Huck Experiences And The Acceptance Of Slavery example essay topic

The book, Huckleberry Finn, explores the ideas of racism and slavery through the eyes of a young white boy during slave times. Throughout the book, Huck is confronted with people and ideas that force him to question the morals with which he was raised. Twain expresses his anti-slavery views through the use of satire, to show how slavery is wrong, and through Huck's search for a moral truth to demonstrate the need to question existing societal values. Huck learns to question his values based on events that occur as a result of his friendship with Jim.

An example of these conflicts occurs when Huck is confronted by runaway slave catchers. He is forced to decide whether turning Jim in is the right thing to do. The law tells him that he must betray his friend, but his conscience tells him to question this law. He chooses, as he does many other times in the book, to continue helping Jim to obtain his freedom despite the fact that it seems immoral to him.

He is driven by his friendship with Jim to challenge the rules of morality in his society. Clearly Twain is using Huck's choices in these circumstances to express what he thinks about slavery. He shows how societal values are incorrect in this case. If one thinks for themselves they will realize that slavery is wrong and that it is every human's duty to continue to question the status quo when matters of conscience are involved. Another time Twain demonstrates the immorality of slavery is during Huck's moral crisis after Jim is recaptured. The friendship between the two proves to be more important to Huck than his moral system.

"All right then, I'll go to hell". (207) Huck decides that he would prefer to suffer extreme consequences rather than desert his friend. The idea is very clear that, although Huck has no problem with slavery, he considers Jim his equal and a friend. Twain is trying to convey those ideas of equality trough Huck's actions and thoughts.

Huck converses with Jim as if Jim was a parental figure. Jim proves himself to be Huck's caretaker when he refuses to let Huck see the dead body in the river in order to protect Huck at a time when he was most vulnerable. These actions demonstrate that Huck and Jim's relationship is on a human to human basis with no bias related to Jim's status as a slave. There is a connection between the corrupt and criminal society that Huck experiences and the acceptance of slavery. The same people who condone slavery are murderous, stealing, criminal drunkards. For example, the Duke and the King, the deceiving criminals Huck and Jim meet on the river, try to trick Huck and turn Jim in simply to collect reward money.

This demonstrates Twain's opinion that slavery existed in this society because of greed and corruption. In another example, Twain uses satire to demonstrate that slavery was kept in practice by corrupt people. Miss Watson is an educated, and self-proclaimed religious person, but also a slave owner. He shows how hypocritical people can be as the espouse religious beliefs that condemn their own actions.

In this case, Miss Watson felt that slavery was an acceptable practice despite her religious background, because slaves were not considered eligible to have the same rights and privileges that religion allowed others to enjoy. The way Huck's father, Pap, is portrayed in this book makes a strong connection between poor moral character, racism, and the acceptance of slavery. Pap is portrayed as, not only a racist, but also, a rude, self-absorbed drunkard and child abuser. "It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this Country where they'd let a nigger vote, I drawer out". (35) This quote shows there is a connection between Pap's crude behavior and his racist beliefs. Twain uses this strong example to demonstrate that there were many such people in the society that were of similar character and held racist opinions.

Overall, this book demonstrates anti-slavery beliefs through the use of Huck's moral struggle, ironic events, and connections between corrupt people and racism. Twain shows that slavery is acceptable only to immoral people in a self-absorbed society. He demonstrates how narrow-minded the people of his time were because they did not challenge the practice of slavery, but simply adopted it as morally correct because preceding generations believed it to be acceptable. By showing that the young boy chose more wisdom than most adults in his society, Twain challenged people to think about their choices. All these ideas converge to demonstrate Twain's method of correcting an immoral society.

He shows that people must break the cycle by asking questions and listening to their conscience and to not take everything they " re raised with as absolute truth.