Theme Of Slavery In Huckleberry Finn

A Subtle Voice Against Slavery
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic story which has an abolitionist tone that can be seen when a white lawyer defends a black man and tries to instill anti-prejudice values in his children. In addition to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain uses his literature to speak out against social injustices. He wrote multiple books that focus on all aspects of everyday life, and one of the most famous of these books is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain uses a subtle abolitionist tone to criticize the injustice of slavery while trying to not directly offend the majority of people who will read his book.

As the book progresses, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn delivers strong tones of abolitionism.
After the abolishment of slavery, racial discrimination ran rampant throughout the United States.
Twain realized this problem and felt the need to speak out against slavery and the offshoot of prejudice that followed, making him write The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. During their adventure, Huckleberry Finn decides that it would be funny to play a trick on Jim when they get separated in the fog one night. Huck sees how much his trick hurt Jim and feels awful about it. Huck apologized to Jim and thought to himself, “I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither” (Twain 65). This powerful scene in the book shows Huck, a white boy, apologizing and feeling awful about tricking a black man. During the time of the stories release, it would not have been common for a white boy to apologize and explain himself to a black man. The scene where Huck rips up his letter, one of the most powerful scenes within the book, also has a major abolitionist tone. At this point, Huck can not decide between turning in Jim or not doing anything and leaving the situation alone. After days of
thinking, Huck decides to write a letter to Miss Watson explaining what had happened. At first, he feels that he made the right decision, but then his conscious begins to show him the immorality of slavery, and he begins to think that he should not send that letter. After a few minutes, Huck takes the letter, rips it up and says, “‘All right, then, I'll go to hell'” (Twain 162). Twain uses Huck's dilemma to show Americans the normalcy of feeling torn between the decision of the morality of slavery. Huck struggled with his decision as he thought to himself, “I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it” (Twain 161).

Twain realizes that he cannot directly attack the institution of slavery without offending his readers and losing a major part of his following. Twain especially uses the experiences of the slaves and the slave owners since those people have the most direct ties to slavery. During one of the days on the river, Jim and Huck talk about the past when all of a sudden Jim brings up one of his experiences with his children. Jim tells Huck the story of when he once hit his daughter Elizabeth because she did not respond to what he asked her to do. Jim recalls that he later discovered that his daughter could not hear and remembers feeling immense amounts of remorse for what he had done. Jim remembers praying that "the Lord God Amighty fogive po' ole Jim" (Twain 118). A majority of people who agreed with slavery tried to justify their decision by saying that slaves did not have feelings like white people. Twain debunks this theory by showing Jim as a caring father who indeed feels just as deeply and passionately as the white people. After hearing Jim's story, Huck felt surprised that Jim "cared just as much for his people as white folks" (Twain 117). Blacks got emotional about their families, but white people would also sometimes share in the pain that blacks felt. In the book, the king and duke break up a slave family to make it easier to sell them at auction. During this event, the daughter of the Wilks family, Mary Jane, cries because the family was broken up. Huck feels deeply disturbed by the atrocity that happened right in front of him. He thought to himself “they cried around each other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it” (Twain 138). Twain uses this scene to show that even white people could get emotional about the treatment of slaves. The use of emotional stories within the main adventure allows Twain to inject subtle abolitionist messages into his book.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains an amazing adventure that carries a strong message within itself.
The use of side stories within the main plot allows the author to deliver a strong message about slavery. The question of the morality of slavery comes to mind multiple times as Huck and Jim embark on their adventure. Twain uses all of his characters to challenge slavery, such as when Huck rips up the letter, Jim talks about his family, and when Mary Jane cries about the slave family getting broken up. The Adventures Huckleberry Finn delivers a subtle message against slavery so as to not offend those who will read this book. Sometimes the people who directly speak out for a cause do not have the most effect, sometimes it is the people who can quietly fight against societal problems that hold the most
power.