With the word "nigger" appearing over 200 times, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, stands as the most controversial novel to enter the world of literature (Marotti). Since written in 1884, many debates have risen over issues such as religion, government, racism, and if Twain was actually condoning slavery through the publication of his novel (Bassett). Just by having the word "nigger" in the novel might seem to be an intentional act of demeaning the African-Americans' character (Bassett).
But is Twain in fact a racist as many people label him to be? Jane Smiley, a writer for Harper Magazine, calls Twain a "villain" and claims Twain does an inaccurate job of opposing slavery (Smiley). That statement is a very poor depiction of Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is used to create a direct statement about how the laws that govern society during pre-civil war times were wrong; civilization itself was wrong. Twain applies satire to express his true philosophy on slavery, that it should not have existed, and the rules of society, and employs various characters found in the novel, such as Huck, Jim and the Grangerfords, to support his theory. .
Frederick Douglass compares a slave to "a piece of property" and a "brute beast" (Douglass). With that analogy in mind, focus on the relationship between Huck and Jim. Society tells Huck that slaves should be treated as property, but Huck, a white southern boy, has already broken this foolish rule and befriended Jim, a slave. While on the raft, two white men come up to Huck asking if the man on his raft is "white or black" (Twain 67). Torn amid what people demand of him and what he believes is moral, Huck struggles to make a decision to befriend Jim or betray him. He eventually takes Jim side, reluctant only because Huck didn't want to lie, and realizes that sometimes it's okay to tell a lie, especially if it's to save a friend.
