The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place during the 1840’s in the American South, before the Civil War, where slavery was still very common and not thought of as wrong. Reading through the racial/cultural lens, the novel focuses on Whites and African Americans and mainly on the relationships they have compared to the relationships they are ‘supposed’ to have. Reading Huck Finn shows the reader a unique view on slavery and African Americans at that time. You can clearly see how they were treated at this time through Huck’s talk about slavery and African Americans, as well as personal experiences and stories by Jim, a runaway slave. The unique part about this book that is different from most books about slavery in the American South, is that it is from Huck’s point of view, who is around 13-14 years old during the time of the novel. This allows you to see how a child would have felt about slavery during this time.
Huckleberry Finn is not a normal child, considering he was always rebellious, had a messed up family life, and ended up faking his murder in order to run away from his dad, however, he is still just a kid who has conflicting feelings about what is right and wrong; slavery in particular. You can see this when Huck is debating on whether to turn Jim into the police like he ‘should’ do based on how he was raised, or not betray him as he feels it is not fair or ‘right’. He contemplates, “I begun to get it through my head that he was most free - and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. … What had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her n----- go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? … I got to feeling so mean and miserable I most wished I was dead” (Twain 75). Here Huck for the first time realizes that he is actually helping Jim run away and how he could be blamed for his escape. This confuses him because he hasn’t thought about it before until now and he then feels guilty and mean for helping him run away. However, he also doesn’t want to turn Jim in because he is his only friends and companion right now. “Jim: Huck, you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now. Huck: I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him, but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. I went along slow and I warn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I warn’t. … I just felt sick.” Huck shows how he wants to do what is ‘right’ but he doesn’t quite know what that is. He wants to do what is right by the standards of White people and how he was raised to treat African Americans, but at the same time, he knows that turning Jim in is not what is right as well because he didn’t do anything wrong to deserve that.
In situations like this during that time, a lot of White people had the power and would have felt in control and had turned Jim in to the police because that is what they saw was ‘right’. Seeing Huck contemplate on whether or not to turn Jim in is a new and unique way of looking at slavery back then and how not every White person wanted to treat every African American the way they were ‘supposed to’ or raised to. It is also interesting to see Huck seriously contemplating what is ‘right’ by the standards of society when he wants nothing to do with society, yet it is such as strong belief and issue for White people that it affects him just the same.
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