to examine the myths of racial purity, national unity, and individual autonomy (Ladd 130)." She continues by stating that he is "more conduit than originator" because as author of Wilson, Twain refered to the Italian twins as master (Ladd 133, 131). A racist man wouldn’t have referred to his foreign characters as master. Ellison once said, "When the white man steps from behind the mask of the Trickster, he is not simply mining a personification of his disorder and chaos but that he will in fact that which he intends only to symbolize (84 Fulton)." Maybe Twain only wished to step behind the mask for a short while and noticed that when he came out from behind the mask he had taken on new qualities. Twain allegorically represented America and the fallacy of slavery’s end. Cushing Strout notes in Making American Tradition that "The Supreme Court of the United States was well on its way to emasculating by racist interpretation the three Civil War amendments that promised new freedoms to the blacks (Strout 156)." This makes Tom’s plan in Huck Finn to free the already free Jim, with the subsequent wound, analogous to America’s predicament. Blacks are already supposed to be free and thankful for their ‘freedom’ but in many cases they (and whites also) are worse off than before because of the old system must be modified. The allegation that Twain assaulted corrupt politicians by calling them colored could be another allegory indicating colored politicians’ ineffectiveness within the Reconstructed South. To be a colored politician after reconstruction was to be only temporary figurehead that served no purpose. That wasn’t Twain’s fault although if he had his way no politician would have power. Another allegory is the allegory in Tom Sawyer. Twain appeared to make Injun Joe out to be a bad guy but Joe doesn’t die the typical good-trumps-bad death. Although he is to be hung, Joe starved to...
