seemingly racist ideas expressed by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn. In

some extreme cases the novel has even been banned by public school

systems and censored by public libraries. The basis for these

censorship campaigns has been the depiction of one of the main

characters in Huckleberry Finn, Jim, a black slave. Jim, is a

"typical" black slave who runs away from his "owner" Miss Watson. At

several points in the novel, Jim's character is described to the

reader, and some people have looked upon the characterization as

racist. However, before one begins to censor a novel it is important

to separate the ideas of the author from the ideas' of his characters.

It is also important not to take a novel at face value and to "read

between the lines" in order to capture the underlying themes of a

novel. If one were to do this in relation to Huckleberry Finn, one

would, without doubt, realize that it is not racist and is even

slaves in the South were not permitted any formal education, were

Jim's slavery. However, he is never able to see a reason why this man

Throughout the novel society's voice is heard through Huck. The

Despite the few incidences in which Jim's description might be

believes that he is superior to this black professor simply because of

these ideas. Twain brings out into the open the ugliness of society

this internal struggle, Twain expresses his opinions of the absurdity

chapter 15 the reader is presented with a very caring and father-like

quite saddening, was probably accurate. Jim and the millions of other

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 729
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)