Satire In Huckleberry Finn

684 Words3 Pages

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain is a “satirical novel… that accurately portrays a time in history – the nineteenth century – and one of its evils, slavery”, according to the NAACP (their current position on Huck Finn). The nineteenth century was by no means an easy time to live through, even more so for non-whites. It was a cruel, harsh, and dark time for many people; the environment and living conditions alone are almost completely unimaginable for the children in our world today learning of these times, so how does any school, teacher, or parent plan to teach their children of the most inhumane, demeaning, and evil act of slavery? In order for our generation and for generations to come to be able to understand our own history …show more content…

uses the word “nigger” several times in his letters, articles, and arguments (in a time with great segregation but no slavery) and is still remembered as the most important voice in the American Civil Rights Movement; Martin Luther King Jr. was particular about his words which is why he was such a powerful force in the movement. According to Source F: “Huck Finn: Controversy over removing the ‘N word’ from Mark Twain novel” by Phylip Rawls, (Associate Press / January 5, 2011), “Twain was particular about his words [as well]. His letter in 1888 about the right word and the almost right one was ‘the difference between the lightning bug and lightning’”. During Mark Twain’s time, the word “nigger” wasn’t necessarily referring to a slave but was used to identify an African American person (in the case of “Huck Finn”, Jim) as something less than