Huck+Finn+Novel+is+Racsist

So it comes to this...

Debaters, this page has been set aside for you to store resources and discuss your plan of action for Friday's Fight Night... ummm... debate in class. Remember, this page may only be used by those individuals attacking //Adventures of Huckleberry Finn// as a racist novel.

__ Arguments for //Huckleberry Finn// as a racist text: __ Racism- a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others

Ø Jim is described as childlike Ø The lack of credibility within the text: · Jim is ignorant about alternatives to heading south down the Mississippi · There is a lack of anxiety about traveling on the raft · Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, is suspected of killing Huck Ø Narrative is nothing more than a white male adolescent fantasy about escaping responsibility 2. Uses of the word “nigger” by both white and black characters. 3. Twain’s minstrel-like portrayal of Jim and other black characters Ø Negative and demeaning traits assigned to blacks Ø Edward Windwor Kemble’s illustrations reinforce racial stereotypes · Kemble’s history in drawing stereotypical blacks for publishers and advertisers · Encouraged current stereotypes of blacks of his time by drawing them as: o Simple and ignorant o With baggy and frayed clothes OR with “fancy” clothes inappropriately worn as pretense o Often open-mouthed and pop-eyed o Slumping posture · Twain disliked some of Kemble’s drawings, but he didn’t object to any of Jim · Twain was aware of the literary marketplace, knew that readers would “enjoy” stereotyped illustrations Ø<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Such illustrations and characterizations of Jim flatten him, discarding his complexity of character Ø<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Characterizations make it difficult to chart Huck’s shifting perceptions of Jim 4. The novel is too ambiguous for many readers Ø<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Age and sophistication of reader ·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> 1983 study of Jr. High students showed that they didn’t see the satire in the novel Ø<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> The Aunt Sally exchange (chapter 32) ·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Does Huck actually understand her attitudes? Ø<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> To believe in Twain’s satirical intent, the reader would have to believe in Huck’s good faith toward Jim. But: ·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Huck forgets all about Jim while at the Grangerfords (chapters 17-18) ·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Huck goes along with Tom’s “adventure” plans at the Phelps’s
 * 1) Twain doesn’t take slavery, therefore blacks, seriously
 * The "n-word." is used 215 times in Twain's, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

5. Jim's constant inferiority to other characters (esp. Huck) -- When Huck realizes that the cons were not a dauphin or duke, but Jim readily believes them (an uneducated child having more intelligence and common sense than an adult black man). -- Child-like belief in superstition (which was a stereotype when it came to African-Americans) when it came to the "hairball" and the trick Huck played on him when it came to the hat hanging in the tree. Makes Jim seem ignorant in comparison to a child. Also, it makes the slaves seem inferior to the child because they believed Jim's story, and Huck (it seemed) was amused by this. This shows the racist idea that African-Americans were inferior and depicted them as superstitious and somewhat ridiculous and childish. -- Jim's humiliation in Tom's elaborate escape, as Tom treated Jim as a prop in a scheme and not a person. Racist in that it viewed Jim, a free man, as an object (these actions weren't objected by any characters in the story, and remained an unchallenged racist view).

6. "White inside" -- Huck viewed Jim as a person, but stated that he was "white inside". This was Twain's last development on Huck's opinion (this could mean that the final conclusion of the novel is that Jim was considered "white inside" therefore he was a person. So the conclusion of the book still ends in a racist mindset of a black character being "good" because they have "white inside"). This suggests that it is necessary that in order to be human, you must be white or have the qualities of a white person on the inside. This also displays that Huck still has the same fellings for other "negroes", but to him this "negroe" is different.

7. Superstitions/Tricking <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Pg. 1287 <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> “He used to do magic with it, He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything.” <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Pg. 1309 <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> “Jim told me to chop off the snake’s head and throw it away, and then skin the body and roast it a piece of it.” “He eat it and said it would help cure him” <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Pg. 1309 <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“For I wasn’t going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it.” <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Pg. 1327 <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“What’s the matter with you, Jim? You been drinking?” <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“You couldn’t got a drunk in that time, so of course you’ve been dreaming.”
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Depicted as naïve/gullible and easily believes superstitions (hairball, rattlesnake).
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Made to seem as if he constantly believes the white man (Huck plays tricks on him in the fog and the rattlesnake. Makes Jim think someone else did it or it was just a dream.)

8. In some ways against Whites as well 9. A scene showing racism (Chapter 32) When Huck got to the Phelps, Aunt Sally was asking where he came from and he told her the boat "blowed out a cylinder-head" (Twain 220). This scene shows they do not see the slaves or blacks as people. A black person was killed and Aunt Sally did not indicate that a person got hurt. The scence references a black person as nobody, which indicates racism.
 * While researching I found that the novel is considered to be racist, in some ways, against whites as well. Russell Baker wrote that all the "drunkards, murderers, bullies, swindlers, lynchers, thieves, liars, frauds, child abusers, numskulls, hypocrites, windbags and traders in human flesh" that Huck meets on his adventures are all white people. The only “true gentlemen” displayed in the book is Jim, Miss Watson’s slave
 * http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn/id/1903827
 * "Good gracious! anybody hurt?" - Aunt Sally asked
 * "No'm. Killed a nigger." -- reply
 * "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt..." - Aunt Sally


 * Although the entire book is written in dialect, Jim's dialect is clearly inferior to Huck's. Jim uses the constructions associated with the stereotypical Uncle Tom—the "yassir, massa" types. This is again problematical since Huck and Jim come from and live in the same environs. In fact, scholars say Twain modeled the dialect on black speech patterns.
 * Jim professes several superstitious beliefs not shared by the white characters. Some claim this is a natural outgrowth of his position as a slave; Others believe this reflects a pejorative attitude towards Jim.


 * Huck Finn portrays Jim as the mental equivalent of a child or simpleton, not as an adult. One good example is Jim's belief that the man walking around calling himself a king //is// a king. Jim appears to have //no// idea what a king is, other than someone who declares himself a king.
 * Huck Finn shows the Negro as meek, obliging, and subservient. Nowhere is there evidence of the intense pain, hatred, or despair felt by many slaves—the kind that made some of them kill themselves or kill their masters. Jim moans for his family once or twice and that's about it.
 * Rather, his thoughts are directed toward squaring things with the adults. Jim is an afterthought, if anything. He hasn't taken on a new status as Huck's partner or confidante. He remains the object of Huck's adventures, not a person equal to Huck (like Tom Sawyer).

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/huckfinn.htm


 * In reality, Huck never saved anyone, including Jim. After he comes to Aunt Sally's house his relationship with Jim is abruptly cut off (leading us to believe that he didn't like Jim at all; rejecting him). Huck does not save Jim because in the end it is the widow's benevolence that sets Jim free - Huck did NOTHING to help Jim, they were merely traveling away from the same area.