Essay 4 first draft

Lester vs. Kovatch
The world we live in is not perfect; it is filled with sin, discrepancy, and disagreement. So much that even little things are disagreed upon and disputed about. The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is littered with controversy. The ending is argued about, the inequality of women faces criticism, and last but not least, the ever present inclusion of racism creates disdain for this ‘American classic.’ In his essay ‘Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ Julius Lester claims that the novel is demeaning and insulting to black history, and I disagree with him.
Twain compares Huck’s physical entrapment by his father, to the legal enslavement of Jim. No matter how horrible it is for a child to be held captive by his own father, it is not close to being comparable with the ownership of one human being over another. Huck is in a terrible situation, yet in society, this fourteen year old boy would be considered, whereas Jim would not. Huck is at least free to do as he pleases (to a certain extent). Jim is a grown man, and is not granted the freedom of choice that is a human right. He has to do what he is told, and cannot complain about it. This example demonstrates the backwards thinking of our nation’s past. Today a young boy is given no more freedom than his/her parents grant, whereas a grown man is able to do as he pleases. The role of master and slave in the novel are polar opposites from the roles of youth and adults in the present day. This life is excruciating and degrading for the enslaved peoples. By making this comparison, “Twain did not take slavery, and therefore black people, seriously.” In other words, Lester believes that because of this unjust comparison, Twain was wholeheartedly ignorant to the hardship of the everyday struggle of a slave.
Twain did not purposefully parallel the enslavement of Jim with Huck’s captivity. It is true that being legally enslaved is far worse than being held prisoner, but Twain writes nothing about the two being connected. It is horrible for a young boy to be held captive by his own father, worrying every moment that he will be beaten senseless in a fit of drunken rage. Lester takes the two forms of entrapment and twists them to make his claim that Mark Twain is a racist. Claiming this is a stretch and has barely any credibility because the two are so loosely related.
The novel is unrealistic about the lives of slaves. This is first seen when Jim escapes and does not immediately make a break for freedom. After meeting up with Huck, this odd duo heads south, where slavery is worse. Any slave, even the most uneducated and ignorant, would know that north is equivalent to freedom, and south is where the heart of slavery resides. This point is rarely brought up, but is completely valid. Also, Jim would have known that Illinois was a free state, and instead of trying to make it all the way to Cairo, would have simply headed for the Illinois state line. An enslaved human being would know every venue of escape and all possibilities of freedom within one hundred miles, Jim not knowing the above points is frankly impossible. All these obvious flaws in Twain’s logic prove that his view of black reality was seriously twisted.
The perspective from which Huckleberry Finn was written allows the limited view of a fourteen year old to be accepted by readers. The perspective permits a certain heir of insensitivity towards slavery, and the author must be held accountable for choosing this point of view. Mark Twain exposes his true colors and disregard for the lives of slaves by writing from Huck’s perspective. Huckleberry has no idea of the horror of being property. Slavery is so engrained into his lifestyle that when it comes time to free Jim, he feels like he is stealing an object from somebody. To add to this argument, when Tom Sawyer so eagerly offers to help Huck free their captured friend, Huck reacts by thinking “Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my estimation. Only I couldn’t believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger stealer!” (Twain, 210) No matter how innocent these boys are in the fictional world, the author behind their creation is fully responsible for their wrongs in the real world.
The novel is written from the perspective of a fourteen year old boy, but this in no way implies that the author is insensitive towards the black race. If I were to write a book that took place in the sixteenth century, where women were not as valued in society, and the female characters were not represented as strongly as the males, would that make me a sexist? I think not. Mark Twain chose this perspective to enrich his novel with a sense of adolescent adventure, and the irresistible whisper of mischief into a young boy’s ear. The main character is young, so naturally some details will be skewed and reality may not be perceived wholly, but this does not directly reflect on the author’s way of life and personal beliefs.
The point that Mark Twain is a racist, or at least that his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a racist text is heavily debated. Julius Lester believes it is with all of his heart. In his essay he points out all of the major character and plot flaws that are often overlooked, but completely valid. Maybe my friend has forgotten what the word fiction means; according to merriamwebster.com, fiction is an invented story. So whether or not Mr. Lester or I am correct does not really matter, because what we are arguing over is simply a made up story.