Huckleberry Finn Racism Essay

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Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races ("Racism." Merriam-Webster.com.). This has been a part of the United States society since its birth in 1776. What it takes to overcome the barriers between superiority and equality is portrayed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain where Huckleberry (or Huck for short) reshapes his views on society, especially racism, through experience, religion, and analysis. This makes the book a one way mirror to those in society that believe a person should be bound for life because of the color of their skin. Huck grows up in the southern United States where racism is taught as an accepted practice. Being at the very young and impressionable age of thirteen during his adventure, Huck creates a friendship with a man named Jim throughout the book. Jim is a runaway African-American slave who has escaped from Miss Watson, his master. Usually, any person in the south would have turned Jim in for …show more content…
Huck questions just about everything that goes on around him and does his best to do what is moral to him and not moral to the society he lives in. With that said, Huck still feels that freeing a slave is wrong saying “It was awful thoughts and awful words” (214) but he still does it never rethinking his decision saying “and never thought no more about reforming.” (214). This shows that even though his conscious is telling him he is a bad person for freeing a slave (because that is what he was taught growing up), he is not going to conform to the wrongdoing he sees in his society and he formulates his own views. Which is something a very small minority of people do in

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