Racism_In_Huck

Racism In Huck Controversial in death as he was in life, Mark Twain has been seriously accused by some of being a "racist writer," whose writing is offensive to black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today's bookshelves. To those of us who have drunk gratefully of Twain's wisdom and humanity, such accusations are ludicrous. But for some people they clearly touch a raw nerve, and for that reason they deserve a serious answer. Let's look at the book that is most commonly singled out for this criticism, the novel that Ernest Hemingway identified as the source of all American literature: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For Twain's critics, the novel is racist on the face of it, and for the most obvious reason: many characters use the word "nigger" throughout. But since the action of the book takes place in the south twenty years before the Civil War, it would be amazing if they didn't use that word. A closer reading also reveals Twain's serious satiric intent. In one scene, for instance, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion. "Good gracious! anybody hurt'" she asks. "No'm," comes the answer. "Killed a nigger." But anyone who imagines that Mark Twain meant this literally is missing twain, black, about, white, twain's, point, people, freedom, book, risks, rather, racist, out, novel, mark, jim, friend, boy, being, years, world, word, whites, war, time, through, things, story, stereotypes, south, slavery, slave, serious, reason, readers