Inclusion and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Was Mark Twain a Racist?

Huck and a dead cat illustration by True Williams for the first edition of Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

This illustration, by True Williams, is the world’s first view of Huckleberry Finn from the first edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. While Mark Twain indeed introduced Huck in Tom’s novel, Huck quickly began to occupy more of Twain’s imagination than the first mischievous character. In fact, Twain began to write The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn even before The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published – and then allowed Huck to voice his own story as well as serve to symbolize what is right, good and ethical – under the ironic guise of an “uncivilized” youth.

 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in America in January 1885, and has been credited as one of the major influences from which much of modern literature derives. It is a bestselling novel and considered one of the greatest American literary works of all time— by both scholars and critics alike; however it was also brandished by Twain’s contemporaries, and many moderns, as harsh and even racist, butTwain was not racist. He was an artist with the ability to use his imagination to call “civilized” society and the morals of a nation out on hypocrisy and unethical social norms of his day.

For the sake of historical comparison and context as students ead The Adventures of HuckleberryFinn they should also read and become familiar with the reality of the Jim Crow era, inclusive of an overview of Plessy v. Ferguson, Justice Brown’s Opinion and Justice Harlan’s Dissent as well as an article from The Journal ofNegro History, “Fifty Years of Negro Citizenship” by C. G. Woodson (1921). Diving deeply into the world in which Huckleberry Finn was creative will provide a platform for unbiased discussions and historical context. Inclusive education would also have teachers balance this with the works of empowered black scholars or have students read a modern coming of age novel such as Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson and compare the texts. An outline will be forthcoming in a later blog post.