Is Huckleberry Finn Relevant Today Essay

Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written over a century ago when the U.S. looked very different than it does today, the themes that it contains are still relevant in society. One of the most present themes in the story deals with racism and the treatment of African-Americans. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was set in a time and place when slavery was a part of life, and the attitude of white characters towards black characters reflects this; even more open-minded characters like protagonist Huck Finn seem to regard African-Americans as part of an inferior species. This theme is still relevant today because even though racism is in many ways less of a problem than it was in the time of the story, people, whether consciously

Jim, who has strong morals, a personality, and is capable of love, defies the image of African-Americans held by other characters in the plot. Over the course of the story and Huck’s interactions with Jim, Huck becomes aware of and begins to reevaluate his stereotypes against African-Americans and acknowledges that African Americans are not the sub-human, inferior species he once thought them to be. Both Huck and readers learn a few important lessons throughout the plot: just because some ideas have been an unquestioned reality in the past does not mean that they are true. Furthermore, generalizations and stereotypes held against certain types of people are in many cases false, and just because a person looks or lives differently from you does not make them inferior to you. People today often assume things about people or groups of people they don’t know much about, and the lessons the protagonist learns in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are very applicable to society; being open-minded and accepting of different people would be highly beneficial in today’s