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Huckleberry Finn Synthesis Essay

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There is no other way to better express yourself than to speak in the vernacular, for the truth is best told word by word in which the quote was spoken. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s usage of the word nigger is questioned to be either racist or a mere reflection of how people of that time period spoke. Could it be that Twain was projecting a subliminal hate for people of color or was his purpose to expose his readers to the type of language used by the common people of the time in which the story takes place in? I believe that in order to convey the message of unacceptance for people of color, it is best to use the hateful diction used by the people, including the usage of the word nigger, without sugar-coding it. …show more content…

Huck being a white male, born to be superior (in their mind) by his race, should not associate with Jim, who is an African American runaway slave. Despite the boundaries set by society, they do not follow the norms and befriend each other. They not only act as friends, but as brothers as well, with Jim occasionally playing the role of a father to Huck, who grew up with a careless dad. Having these two characters get along so well proves that Twain does not intend to be racist. Although Twain has taken it upon himself to write about an unheard of friendship between a Caucasian male and a African American male, he does not want his readers to lose sight of the harsh truth. For the purposes of creating an actual representation of what most people were like in that time period, Twain creates Pap. Pap is Huck’s ignorant and alcoholic father. He has zero tolerance or like for anyone who is of color and his existence is Twain’s way of bringing into the novel the reality of racism in that time

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