Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain brings up topics about racism, mostly between characters Huck and Joe. Most people would say that they would not support Joe, and turn him in during the 1850’s. It’s amazing that people were searching for Joe when Huck was trying to help him. Huck did not care about the money that could have been in his pocket, or the social status that he could have received. Huck Finn rather became a friend of Joe’s and put his life in risk trying to save him. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, terms, and racist gestures were being used to describe the black men in the book. Although Huck Finn is the narrator of the book, it’s not to show Huck as a racist character but rather to show more realism of life during the 1980’s, which is why Huck Finn is not portrayed as a racist character in this book.
One of the most obvious reasons why Huck is not a racist character is because of the true friendship that he had with Joe. From the first few chapters a friendship had been formed between Huck Finn and Joe that would last throughout the whole book. Huck and Joe both had their own goals, but as the story went on you could notice as a reader that they were helping out each other more than themselves. Many parts of the story people would stop Huck and ask him if he was with any black men on his raft. He said no every time, and saved Joe for one more day. Such as the part on the book when men come up to Huck and ask him if the man that Huck is affiliated with is white or black. "Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up, above the head of the bend. Is your man white or black?" and then Huck replies "He's white." That was one instant in the book when Huck came up with a great story to help save Jim.
Another reason why Huck Finn is not racist is because Mark Twain uses his strong language to give the reader a taste of what it was like back in the day. Mark Twain uses the word “nigger”, and talks about black people in a bad way to show realism. Mark Twain does a great job showing that Huck Finn is not racist because of how he is warm hearted, but he also uses Huck to get the point across about how racism was a huge topic in the 50’s, and makes it clear that it’s not because of how Huck is racist.
Another reason why Huck is not racist is because at the end of the book when Tom Sawyer said that he was just playing a joke on Jim, and said that he was really free all along, Huck got very angry and stuck up for Jim. Huck didn’t think that Jim deserved that, so he had Tom give him $40 for Jim’s troubles. This was the point where Jim and Huck started to part their ways. Looking back on everything they went through, Huck and Jim both had each others back and it was interesting to notice that they probably couldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for each other, which tells everyone not to be racist.
Overall Huck shows that it does pay off to not be racist, and it can take you a ways. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain clearly shows that Huck Finn is not a racist character in the book because of his growing friendship with Jim, despite all the accusations about Mark Twain’s writing. Mark Twain did a great job showing the problems that come upon black people threw Huck’s Narrative, but also did a good job showing that Huck had his own ideas on black people and made sure not to get them confused. Huck Finn is not a racist man because of his the way he treated Jim. This was one of the greatest novels displaying love with white and black people during the mid 1800’s.
