ipl-logo

Huckleberry Finn Language Analysis

593 Words3 Pages

Huckleberry Finn is a criticism of slavery. He portrays a stereotypical slave that is uneducated, gullible, and is very superstitious. Jim knows more about the world than most slaves and Huck. But as a slave he was never educated, therefore he is not book smart. For example, in chapter 14, Jim thought that Frenchmen speak the same as we do. Huck had tried to explaining to him that cats and cows do not speak the same as us. The cow and the cat do not speak the same, so it is natural and right that they don’t. Huck also asked Jim if it was natural and right that we do not speak the same language as the cat or cow. Jim agreed, but he didn’t understand the concept that if you live in a different country you will probably not speak the same language as the other country. …show more content…

Twain criticized slavery by how uneducated Jim is, but only some people would see that he was actually showing how bad slavery was to the blacks not being racist towards them. Jim is also very gullible, he is very trusting and will believe anything they you tell him. Jim believed the King and the Duke were actually a king and duke. So he would wait on them and do whatever they said. Twain is criticizing that the slaves were gullible because of the way whites treated the slaves. They were not educated, thus they would believe anything they are told. Another way Twain criticized slavery is by Jim’s beliefs. Jim believed in spirits, Voodoo, and many superstitions. In chapter 4, Jim had a hairball that was supposedly from the stomach of an ox, that Jim used to perform magic with. Jim believed that there was a spirit inside of it that would tell someone their fortune. Also in chapter 10, Jim said that holding a snake skin is even worse than looking at the moon over your left shoulder. Jim believes this because a character in the book known as Hank bunker had died after looking at the moon over his left

Show More
Related
933 Words | 4 Pages

(Doc D). Another time Huck treated Jim as a space was when he was thinking

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Huck has always seen Jim as a slave until they crossed paths while going down the river. The two develop a friendship and Huck starts to care about Jim and his well being. Although Huck views Jim as someone he cares about, he still sees him as a slave as well. “ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write that nigger’s owner and tell where he was,” ( Document E). Huck is in a continuous battle with his inner self when it comes to his views on Jim.

Read More
604 Words | 3 Pages

This shows how people view Jim and the severity of his escaping. The views of slavery are so set in stone that the black boy escaping is more heinous a crime than that of a white man killing his son. Twain uses figurative language throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One example would be when he is describing a summer storm in chapter 9. Twain talks about the trees looking “dim and spider-webby,” and how when the wind blows through, it “set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild.”

Read More
284 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain attacks the institution of slavery, by allowing readers to feel empathy for Jim through showing his fears and concerns about running away from Ms.Watson, and the friendship between Jim and Huck. Mark Twain uses Jim to criticize the ideas of slavery society held onto from before the Civil War by causing readers to feel sympathy for him. This can first be seen on page 45 when Jim admits to Huck why he ran away, “She always said she wouldn sell me.. I hear ole misus tel de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans,” (Twain 45). Jim’s fear of being sold shows a side of the slave trade no slave owner ever recognized.

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

Huck does not see Jim as a slave anymore he sees Jim as a friend and he treats him like a friend. Huck would of never done this at the begning of his journey or when he found out Jim is a runaway. He evolved his morality, Twain finished the book after the civil war he did not believe in slavery it

Read More
1119 Words | 5 Pages

Jim is a runaway slave owned by a white lady named Miss. Watson; while his partner during his adventures down the Mississippi River, Huck is a young boy raised in a slave-owning culture. Jim will have to struggle with Huck’s moral dilemma of whether or not to view Jim as an equal; Twain continues to set Jim

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

This can be noticed throughout the book and in the three scenes talked about before because the white characters in the book often times make irrational comments about slaves that relate to what they are doing themselves. Twain’s use of irony the scene about Huck being upset with the fact that Jim would steal his family back if he had too, shows that Huck did not think Jim should be able to and was not deserving enough to have his own family. This shows the greater truth of slavery because even though Huck likes Jim, he did not agree with Jim’s want to have a free family. The scene where the Duke, the King, and Huck are categorizing slaves as thieves, when they themselves are thieves shows the greater truth of slavery that slaves were categorized into certain types of people, even though it was not true of all slaves. The scene were Tom says that he would hang a slave if they were ungrateful and ranaway shows the greater truth of slavery that if a slave disobeyed, they deserved death.

Read More
1724 Words | 7 Pages

In the book it shows how Jim differs from other White men who cheat others, the novel also describes the white and black symbolism, and shows empathy for Jim. These reasons all give solid evidence on how Twain is not intending to

Read More
889 Words | 4 Pages

In reality, the king and the duke are the biggest thieves of them all. They judge Jim as having bad character but they are the ones who honestly have major character flaws. Overall, Twain identifies many religious characters’ flaws in their practice. For example, many of the Christian characters in the book believe that “ --” (--). This would be a normal virtue if it wasn’t for the fact that they act against it.

Read More
1272 Words | 6 Pages

Paula Leider recalls her thoughts of the treatment “His treatment of Jim as an allegory of the way the nation dealt with freed slaves, not taking their role in society seriously and engaging in destructive and deadly racism.” People of this time in the south agreed with slavery. Most of the people owned slaves themselves, and did not treat them like they meant something in society. Twain hits this topic forcefully in the book, clearing showing how people felt about Jim. Twain references the word when describing how a person would talk about an African American in this time,”No’m.

Read More
958 Words | 4 Pages

It makes you wonder why Jim doesn’t just say something to Huck and Tom? He doesn’t say anything because he knows a black man's word means nothing in a white society. Twain has totally switched what he has beat into the reader's head the whole story. He goes from writing about how blacks and whites are equal, to a white man being more powerful; the weighing scale just completely flips. This doesn’t make any sense to put into the book, it just confuses the reader and doesn’t fit accordingly to the

Read More
323 Words | 2 Pages

Mark Twain’s main argument of racism and slavery is apparent in the citation, being the crowd is discriminating and treating Jim harshly solely based on his color and without knowing, or taking consideration any information the Doctor is about to exclaim about the righteous act Jim did in order to save Tom Sawyer’s life. Not to mention, Twain’s argument of racism is evident in the Doctor’s exclamation, being he stated to not treat Jim any more harshly than you're “obliged” to, thus reveals, the natural racism and tendency to discriminate against African Americans based on their race during the time period in the novel. Furthermore, Twain’s argument of slavery and racism is apparent in the Doctor’s perception toward Jim by stating although he

Read More
1403 Words | 6 Pages

The black man on the back porch is afraid of the rattle snake because it is bad luck, or the innocent little slave is quick to believe everything one tells them at the drop of the hat. These are just some of the many racist stereotypes of the 1840s. A character named Jim is the star African American whom Twain bestoys the mission of being the stereotypical black man to prove a point. He along with his much more pallor companion Huck go on exciting adventures that unfold the events which expose the racist conduct of the time. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain saturates his novel with potent images of acute racism severe enough as to create a satirical mien that exposes the absurdity of prejudice.

Read More
1467 Words | 6 Pages

He used his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to magnify the horrors and hypocrisy of the institution of slavery. In the novel, Twain depicts the contradictions ingrained in the institution of slavery. This is seen in many instances of society, such as, slaveholders making money on the suffering of the human beings they “owned”. The slaveholders were unable and often unwilling to see that they were exploiting them, abusing them, and oppressing them because they believed that the slaves could not survive without them. The slaveholders thought they were,in effect, doing the slaves a favor by providing for

Read More
851 Words | 4 Pages

I chose this topic because in the past few decades, a lot of natural calamities and phenomena have taken place, e.g.: untimely floods, global warming, habitat loss, etc. And many of these have been caused by urbanization and one of the biggest threats that it poses i.e. the loss of ecosystems. Both urbanization and ecosystem loss disturb the natural balance of planet Earth. Therefore, it motivated me to take this topic. “Urbanization is when towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people move in from rural areas to work and live.

Read More

More about Huckleberry Finn Language Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document