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Oppression In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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Apart from being a significant part of American literature, Mark Twain’s classic book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, displays the deeply ingrained racist mindset of the South in the pre-civil war era. Huck struggles with helping Jim as it has been institutionalized in him to see Jim as Ms. Watson’s property, Huck learns to look at Jim as not merely someone worthless, but as a human worthy of respect and as a friend.
The most evident example of oppression is the n word appears more than 200 times in the book, making it the 4th banned book in schools. Taken as a racial slur in present day, Twain’s use of the word is a reflection of the times. Huck Finn was written when cruel and unjust treatment of black people was a societal norm and saying such an awful word didn’t get so much as a second thought. Nonetheless, saying this such …show more content…

Simply in the portrayal of Huck vs. Jim. Huck is shown as a loyal and clever child, an example of this is when he tells the white men that Jim was his dad and he had small pox so they wouldn't go near the raft. Huck is adventurous and has many good traits, aside from being a little stubborn. Jim is depicted as good hearted, yes, but also is shown as a fool. An example of this is when Huck lies to Jim after they become separated in the raft. This makes Jim look dumb and Jim is hurt by it. Another example is Jim is introduced as “Miss Watson’s big n***er”. He is seen as simple-minded and easily teased. Jim is introduced in a humorous way, to get a laugh from the reader, and Mark Twain could have been modeling Jim after the “stereotypical black person”, but it is hard to tell what intention was. Generalizing a group of people is not fair, and when this stereotype is negative it is a huge burden on the people. Making it harder to go to college , get a job, and find friends. Obviously there are white stereotypes, but they help whites. White people have the advantage and we need to be aware of

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