The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Review

Andrew Zhang

In The novel “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”， Mark Twain used several moments of confusion and conflicts within the mind of Huck to highlight the hypocrisy of racism at the time. The main conflict and contrast that is being discussed here is regarding the issue of slavery and racism at this time in the US， hence a bit of context is quite necessary; Mark Twain wrote this novel two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation. The end of the Civil War， however， is not the end of racism especially in the South; The Jim Crow Laws demonstrate this still existing concept of racism where it is ensured by the law that public facilities and education is separated for black and white Americans （and this is after the civil war）. This novel， however， is set in the days where slavery is still legal， Mark Twain used this setting to better put emphasis on the hypocrisy of slavery through the inner conflicts in the mind of Huck Finn. In the following paragraphs， two examples from the story would be demonstrated and explained about how they exemplified the contrast between the standards of society at the time and Huck Finns personal feelings toward Jim.

The first example in the story occurred in chapter 8， this showed us what Huck think the society would think of himself for helping a runaway slave but still did it because he has made a promise. “People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum-but dont make no difference. I aint a-going to tell， and I aint a-going back there anyways.” This gives us the perfect evidence of that Huck understands enough about the society to know that his behavior will not be accepted. He， however， is not going to turn on Jim because he has made a promise to Jim， and at this moment in time， Huck would not care that much of how the society sees him as he has just abandoned his life in the world he knew. This is quite similar to Jims experience as he is one that is treated miserably by the society and has decided to run away from it. This similarity between the two has likely contributed to Hucks decision on not telling on Jim as well.

The second example is around the rising actions of the story where Jim is sold by the dauphin in Chapter 31. Here， Huck underwent the dramatic change and finally lost the ‘moral constraints set by the society that made him question his actions of helping Jim. Huck in this chapter went from “I was stealing a poor old womans n****** that hadnt ever done me no harm， and now was showing me theres One thats always on the lookout， and aint a going to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further” to “because as long as I was in， and in for good， I might as well go the whole hog”（deciding to help Jim escape.）. It is intriguing to see the dramatic irony of this scene; as we know， Huck is doing the right thing helping Jim escape， but Huck does not know that（in fact， he said “Ill go to hell” when he tore that letter）. This deep conflict of whether he should do what the society tells him to do（which is to no longer to help Jim and return him） or follow his consciousness and the relationship that he has built up throughout the story with Jim is what highlights the storys theme of the hypocrisy of racism and slavery. This is different from the first time he met Jim and decided to help him： this is Huck actively making the decision of disobeying the societys rule because he sees the characteristics of nothing but a unselfish man in Jim; “Id see him standing my watch on top of his ‘n，stead of calling me， so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp， up there where the feud was; and such-like times and would always call me honey， and pet me and do everything he could think of for me.” After everything that he has been through， Huck simply cannot allow himself to betray a man that has demonstrated nothing but kindness to him. It is the relationship that was built up between these two that finally destroyed the barrier between them set by the society， and to decide to do the right thing.

In conclusion， moments of the story are integrated with irony to highlight the conflict on the topic of racism in the mind of Huck Finn.

【作者簡介】Andrew Zhang， Trinity-Pawling School.