Huckleberry Finn Persuasive Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Huckleberry Finn Persuasive Paper - Essay Example Although it is ambiguous as to whether slavery has been eradicated hitherto, the South is still well thought-out precarious territory for African Americans, and the North is the utopian freedom that the blacks look for. Mark Twain has used a single character, Jim, to denote the black race in the story. Jim flees from his owner, Miss Watson, so as to avoid being sold and goes to the North state. This as a result separates him from hi family. Huck, who is running away from his abusive father, encounters Jim as they both set off on their North, bound adventure. Huck despite being white treats Jim as an equal, although he often uses the derogatory word â€Å"nigger†, Huck regards Jim as a friend and not a black man who solely only there to be at his service. As the story unfolds, Huck stays true to his conscience and continues to help his friend. Mark Twain has been labeled a racist by many of his critics, who think the novel is racist on the face of it, and for the most glaringly, obvious reason: many characters use the derogatory term â€Å"nigger† all through. Though the events of the novel takes places in the Southern state twenty years before the Civil war, it would be astonishing if they didn’t use that term. A closer reading also conceals Twain’s staid satiric objective. In one act, for instance, Aunt Sally learns of a steamboat explosion† Good Gracious! Anybody hurt?† she asks. â€Å"No’m†, comes the answer. Killed a nigger† (Twain 107) At this point, anyone who thinks that Mark Twain meant this purposely is factually missing the point. To a certain extent, Twain is using this unfussy dialogue ironically, as a means to comprehend the unnerving truth about the old South. Rural South was a territory where entirely pleasant people didn’t deem the death of a black person worth their attention. The â€Å"niggers† were literally not human beings. Twain drives this point home by making the lady continue† Well, it’s lucky, because sometimes people