Huckleberry Finn And A Lesson Before Dying: An Analysis

In the South, African Americans are often bombarded with discrimination that they cannot seem to avoid. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the protagonist, Huck Finn, is a white boy who runs away from his father and unites with Jim, a runaway slave, to escape slavery and inequity. It is also portrayed in A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, when the main character, Jefferson, is convicted of a crime in which he is innocent. Jefferson is not given a fair trial because he is African American and society does not see equal rights for people who are not like them. As represented in both books, prejudice does not define one’s humanity. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Lesson Before Dying, both authors use character development to display

To try to prevent being sold and involuntary separated from his wife and children, Jim runs away from Miss Watson, his owner, and tries to obtain his freedom so he can reunite with his family. African Americans were not allowed to vote because they did not have the same rights as whites do, but when someone told Pap, “there was a State in this country where they’d let that n***** vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote again…I says to the people, why ain’t this n***** put up at auction and sold?” (35). During the time period of Huck Finn, society and Pap presumed that white men were the superior race and black men were inferior of whites and to be treated as if they were property. After pranks Jim by putting the snake in his blanket, Huck realizes what he did was wrong and sees Jim’s reaction to his prank, and “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back. It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a n*****; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more