Mark Twain and SlaveryMark Twain, a famous American writer wrote many books that were highly acclaimed around the world. For his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the literary establishment recognized him as one of the greatest writers America has ever produced. This novel is about a teenager named Huck Finn. He lives with Miss Watson and the widow Douglas who adopted him. He decides that civilian life is not for him and he is going to run away. At the start of his adventure, he meets Jim, Miss Watson's runaway slave. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck goes against society and makes the decision to help Jim free himself from slavery. As they travel together, Huck learns more and more about Jim and begins to understand that the common stereotype of black people is false. Huck sees that there is no difference from anyone else. He begins to see that Jim is a loving and caring person like everyone else. My argument is that Mark Twain portrayed Jim this way because that's how he really felt about slavery. He believed that African Americans are our equals and that the act of slavery should not be allowed. Raised in the slave state of Missouri, Mark Twain grew up with slaves. His father owned slaves and his uncle actually owned twenty of them. He saw how slaves were treated on everyday bases, including when he went to his uncle's farm for the summer. At a very young age, Mark Twain witnessed the death of a slave simply because he made a mistake (Lombardi 1). These things in his childhood lead me to believe that Mark Twain felt bad for African Americans and thought they should be free. I chose to use the literary theory of structuralism. "In literary theory, structuralism is an approach to a... middle of paper ... this is how Americans should begin to realize that African Americans are our equals. It depicts many whites in this story as thieves, murders, or bad people He never says anything bad about Jim, even though he would normally be stereotyped as the person who would do all of these things simply by the color of his skin. his feelings through this. Race is the underlying theme of this story If you read the story carefully you can see all the different things that Mark Twain felt that African Americans are our equals and. through this story, he shows it very well. “Mark Twain – What was Mark Twain a racist?” . Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Paperbacks., 2004.