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Many people think that Huckleberry Finn is a racist novel and they have even gone as far as banning the novel from certain schools. They base this view on the fact that the word “nigger” is used very often and they see the black people being portrayed in a degrading way to show that they are inferior to the white society. Contrary to this idea, Huckleberry Finn is not a racist novel. Mark Twain actually attacks racism by satirizing the lifestyle of the white people and shows that they have no reason at all to think that they are better than the blacks. This satirizing of the white people is effectively seen in the portrayal of the king and the duke.

Mark Twain starts to mock the king and the duke as soon as they are first introduced in the novel. Their appearance gives a negative impression right from the start. The king is described as having, “an old battered-up slouch hat on, and a greasy blue woolen shirt,” and he’s wearing, “ragged old blue jeans britches stuffed into his boot tops.”(Pg. 121) The duke is described as much the same. This first impression makes us feel as if these men are scum and we don’t have a very good perception of them. The second thing that these men do also is used to mock society in two ways. The first man (the duke) makes up a story that he was actually the Duke of Bridgewater. He said that he was the son of the infant duke that was ignored to take over a position. Not to be outdone, the second man (the king) makes up a story that he was actually the rightful King of France. Mark Twain uses Huck Finn to show what he thinks of these two men. “It didn’t take me to long to make up my mind that these liars warn’t no kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.”(Pg.125) These men are putting up a false front just like society does and Mark Twain shows through Huck that he can see right through this false front. The second thing that is mocked is the fact that these people pretend that they are royalty. Jim wonders why these men carry on so much and Huck tells him, “ . . .because it’s in the breed. I reckon they’re all alike,” and he also says, “all kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.” Mark Twain is showing here that society wants to feel established and be connected to royalty and what they don’t realize is that most kings are scoundrels. The duke and the king really seem to fulfill this role of scoundrels quite well king and the duke really show that they are scoundrels by being very greedy. Mark Twain shows his disgust for societies greed through the king and the duke. He is trying to show that society today is full of greed and only concerning itself with its needs only. The duke and the king show their greed by selling Jim to Mr. Phelps in order to make forty dollars eveafter all Huck and Jim had done to help them. (pg.205) Another incident concerning greed occurred after the plays were performed. They wanted a new way to make money so they started thinking. “These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was so much money in it, but they judged it wouldn’t be safe because maybe the news might ‘a’ worked along down by this time.” (Pg. 155) So they did something else. They found out that Peter Wilks had died and they pretend to be his long lost brothers in order that they could steal the inheritance from the three daughter’s. They actually stoop this low just to gain some money. They only think of themselves without even considering the girls and their future. Mark Twain shows disgust for these men through Huck when he says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.” We can see Mark Twains disgust for societies materialism. They will do anything that will benefit themselves.

Mark Twain also shows his disgust for society through the king and the duke’s conniving and deceitful ways. The king and the duke pretend to be someone that they are not in order to benefit themselves. One episode that shows that they are greedy occurs when they pretended to be the world-renowned actors, Mr. Garrick and Mr. Kean. They exploit the people of Arkansas and have no problems with taking their money from them. As the duke says, “I’m in up to the hub for anything that will pay . . .”(Pg. 129) even if it means exploiting people and making them believe that they are other people. One incident that shows that the king is very sneaky and deceitful occurs at the camp meeting. The king gives a speech that states that he is actually a reformed pirate who wants to go back out onto the Indian Ocean and he would try to turn other pirates onto the true path. He exploits these people at church and they take up a collection for him because he needed money to get to the pirates. (Pg. 132) Mark Twain shows that these men have no conscience or morals.

The king and the duke represent society very well in their lifestyle. Mark Twain satirizes them for the purpose of making society realize what they are doing wrong. This book wasn’t written to show that society is racist against black people, it was written to change society’s mentality of how they view the blacks in order that they will change their wrong thinking. Mark Twain attacks racism by focussing on the white people and their wrongdoings for the intent of changing them to see that everyone is equal no matter what color.

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain simply wrote about a boy and the river. In doings so Twain presents the reader with his personal view of mankind, whether he wants to or not:

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be shot. (2)

Possibly by giving us this warning Twain admits to the existence of a clear motive, morality, and a strong plot in his masterpiece. Nonetheless, Huckleberry Finn, through examples of hypocrisy, greed, violence, and racism, shows Twain’s pessimistic view of society and corruption of the human race as a whole.

To understand the pessimism of the book, we must first understand Huck. Huck is a character though whose eyes we see the ugly truth about mankind. Huck is always on the run from people. In the beginning we see him living a prim and proper life with the widow. He is then abducted by his father, and for a time is relieved to get out of the moral trappings of the town, and live sloppily, doing whatever he wanted to do. “It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day.” (24) After some time, and being unable to endure the abuse of his father, he runs away. Huck is as dissatisfied by one extreme as he is by the next. Huck chooses not to take sides on any matter, but instead be indifferent towards it. Huck avoids moral decision making throughout the book as much as possible. In the end of the book Twain saves Huck’s indifferent persona by bringing in Tom to make the decisions for him.

Some may argue that in saving Jim , Huck saves face for the human race, giving a sense of hope for the future. However, Huck must go about freeing Jim in an underhanded manner, lying and stealing his way down the river. Also, Twain himself cuts down the “salvation” of Jim by, in the last chapters, revealing that the entire adventure was useless, that the same ends could have been met by staying home.

Violence plays a large role in the unflattering portrayal of man. In the opening chapters we see young Huck joining Tom Sawyer’s band of murderers and thieves. “We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money.” (10)

Although the reader realizes that the “gang” never does any physical harm to real people, the fact that this group of youngsters fantasizes about committing acts that were evil even to the most ignorant shows the acceptance with which violence is perceived by man.

When Huck fakes his own murder, he employs a fantastic knowledge of graphic violence. He kills a pig so he can leave a trail of blood; marking the path the murderer took to dispose of Huck’s body. He takes the ax and “smashes” the door in to make it seem as if some deranged maniac hacked through the door. It takes this seemingly horrendous act of violence to begin Huck’s journey. In the Grangerford and Shepherdson scenes, violence is seen as a senseless act, committed by an inhuman instinct, rather than through intellect and will. As soon as the Grangerfords hear that their daughter ran off with a Shepherdson, their first instinct was to get the guns and bag some Shepherdsons. They did not stop to think that there might be an alternative solution.

The Grangerford and Shepherdson scene also shows the grandeur associated with violence. Constantly Buck is whining about how he never gets “roused” when they here a Shepherdson lurking around. Buck boasts about how one day he too will shoot down a Shepherdson, as if committing that mortal sin will propel him into manhood. Twain clearly displays his disgust with violence in these scenes.

Huck’s naiveté does not mask the hypocrisy of man shown in the book. In the scenes with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, Huck fails to see the true gaudiness of the Grangerford household. In describing their home one could use the contemporary term, cheesy. Huck sees their furnishings, like the fake fruit, and marvels at how they look prettier than real fruit. In reality the chipped and cracked fruit is, as gaudy and fake as the Grangerfords.

The male Grangerfords jaunt around wearing startling white linen outfits and panama hats. Huck regards and admires both families, “They [the Shepherdsons] were as high-toned and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords.” (103) We the reader see the “grand” Grangerfords and Shepherdsons going gun-toting to Sunday mass, praising peace and harmony. This scene clearly shows the hypocrisy with which Twain feels we are all immersed in.

The King and the Duke scene is in the book for two reasons. First Twain needed an excuse to keep Huck and Jim traveling deeper and deeper south. The second and more obvious reason is to show the element of greed that further corrupts

Tarun Thadani

American Literature

February 3, 2000

HUCK’S MORAL CHARACTER

In the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain describes an immense story about a white boy, Huck, and a slave, Jim, who together conquer obstacles and eventually reach their goals. Huck is very practical and has outstanding common sense, allowing him to think situations through, and decide on the best path to choose. Yet Huck’s best trait is his deep caring for other human beings, despite their color, caste or creed and this is what makes him such a classic American character.

Huck was brought up in the 1835 – 1845 in St. Petersburg, Missouri, which was a prominent slave state at that time. In that period of time black people were not treated like humans, they were treated as objects or animals and were considered inferior to white people. Because of this upbringing, Huck starts out believing that slavery is part of the natural order. Huck grew up in this environment where there was no place in society for black people. Black people were said to be “stupid, lazy, superstitious, gullible, happy-go-lucky, oversexed, and lacking any sense of family”. (XIX) Being brought up in this Southern life and society where he had been taught to think that slaves are merely “niggers” who weren’t equal, Huck uses the term “nigger” very often in his speeches. As Huck says “There was the Sunday – school, you could ‘a’ gone to it; and if you’d ‘a’ done it they’d ‘a’ learnt u there that people that acts as I’d been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire”. (271)

Over the course of the novel Huck’s character changes. His opinion of Jim alters from the beginning of their journey. They now have developed a very friendly relationship. Huck needs fathering and Jim is a faithful father to his family. He calls Huck “honey” and provides him with “warm affection”. (XXI) Huck plays a prank on Jim in chapter fifteen by acting like nothing they had done had happened and Jim was dreaming. Jim gets really upset when he hears this and Huck recognizes the justice of Jim’s complaint and apologizes with sincere regret. This shows that Jim now doesn’t think of Huck as a master but as a friend. They both begin to value friendship more than race. This novel could also be read as the story of how Huck loses his racist attitudes.

Huck feels he shouldn’t be helping Jim to freedom and almost turns him over to the slave catchers. Jim says “Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now”. (115) Huck goes through the moral conflict of how wrong it is to be helping Jim escape to freedom and reunite with his family, and he says to himself “I was Paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him”. (115) Keeping Jim’s words in mind, Huck realizes how important a friend he is to Jim and he wrestles with his conscience. His conscience says “But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could ‘a’ paddled ashore and told somebody”. (113) Finally he does what he thinks is right and decides he will help Jim. Instead of turning him in Huck tells the slave catchers that the other person traveling with him on board his raft is Pap who is suffering from the disease Smallpox. Smallpox was a deadly disease at that time and was feared by many because it was painful, very few survived from it, and mainly because of it being contagious. On hearing these words the slave catchers instantly believed Huck and, feeling sorry for him, gave him a twenty dollar gold coin.

Huck would definitely be breaking the law by assisting Jim to get his freedom. Jim was just a slave to most of the people. He was considered just property that could be sold or used until “it” wore out. Huck sees more than just the slave qualities in Jim and that is one of the reasons why he helps him. Although Huck and Jim were friends, they were friends of a different color, which made a huge difference at that period of time. The perspective of the novel clearly indicates that it is possible for blacks and whites to create a long-lasting friendship despite the color of a man’s skin.

“Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr.Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send, HUCK FINN”(272) was the letter Huck was going to send to Miss Watson. When Huck started thinking about all the adventures he and Jim had gone through he suddenly realized that he was “the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now”. (273). Without any hesitance he immediately said, “All right, then I’ll go to hell” – and tore it up”. (273) After Huck tears up the letter he is about to send Miss Watson, he is struck with impulsive guilt. “It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought more about reforming”. (273) This just proves that Huck’s actions speak louder than his words. Huck is willing to give up his afterlife for Jim’s freedom now. Huck refers to this as being a “compassionate deed”. His benevolence is something we to emulate.

“Racism is a social disease” (XXII). Huck Finn is not a racist, in fact he is the hero of the story because he shows his comfort to others by his aiding Jim, despite their drastic differences. Huck believes in the fact that everyone is human and deserves to be treated equally. In this story Huck learns about human nature’s evil side as well as its kind side basically because of his close friendship with a black man.