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The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Rhetorical Analysis

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As a resounding anti-slavery supporter, Mark Twain discreetly presented his views to readers in his novel "The adventures of huckleberry Finn". Even though it was published after the time of governmentally condoned slavery, its setting was that of the pre-antebellum south, where a young white boy is conflicted by the social norms of slavery and facilitated racism. And through the main character's confrontation with said norms along with the seemingly "Human" actions/emotions of his run away companion, Mark Twain successfully created a rebuttal to contradict society's rational behind slavery. However, he did not openly refute the practice of slavery in the novel. And since at times he showed multiple actions backing up the insignificance of …show more content…

He constantly found himself battling on whether to help Jim or turn him in, which would be more sociably acceptable. But as Huck befriended him, he came to realize that Jim was more like him than he previously assumed. And after witnessing Jim's emotional outburst concerning his daughter, Huck thought that Jim "cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so" (Twain 117). But this goes against everything he would have been taught to support slavery. One of the rationales behind slavery is that black people aren't humans, but "animals"/"savages". But by Twain showing Jim as having emotions that even a white person can identify with, he displays how the conception that blacks are emotionless animals is untrue. And later on, when he once again struggles with turning in Jim, Huck's actions sheds light on how cruel slavery is and the worth of a black persons life. He came to the decision that he would even risk going to hell to set Jim free, as he stated "All right, then, Ill go to hell" (Twain 162). After experiencing how Jim treated him and how much he acted like a normal "white person" would, Huck was able to realize that Jim's life was equally as valuable as his own and that forced labor would be injustice. Additionally, Twain used Jim's actions in contrast to characters such as the king, Duke, and Pap to further prove his

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