Do you think Mark Twain is guilty of being rascist in his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?Why?

Answer 1

no

Answer 2

If you had read 'Huckleberry Finn" well, you would have noticed that "N-word" Jim is the smartest, most compassionate character in the book. In the beginning, Tom and Huck want to turn him in as an escaped slave (which everyone in Hannibal would have considered the moral thing to do, because Jim was stealing himself), but later they help him get away.

The word "n-word" was not a slur when Twain wrote the book in the 1870's. It was simply the way that Southerners pronounced the word '*****', which was used by educated people rather than the words 'slave' or 'black', which were used as insults.

"N-word" became an insult beginning with the resurrection of the KKK after the film "Birth of a Nation" (in which the nation born was the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan) around 1919.

Mark Twain deserted an irregular Confederate division after a month or so in 1860 and 'lit out for the territories'. He and his brother Orion, (pronounced OH-ri on) decided that the Civil War was a waste of time and unnecessarily fatal. His brother got a job in the office of the Territorial governor of Nevada, and Sam Clemens (who used Mark Twain as his pen name) began his writing career. He also worked as a typesetter all over the Union, and eventually married a New York girl and settled first in NY and later in Connecticut. He never lived in Missouri or any part of the South again. He was very unpopular there with many people.

People who accuse Twain of being a racist have not read the book and know nothing of its author, who was one of the most advanced intellectuals of his time.

I would not use the silly term "n-word", except Yahoo will not print the word "******". It has become a taboo word, apparently, and cannot even be used in a legitimate manner.

Answer 3

My personal definition of racism is "an unreasoned bias or hatred or discrimination against a particular group". The key word in that definition is "unreasoned".

Mark Twain wrote as many people spoke. He was one of the first American authors to do so and led to his enormous popularity. He was read in the North, South, West, East and in Europe.

If we view him as a 'reporter' (in that he recorded what he heard), where is the bias? As another answer said, his portrayal of Jim was much different than many of that time period. And Huck's anguish - that of a white man who has befriended a black man - was awful. Twain's use of N___ does not make him a racist but perhaps instead of focusing on that one word to determine racism, we could look also at Huck's thoughts and actions for a clearer idea of Twain's beliefs. Further, the story presented a rational white man (boy) who out of simple human decency, and not religious fervor, thought that slavery was bad. How can that be racist?

Answer 4

Twain wasn't a racist, he was a satirist . . . he was genius at putting the hypocrisies of his time into entertaining fiction -- if you are a racist, you probably don't get it or Twain and feel like you can "relate" to Twain's ideologies. If you can read his work for what it truly is, you can see how he is laughing at and making fun of racists -- like a previous poster stated, his black characters are usually smarter than the whites!! Why do you think that is??

Answer 5

Hello =)

Certainly not. He was merely a product of his generation, portraying the sentiments of his time, in the language of the period. My mother still says "coloured people" ...it's hard to change what you were brought up with.. even though she means no disrespect.

Should Yahoo Answers be archived permanently, there may well come a day when someone asks if the person posting this question (or answering it) is guilty of being a racist.

Namaste,

--Tom

Answer 6

NO way!! Mark Twain is a fantastic author, and "historian" the way he tells the stories should remind us of how the world was then, and how far we've come to change (even though we still have a long way to go) and the things that are true that make us human (even though we're not perfect!)

Answer 7

Absolutely not in fact he was pointing out racism and bring slavery to a forefront so people would see that slavery was wrong.

Read the book and you will see Huck's dilemma with turning Jim in as not doing so made him a bad person according to the time he was living in.

Answer 8

In the final section of the book, YES. Jim is patronised and tormented and it seems that Twain thinks it's all good fun.

Answer 9

Huckelberry Finn was not racist at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was banned because it portrayed Jim, the black character, as more intelligent than many of the whites in the novel.

Answer 10

You have too much time on your hands. Get a job, and quit sponging off your parents. Samuel Clemens' work was loved and celebrated as some of the best fiction ever written. He would turn over in his grave to hear even the suggestion of racism.

Answer 11

What is rascist? A combination of racist and fascist? Mr. Clemens certainly used negative stereotypes and slurs, and I am slow to forgive just because that was "acceptable" at the time.