The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Samuel — страница 2

Jim over the biblical story of “ole’ King Sollermum”, Huck remarks that “you can’t learn a nigger to argue,” thus implying Jim’s stupidity (Clemens 65 and 66). Throughout the book, Huck plays tricks on Jim, which are also meant to make Jim feel stupid. Towards the beginning of the book, shortly after we are first introduced to Jim, Huck and Tom put Jim’s hat on a nail over his head. He is convinced he has been ridden by witches (Clemens 11). The only motivation for Tom and Huck doing this is to make Jim look stupid. Later, on the river, after Huck gets lost on the canoe, he tells Jim that he was there the whole time and never gone (Clemens 71). Huck’s practical jokes caused Jim emotional pain and even physical pain. On Jackson’s Island, Huck kills a

rattlesnake and places it in front of Jim’s blanket to scare him. The rattlesnake’s mate comes and bites Jim on the foot. Jim is sick for four days and four nights subsequently (Clemens 46). By the end of the novel, Huck vows not to play tricks on Jim and he acquiesces to “humble himself to a nigger” (Clemens 72). He gains respect for Jim to the point where Huck will sacrifice his soul and go to Hell for Jim. Huck contemplates telling Miss. Watson about Jim, but Huck decides he would rather go to hell than betray his friendship with Jim (Clemens 169). Huck’s willingness to lie to protect Jim definitely shows that Huck sees Jim on a higher level than his status was in nineteenth century America.In addition to being a book that has been called racist, Huck Finn is a book

that also was criticized around the time of publication for being antiracist. Twain’s depiction of Jim as heroic sends an abolitionist notion through the book. Jim is said by many critics to be ignorant, superstitious, and typical for an uneducated slave. However, many of Jim’s superstitions turn out to be based on practical knowledge of nature. For example, on Jackson’s Island, Jim could tell by the birds that the thunderstorm was coming (Clemens 43). In addition, Jim is shown as a caring and kind person in many instances, including after Tom is wounded and he insists on finding a doctor. (Clemens 216) This is made very clear when Jim recounts to Huck a story about him hitting his daughter and feeling guilty about it. (Clemens 125) Jim is not a character that Twain uses to

make blacks look bad but a character that “should make every black American proud.” (Brunner)With all this controversy surrounding the book, it is not a big surprise that Huck Finn has been banned all over the country. However, as many people as the banning of this novel has appeased, still more have been angered by its banning. One man, one who you would think would be the most distressed at the banning of the book, was not upset. Mark Twain seemed to be almost grateful for the arguments surrounding his novel. Twain said that the Concord Public Library, ” condemned and excommunicated my last book–and doubled its sale” ( as quoted in Clemens 285). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was not Twain’s only banned book. Another of his novels, The Diaries of Adam and Eve

was banned. It was banned because of an obscene drawing contained with the original publication called Eve in “Summer Costume” (Zwick). The morals of the characters were also under scrutiny, a not unfamiliar state for many of Twain’s creations. Twain was not the only victim of America’s disdain for controversial literature. William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was banned for encouraging homosexuality. In addition to Shakespeare’s play, books from other prestigious authors such as John Steinbeck and J.D Salinger were also banned. Most notably books without recognized authors were banned too. Miriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary were both challenged because of their inclusion of obscene words. Possibly, the most surprising of all

was The Bible, which was called obscene, and pornographic (Ockerbloom). When Twain learned of his books being in similar company along with The Bible, he asked, “If there is an expurgated [Bible] in the children’s department, won’t you please remove Tom and Huck from that questionable companionship?” Twain was actually a fan of condemned novels. He showed this, along with his contempt for the censors, when he said, “I am always reading immoral books on the sly, and then selfishly trying to prevent others from having the same wicked good time” (Zwick)Twain did not care so much what library officials and other censors thought of his book. In the words of Booker T. Washington, “All that he wrote had an interest for the commonest man and woman” (Washington as quoted