Racism in Huckleberry Finn

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English - Literature, Works, printed single-sided, grade: 2,7, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: PS Mark Twain, language: English, abstract: Having the possibility to read one of Mark Twain s most controversial pieces of literature at university should not be taken for granted by students, as the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had been struggling for its existence in the curriculum and for its title of an American classic from the day its first English edition appeared in 1884. The historical frame around the novel provides the reader insight into the Antebellum South illustrating the limitations which American civilization imposes on individual freedom of African Americans by the time before American Civil War and furthermore attacks on the evil ways in which racism impinges upon their lives. At that point opinions about the novel s correctness arise and critics are divided into detractors and supporters, where opinions range from racist trash (Wallace in Chadwick-Joshua 5) to one of the world s greatest books (Trilling 318). Even if the novel was...