Racism in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik – Literatur, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are considered as Mark Twain’s masterpiece. In his work he both depicts and criticizes the society in which he grew up and what was typical of it back then: slavery, violence and bigotry (cf. Pettit 83). When Mark Twain wrote his novel ‚The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn‘ in 1876, the status of blacks was a very important issue in the United States (cf. Sloane 3). Mark Twain turned away from 19th century romanticism to realism. His aim was to depict ‚men and women as they are‘ (cf. Bell 36). Twain intended to write a novel in which he could portray the society in which he had grown up. This paper shall help to understand the novel’s message, by introducing some biographical facts about Clemens on the one hand, and the historical context in which it was written on the other hand. Furthermore, it shows how the novel’s perception, which has always been controversial, has changed over the years. My aim is to explain to the reader why Twain’s best-known novel is not racist.