What is Racist?
There is no doubt that racism is morally incorrect. But what is racist? In
defining the term racist, the time period and the mindset of the society must
be considered. Mark Twain wrote his literary piece The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn in a time when the presence of actions defined as racism was common,
when the treatment towards blacks and slaves as inferiors were frequent. One
of the elements that make Huck Finn so well known is the controversy surrounding
its use of language in the text. Twain's use of discriminatory terms in his
work was not intended to support the racism, but rather to mock and criticize
the society of that time. His purpose slowly develops as the story unravels
itself and the narrator, Huck, evidently matures in his thinking.
Twain sets the scene in a society that assumes the inferiority of blacks to
be an indisputable truth.
"Well, I reckon there's a right smart chance of people here that'd
like to kno who killed him. Soe thiks old Finn done it himself."
"No-is that so?"
"Most everybody thought it at first. He'll never know how nigh he come
to getting lynched. But before night they changed around and judged it was
done by a runaway nigger named Jim."
(ch. 11, p. 42)
The townspeople originally suspected Huck's father for Huck's murder but changed their minds and decided to blame it on Jim. This showed the tendency of people to automatically assume that blacks were more likely to do an immoral deed.
I told Jim all about what happened inside the wreck, and at the ferry-boat;
and I said these kinds of things was adventures; but he said he didn't want
no more adventures. He said that when I went in the texas and he crawled back
to get on the raft and found her gone, he nearly died; because he judged it
was all up with him, anyway it could be fixed; for if he didn't get saved
he would get drowned; and if he did get saved, whoever saved him would send
him back home so as to get the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him
South, sure. Well, he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon
level head, for a nigger.
(ch. 14, p. 57)
Huck is surprised and a bit shocked at the way Jim is able to rationalize
things. He is still influenced by society's unquestioned acceptance of the
lower rank and capabilities of blacks and feels that Jim's ability to rationalize
is uncommon and unique.
As Huck spends more time with Jim, he is able to see the humanity in Jim that
he did not see before and realizes that they are not very different from each
other.
When I waked up, just at day-break, he was setting there with his head down
betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself. I didn't take notice nor
let on. I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his
children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't ever
been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as
much for his people as white folds does for their'n. It don't seem natural,
but I reckon it's so.
(ch. 23, p. 117)
With this passage, Twain shows Jim's character in a deeper form. Huck begins to realize that although Jim is black, his feelings and emotions are no less than a white person's. Huck still holds some skepticism when he says that it doesn't seem natural, because natural to him is how he has learned from society that blacks were inferior.
And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and
I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes
moonlight, sometimes storms and we a floating along, talking, and signing,
and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me
against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top
of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how
glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again
in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and suck-like times; and would
always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for
me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him
by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said
I was the best friend old Jim every had in the world, and the only one he's
got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling,
because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I
studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:
"All right, then, I'll go to hell"-and tore it up.
(ch. 31, p. 161-62)
This passage is very important because it shows that Huck is finally put
to test his values. He must decide if it is more important to turn in Jim,
a runaway slave, or protect a friend. He ultimately chooses to protect Jim
because he is finally able to make his own judgment of Jim and sees him more
than just an ignorant black but rather as a friend just like any other.
Finally, Huck's respect for Jim is obvious in the way he regards Jim. Due
to the long journey together, Huck has developed an understanding for Jim
as a person that others of the society lack.
"Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck. Ef it wuz him that 'us
bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on en
save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one? Is dat like Mars Tom
Sawyer? Would he say dat? You bet he wouldn't! Well, den, is Jim gwyne to
say it? No, sah-I doan' budge a step out'n dis place, ;dout a doctor; not
if it's forty year!"
I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say-so it
was all right, now, and I told Tom I was agoing for a doctor.
(ch. 40, p. 207)
Huck still relates being moral to being "white inside," but in this way, he is able to recognize that Jim has inside him the same kind of morality that Huck, a white, has.
Then the others softened up a little, too, and I was mighty thankful to that
old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was according to
my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good heart in him and
was a good man, the first time I see him. Then they all agreed that Jim had
acted very well, and was deserving to have some notice took of it, and reward.
So every one of them promised, right out and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss
him no more.
(ch. 42, p. 215)
Huck has obviously developed an attachment to Jim and has concerns for his
well-being. Although the other men are touched by the doctor's description
of Jim's helpfulness, they believe that simply not cussing Jim anymore is
enough of a reward for a black and once again Twain mocks society's narrow-minded
views.
Society had originally shaped Huck's views on slavery and the treatment of
blacks in general. Twain created a close relationship between Huck and Jim
in order to allow an average white person of the time to closely interact
with a common slave and see that they too are human. Twain uses this to ridicule
the critical attitude that other people had towards blacks at the time based
solely on the accepted belief of the surrounding people. This book was written
in a way that ironically poked fun of society's habit of following a certain
trend. It is important for Oakland students to read this because although
they live in a society where diversity is widely accepted, racism still exists
beyond the visible layers. It is a lesson that racism is a result of a lack
of understanding, and in order to break free of it, different races must interact
and find the common ground that we are all humans.
HH, 12-01
