Reading with an Open Mind

Well, my argument will be that the theme of this book is not at all racist and that the only racism in the novel is needed to put forth and back up Twain's theme in the novel. The theme i will argue that should be taken from this book is that of friendship and learning/thinking for yourself. I feel that if you did not take this away from the book you will not think for yourself and just focus on negative words that are used in the novel. The realism that Twain uses can be misinterpreted however, if you actually read the story that is told it is easy to tell that the negative attitudes come from characters that are either minor or ones that the reader will not like unless that reader them self is also a racist. While reading this book one must keep in mind that this is set in times where slavery was an everyday thing in the south and it wasn't a big deal to own one, this is racist but it is also just how it was. Our history teachers are not racist for teaching us of the past so with this being said i believe that Huck Finn is the definition of an anti-racist novel because it was written in one of the most racially segregated times of our history and ultimately it is about how a young kid is learning for himself that his new found friend is intelligent and has feelings as well which is a new idea for him. Twain had to make this character to bring Jim to freedom because the adult minds of this time were too corrupt that it just wouldn't make sense.
I will uses specifice quotes from the book itsself to back up my argument and i will aslo bash Smiley's opinion so bad. in addition to that i will use the help of Lionel Trilling to back up my paper. If that isn't enopugh, which it's not, i will use direct quotes from Twain himself on the issue of race, and some of David Bradley's thoughts on the issue will also help me set up my paper.