a-gwyne to do. Some times he spec he’ll go ‘way, nen den ag’in he spec he’ll stay” (Twain 19).Racial slurs are used throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They are not meant to be a representation of the author’s attitude, they are meant to accurately depict common language and expressions regarding Black Americans at the time. Such expressions also reveal the attitudes of the time. An example of the use of racial slurs is “The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed. So there’s a reward out for him – three hundred dollars” (Twain 55). Another use of racial slurs is “Has everybody quit thinking the nigger done it?” (Twain 56). Perhaps the strongest example is a quote from the character Injun Joe, “He had me horsewhipped! -horsewhipped in front of the jail, like a nigger!” (Twain 176).Some contemporary Black Americans view these types of comments in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be degrading and prejudicial. If one looks at the bigger message they can see how Huck struggles mentally between his desire to help Jim (Jim represents the decent, good-hearted, black man of his day) and conforming to the pressures of the racist and classist American society of his time. The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, then outspokenly challenges the status quo and speaks from the heart. To contrast both sides of Huck’s dilemma, on the one hand he hears “What had poor miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go right off under your eyes and never say one single word?” On the other hand he hears “Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; and you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now” (Twain 147).Mark Twain used these controversial topics in his novels to try to show that slavery was wrong and that color d...
