essay #5

The "N-word" was suppose to add and maintain historical realism in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, well at least thats what i thought before i read the essay by Julius Lester. Lesture wrote an essay to go deaper in to controversy over race. Know i think that realism has nothing to do with book. The N-word is the most horrific word you can say to any african american today. it was ment to make a lot of pain and make them know that they were basically worthless. if the word was not put in the book to maintain realism then whats the real reason for it?
when i first read the this book i had seen nothing wrong with it and maybe it was because i was trying to enjoy it more than what i was trying to anylize it but lester opened up my eyes to the truth. for example according to Lester "The novel plays with black reality from the moment jim runs away and does not immediately seek freedom."(365) Jim is a run away slave who wants freedom so that one day he is able to comeback with money to buy his family and give them freedom as well. instead of running north like every other slave would, he instead travels south down the mississippi river. Yes, the river was some kind of protection to jim from being captured like many of you will argue and yes he and huck had plans to get the intersection where the the ohio river meets the mississippi river but why would they miss such and important exit. Jim's life and family dependend on it so their was no excuses for a run away slave to miss his freedom because death was right behing him. Lesture agrees with my point as he shows it in this quote "jim, having unknowingly passed the confluence of the ohio and the mississippi rivers, would continue down the river and go deeper and deeper into the heart of the slave country."(366)
Jim ran away with huck, who in a way was ensaved too by his drunken father and because of this he decides to run away as well. huck and jim meet each other at the island and without thinking it twice they decide to run away together. so a question comes into my mind, why didnt huck just returen jim? its not like he cared alot about him or any other salve as to show compacion towards him and he was even willing enough to put his life on the line to help a run away slave. for a white boy to do this specially when he is surrounded by hatred towards slaves is very odd but yet twain expects us to believe that a boy of 14 would give a helping hand to a slave wich at that time was seen as an animal.
twain had nothing realist in this book. like Lesture argues "we are know to believe that an old white lady would free a a black slave suspected of murdering a white child." the town people thought that jim was huck's killer since he decided to run away the same night that huck got killed. a lady like miss watson, who is seen as the person who cares the most about huck, would let his killer free? i dont think that is very real. in fact i belive that she would have him tortured jim then hunged him. if we think about it ms. watson she was old so that means that she grew up thinking that slaves could never be free their only perpouse in life was to serve the white.
this book is seen as one of america's best novel. not only because its full of contreversy but yet enough beacsue it makes the white readers feel like they are in power again, reaturning to that time when they tough that they were supperior and able to make the african american feel worthless. when the book ends they are yet back to reality where we are all equal.