Isela Guerrero Braddam English 3 AP/Dual 3 October 2014 Get Your Facts First Racism. What is it, honestly? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, racism is defined as “poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race”. So when everyone is claiming that Mark Twain’s famous The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a racist novel, are they cognizant about what they’re saying? Mark Twain once said, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please”. Ever since Twain published his famous novel, it has caused quite the uproar in debate whether it is a racist novel. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a racist, in fact, Twain was simply raising awareness for slavery and racism itself within the novel, which …show more content…
Twain chose to use this word because it was “part of his characters’ vernacular speech and as a reflection of mid-19th-century social attitudes along the Mississippi River” (Kakutani 1). If he had decided not to use “nigger”, the novel simply wouldn’t have been the same, and “for him to refer to them any other way would be inconceivable” (Marx 2). During this time period, roughly around 1835-1845, the word “nigger” was just as acceptable as referring to somebody as white. However, during our generation today, “nigger” is used more commonly than ever. It’s practically in every rap song, “reclaiming the word from it’s ugly past” (Kakutani 1). Many people are believing that because of Twain’s use of this word means that the book is racist, but ultimately, he was trying to show society the issue with racism …show more content…
Watson explaining to her where Jim is, his thoughts interfere which his decision making. He begins to dwell on how special his friendship with Jim is, and how wistful Jim is about being set free. This leads him to go with his gut feeling and tear up his letter, even if it means not going along with what society believes. Huck says he was “was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right then, I’ll go to hell’—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming” (Twain 194-5). At this point in the novel, Twain uses Huck’s breakthrough to prove to the reader that everyone is made equal. Regardless of skin color and ethnicity, everyone is the same. If Twain wanted to make Huck Finn a racist novel, he wouldn’t have led the story to this climax, especially a big breakthrough like this