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Essay / Twain's use of Jim as an argument against slavery in "Huckleberry Finn"
Book Analysis Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may seem like a light and fun novel about the crazy adventures of a boy and his new friend and companion on the run Jim, Mark Twain wrote the book to inform and open the eyes of American society on its faults. as well as entertain us with funny and crazy events in the book. Twain, a devoted abolitionist, used the book as a platform for his argument against Southern racism and hypocrisy during the 1800s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayMark Twain uses many instruments to illustrate his argument against racism, the hypocrisy of the American people, and the flaws in American society at the time, such as the scene of Pap's drunken lecture, when Huck meets Mrs. Phelps, and Jim's role in Huck's life and characteristics throughout the adventure. The book's portrayal of Jim is controversial, with some believing that Twain was racist by portraying Jim as a gullible and unintelligent person who thinks he is worth an amount of money and is a commodity to own. But in fact, Twain used Jim and carefully planned his role in the novel to support his argument against the morally wrong discrimination against black people that was prevalent in American society in the 1800s. Twain realizes his intention of putting Jim in the book by depicting Jim in this way. that he is a kind, caring and loyal human who is morally the best character in the book which contradicts southern ideas of the time that African Americans were not people but property and racial stereotypes, such that African Americans were inhumane, lacking all intelligence, and devoid of compassion and feeling, and shows the hypocrisy of the white American population. Even though Mark Twain wrote the book in the 1880s, more than a decade after the Civil War and the emancipation of all slaves, racism was still prevalent until the years following the slave movement. civil rights. As Huck's book on Southern Morality shows, most Americans believed that black people were inferior for many reasons, including being unintelligent and lacking in emotion. Mark Twain uses Jim's emotions and affection for his family to prove these stereotypes wrong and to attack the main reasons why white people believed themselves superior and could be racist towards African Americans. When Jim and Huck are separated during the fog scene, Jim expresses sadness when he and Huck are separated and relief when Huck returns to him. “When I was exhausted with work and called you and fell asleep, my heart broke because you were lost” (Twain 95). In the quote, Jim talks about how he worked tirelessly. to try to find Huck and how heartbroken he was when he and Huck were separated. In this quote, Twain is trying to show that Jim, as well as other African Americans, can have emotions and feelings for others. This evidence of Jim's emotions contradicts the racial stereotype that African Americans had no feelings or emotions and supports Twain's argument against racism. Another example of how we see Jim's emotions is when he talks about his estranged family. Before the book was published, Jim was separated from his wife and daughter, which took an emotional toll on him. Later in the story we see how important his family was tohim and how emotionally distraught he is being separated from him. While the King and Duke were on the raft, Huck and Jim took turns watching and keeping the raft on course. After choosing to take the first shift and thinking Huck was asleep, Jim begins to cry and mourn the family he misses dearly. “When I woke up, just at dawn, he was sitting there with his head down between his knees, moaning and crying to himself. I didn't pay attention to it and I didn't let on. I knew what it was about. He was thinking of his wife and his children, far up there... I think he cared as much about his people as the white people did about theirs. It doesn’t seem natural, but I think it is” (Twain 170). This quote is essential to Twain's argument because it refutes the common idea of the time that black people were incapable of caring for others and loving their families. In this quote, the reader can fully understand the racism of American society at the time, when Huck said that he did not think black people were capable of loving and caring for their families. Twain uses Huck's phrase and Jim's feelings for his family to show how African Americans were no different from whites and that the racist ideas and morals that Huck and millions of others grew up with were blatantly false. Before the King and Duke scene, Huck and Jim are rafting up the river and approaching the Northern and Free States, when Jim tells Huck how grateful he is for him and all his efforts to help Jim to become free. In the scene, Jim says, “Pooty, soon I'll be full of joy, and say it's all because of O'Huck; I'm a free man, and I could never be free without Ben for Huck; Huck did it. Jim will never forget you, Huck; you're the best fren Jim ever had; And you’re the only fren’ole Jim has now” (Twain 111). In addition to reiterating the fact that even though Jim is African American, he can still have relationships and emotions, Twain inserts this line to say that Jim and Huck are equals in the world. In the reply, Twain attacks racism in the book's time, saying that Huck and Jim are equals and that nothing stops the two from having a relationship. Twain's second angle in his attack on racism is the hypocrisy of society's ideas as racist. At the time of the book's writing, many white Americans believed that they were better than African Americans in every sense of the word, but Twain challenges this theory by presenting the reader with morally evil white characters and a morally evil Jim. Good. Throughout the book, Jim is consistently loyal, compassionate, and selfless, while most of the other Caucasian characters are selfish, treacherous, and evil. Jim's good and Pap's evil and other white characters show that people's characteristics are not divided. between races and that the idea that Caucasians are always superior, especially morally, is false. In the book we see a deep contrast between Jim and Pap. While Jim symbolizes good, Pap symbolizes evil, even being associated with the devil. One of the main differences between the two is that Jim is compassionate towards Huck and selfless, while Pap neglects and abuses Huck and is self-centered. After Huck and Jim find the floating house with dead Pap inside, Jim takes care of Huck and decides not to let him see dead Pap's face, in order to protect him from the emotions related to the death of a family member. Without knowing what Jim was doing, Huck tells the story like this: "Come in, Huck, but look down at his face - he's too scratched" (Twain 62). This simple act of kindness, 1999.