Huckleberry Finn Literary Analysis

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens, is considered to be an American Classic novel, however, many literary critics and readers worldwide view this novel as too offensive. One literary critic writes,“They [critics] can never excuse or fully hide the deeper meaning of racism of the novel- the way Twain and Huck use Jim because they don’t really care enough about his desire for freedom to let that desire change their plan.” (Smiley par. 8) This novel is divided in opinions, with it either being a classic necessary to understand those times, or whether it is so racist it should not be read in school. The side being addressed in this essay is that The Adventures of Huckleberry

On top of that, Mark Twain wrote Jim's words in the same way that slave narratives were written. Full of typos and abbreviations, Jim's lines were barely coherent, and need to be read multiple times to even understand what he is saying. One of Jim’s statements for example was written, “Uz done beautiful; en dey ain’t nobody kin git up a plan dat’s mo’ mixed up en splendid den what dat one wiz.” (Twain pg 286). Looking through that a plethora of errors that look rudimentary are found. This was completely unnecessary and uncalled for. This writing style only solidified that Mark Twain wanted African Americans to come across as

Tom Sawyer tells Huck, “Now we’re all right. We’ll dig him out. It’ll take about a week!” (Twain pg 246). When the boys finally got to Jim, he was chained to his bed. The bed could easily have been lifted to free the chain, and yet Tom Sawyer saw the situation differently. His plan was horrific- to saw Jim’s leg off (Twain pg 251). Additionally, Tom suggested that if Jim kept digging, he could get to China within 37 years. (Twain pg 257). Every word that Tom Sawyer speaks is mindless and contributes to nothing. As if the book could not have gotten worse, Tom Sawyer was thrown in to destroy anything good in