Farid K.
Racism and Prejudice in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
In the story Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we see the main character Huck who lives in a racial Southern county during the 1840s. Unlike many of the people living in that county, Huck is not biased against anyone. Even though he has grown up in this racist community he has only been influenced a little. While there could be several factors that would cause Huck to be this way (not being raised by his father, does not own a black person), it does not change the fact that at the beginning of the book he has never seen any ethical dilemmas that were personal. As the book progresses however, Huck encounters several different kinds of ethical dilemmas that he struggles with, and through those struggles Huck starts to learn how society works. There are countless numbers of struggles within the story, but there are three that stand out above the rest. While the author puts Huck into situations such as participating in a feud he does not understand, being treated like royalty by a black slave, and choosing between what he feels is right and what society says is right; Huck confronts and responds to these situations by observing and doing what he feel is right, and we as readers create our own opinions from the observation through Huck’s eyes.
During the course of his journey Huck stumbles upon a feud between two aristocratic families known as the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. When Huck is discovered he is brought to live with the Grangerford family for a short time. While there, Huck asks Buck (a member of the family) what a feud is and why there is one, and Buck tells him that a feud is a quarrel that first starts between two people, and then the families join in when people start dying. Huck asks when did it start, and Buck tells him it was so long ago that people can’t remember what the original reason was. Even though Huck is only observing what is going on, through him we...