Huck Finn Research Paper

Hemingway once said that, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain, Huck Finn.” Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, is said to be one of the most controversial yet influential writers of American history. Twain grew up in Hannibal Missouri where he idealized the book Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain got his fame from his writing, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” The novel Huck Finn is focuses on a fourteen year old named Huck Finn from Missouri who is suppose to start learning how to be a gentleman. Huck’s deadbeat dad kidnaps him, but fakes his own death and hides on an island. While on the island, he meets Jim, a runaway slave whose avoiding being sold. However, Jim gets captured

The novel began being questioned in the 1950s by the NAACP claiming that the novel didn’t attack on racism, but that it was racist itself. In 2011, new editions of the novel came out that had replaced not only the offensive word “nigger” with the more appropriate word “slave”, but also “injun” with the correct word, “Indian”. Although many agree with changing the word, there are others who think that changing the “n-word” changes the novel’s message completely. A professor from the University of Oregon claims that the key to understanding Twain’s novel is by understanding his use of language. The n-word helps show the changes of the friendship between Huck and Jim. Others who disagree with the change have voiced their thoughts by saying that by changing the word to “slave” is not accurate because not all of the black people were slaves. Even though the novel may seem offensive, Twain didn’t intend this, but to rather show the harm of society 's

There are many reasons that the novel is considered to be a Regional novel, but one of the most known and obvious is the dialect, slang, and syntax of the south that Huck, Jim, and many other characters speak. During this time, most of the Americans, especially from the north, spoke English that was very close to the Queen’s. The slang includes the words “nigger”, a word to describe African Americans, and “injuns”, a slang word that means Indian. Other displays of regionalism are shown through the characters, topography, and the setting of the novel. Huck Finn is raised to treat black people as property and not as if they are human beings. Huck personally struggles with this concept throughout the novel. Huckleberry Finn takes place in Missouri and down the Mississippi River, and was written when slavery was at its highest rate in America. Twain’s detailed description of smells, sounds, and natural sights of Missouri show his connection to the novel. Twain 's description of the landscape and abandoned houses of the American Midwest demonstrate the aftermath after the Civil