People are still having lousy debate on the word nigger. Very strangely, some are concerned how terrible this word is, but they don’t give a damn how does a person who is discriminated may feel. This book is about Mississippi adventures & we all know what kind of a place Mississippi is. Discrimination sucks big time, but it’s going to stay till the end of time. When they don’t care about humans, we can’t expect them to think about work of art.
Huck goes into hiding from his tyrannical father & he escapes to Jackson’s Island where he meets Jim, a runaway slave. Huck & later Tom Sawyer help Jim & that’s the main story.
Very rightly Mark Twain says in the book:
“Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.”
Mark Twain couldn’t have depicted a very different picture. Things were bad at that time. Things have always been bad. This story is about helping a slave. If this message escapes idiots, nothing can be done about it. By removing a word, things are not going to alter.
Anyway I went through the book once again. Some of the passages are really very funny. I won’t call The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a masterpiece, but the humor is mind blowing.
I just loved this part when Huck Finn tells Tom Sawyer about Jim.
‘There’s one more thing – a thing that nobody don’t know but me. And that is, there’s a nigger here that I’m a –trying to steal out of slavery - & his name is Jim – old Miss Watson’s Jim.’
He says;
‘What! Why, Jim is _ _’
He stopped & went to studying. I say:
‘I know what you’ll say. You’ll say it’s dirty, low-down business; but what if it is? _ I’m low-down; & I’m agoing to steal him, & I want you to keep mum & not let on. Will you?’
His eye lit up, & he says:
‘I’ll help you steal him!’
Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot. It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard _ & I’m bound to say Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my estimation. Only I couldn’t believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger stealer!
I think it’s the spirit of these boys that count & how they were trying to help Jim. And it’s because of the humor, you don’t get depressed. I think it’s a marvelous story. The message is beautiful.
And it was damn hilarious when Tom asked Jim to raise a flower & water it with his tears, cause some other prisoners had done that & it’s the way it’s always done.
