Huckleberry Finn Rhetorical Analysis

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Even in 1885, two decades after the conclusion of the Civil War, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed with a splash. It has been called everything from a classic novel in American literature to a piece of racist trash. The greatest controversy, however, appears in the high school classroom. The book's explicit dialect causes many to question Mark Twain's real motives in composing it. At the same time, the observations of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, of the unintelligent demeanor of a slave, Jim, can induce the reader to feel uncomfortable. It is clear that Huck acts as he sees adults acting, and his positions reflect those of his fellow Southerners. Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, should be considered a treasure for the modern day …show more content…
Approaching the end of the novel, Huck Finn's mischievous friend, Tom Sawyer, helps Jim after he is recaptured to escape from the farm he is being held captive in. Tom overcomplicates the escape, and it is revealed in the end that Jim was really a free man the entire time. Literary critic Robert C. Evans believes that "the final chapters of Huck Finn can also be read as deliberately unsettling, disturbing, and provocative." The strange ending in which Jim doesn't receive the legal equality hoped for him throughout the novel and perception of his unintelligence for believing he received that freedom creates an unsettling effect for the reader. Twain's hidden message is clear; even though blacks became legally equal at his time, there was still very little progress, and any more could only be brought upon by a vast change. When applied to the modern day classroom, the student learns that legal rights don't mean a person is entirely equal in society. Discrimination and judgment create inequality between different races, sexes, and personalities that no law can