situations, dialects and come characters. Twain uses the «N» word very frequently to show the lack of respect people had for slaves. But the «N» word is not always used in a negative way, but as the only way people knew how to refer to slaves. People look at slaves as property rathe than people, cause thats what they grew up with and what is normal to them. From hearing how scared Jim is to return to his masters, shows the treatment a slave could expect to face when returning home. Also Twain shows how a pure soul as Huck also looked at jim (the slave) with disrespect in the beginning because of what Jim was but then later Huck becomes very good friends with Jim which shows how wrong people are. It dosen´t matter what colour your skin is or where your from, anyone can be friends and everyone is equal, and anyone can be capable of the same things. I believe that if the racist language was removed the story wouldn't have been as true and honest as it was. By using the racist language Twain showed how the conditions for slaves really was. So I would keep the language.
Reply
Michael Y.
3/3/2015 04:36:09 am
Twain addresses the issue of slavery by incorporating Jim in the story as one of the main characters and portraying him as the slave to Miss Watson. He does this even though slaves were looked down upon but he felt it was important to add this element because it was part of life. He also refers to runaway slaves and slave hunters throughout the chapters so far. Racist language is used in the text when describing and discussing Jim and other runaway slaves. They are referred to as niggers instead of negroes. I think that this language is periodic specific and is required to reflect the authentic language of the time. It was not considered racist at the time but, in fact, was just the slang used by people at that time. If books containing racist language were changed by omitting it now, it would lose the whole effect the author intended.
Reply
Jared C
3/3/2015 09:33:10 pm
Mark Twain addresses the issues of slavery with the character Jim who use to be owned by Mrs. Watson and then later running away. By using toes, events, dialects and some characters to show how people respect blacks at the time. The fact that slavery is still practiced in the book, there is a lot of racist language used. The word nigga is used many times in the story and that also shows the lacked of respect that people had for slaves and blacks at the time. However, Twain makes it also a little bit humoristic and mocking representation of slavery.
Reply
Evin P.
3/10/2015 01:17:42 am
Mark Twain Talks about slavery in a weird way. He sort of mocks it. Even though slavery was being practiced. He use lots of language that was used at the time to show the disrespect that the white southerners had against the blacks. The racist language should not be omitted because that is what makes the book unique.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2015
Categories |
|