Huckleberry Finn Social Class

America in the late 19th century was a very special and unique society culturally and socially in many aspects including class, environment, and values. This uniqueness is exemplified in the literature that arose during this crucial time period in the development of the American culture. Literary works from this time are distinctly American in a multitude of ways. When someone mentions “American literature,” the first title to come to the front of most people’s minds is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a realist piece by mark twain about a young boy going on adventures. American poetry, however, brings up a different name: Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman created the American classic “Song of myself,” a free verse poem about America and the American

This story has vibrant characters, demonstrating the difference in treatment based on class and race and how the two are intertwined. The best example of symbolic racism is Jim, one of the slaves. He is juxtaposed with Huck’s father Pap, the neglectful “caretaker.” Even though Pap is a terrible human being, he is still considered to be higher in social class than Jim, simply because he is white. Although this is a characteristic of America in the 19th century, the characters by themselves are also distinctly American. You will not find a slave named Jim with the same culture anywhere else. Pap is a unique character, drinking and gambling and leaving for months and even years at a time. This juxtaposition also reinforces the notion that while Pap is Huck’s biological father, Jim is a better paternal figure. This is shows in the book where Jim tells huck not to look at a dead body. The exact excerpt is “Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face” (Twain 136). These characters are American, there is no doubt about that, but one must wonder where they come from and what makes them that way. The answer to this is the setting in which they grew

Slavery is legal, which is one factor that contributes to the fact that no matter what, African Americans are lower class that whites. The small town means that everyone knows each other, this is an American trait that was more common back in that setting than it is today. The “Smalltown, America” setting is a unique setting that came about in the nineteenth century. In our modern times, small towns are less common due to industrialization and urbanization, this amplifies the effect created by the setting, showing the closeness of everybody in the town. Although everyone in the town knew each other, it didn’t mean they were all friends with each other, Huckleberry Finn didn’t feel like he fit in with anyone, so he ran