Huckleberry Finn Racial Analysis

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Racial Representation in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the 19th century novel written by author Mark Twain, criticizes society’s racial values and structure through the views of the characters. Huckleberry Finn himself, obviously the main character, serves the purpose of critiquing society while possessing characteristics similar to Jim, the main slave in the novel. Tom Sawyer, Huck’s best friend and binary, as well as Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, are symbolic of the very views and structure that Twain critiques. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn himself and slave Jim represent the regime of uncivilized, black society by rebelling against the social order of society, while their binaries, …show more content…
Society, at this time, is structured by an unspoken set of rules which claims that black people are less of humans than whites and that religion is the basis of law. This can be seen through Miss Watson and Widow Douglas’s religious values that they press onto Huck. He said, “After supper [Widow Douglas] got out her book and learned me about Moses and the bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him; because I don’t take no stock in dead people” (Twain 2). He also talks about Miss Watson’s lesson on “the bad place” and “the good place,” heaven and hell. About this, Huck said, “Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad, then but I didn’t mean no harm… Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place… I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together” (Twain 3-4). Huck’s disinterest in religious lessons is symbolic of his rebel from mainstream, white society. This, along with the way he dresses, make him seem uncivilized right from the beginning of the story. Huck gets “into [his] old rags… and [is] free and satisfied” (Twain 1). Despite the constant attempts to civilize Huck, he resists them all and
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