No Color Barrier in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead” (221). Mark Twain’s,”Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” is a tale about a boy in search for afamily and a place he can truly call home. Through his adventure, he ridshimself of a father that is deemed despicable by society, and he gains afather that society hasn’t even deemed as a man. This lonely anddepressed young boy only finds true happiness when he is befriended with aslave named Jim. Although Huck Finn was born and raised into a raciallyoppressive society, it is through his personal growth that he realizesthat the color of skin does not make a man, and he finds a father and truehappiness in Jim.
Disparity and loneliness are the tones that Twain quickly setsfor his character Huck Finn. Twain makes Huck’s isolation from societyapparent for the reader immediately through a comment made from arespectable and pious woman, Widow Douglas, who has brought Huck to livewith her in her home. “The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son […]. And called me a poor lost lamb” (220). Although Huck has a safe and pleasantplace to stay with the Widow, he is still truly lonely as he describes hisyearnings for death. “I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead” (221).Twain continues to show this tone of disparity as Huck unconsciouslyrelates many things around him to death, and continues to tell the readerthat he is lonely. “I heard an owl […]. Who-whooing about somebody thatwas dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was doingto die […]. I did wish I had s…
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… UP, 1993.
Hoffman, Daniel. “Black Magic–and White–in Huckleberry Finn.” Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism. Ed. Sculley Bradley, et al. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1977. 423-436.
Jones, Rhett S. “Nigger and Knowledge. White Double-Consciousness in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Satire or Evasion? Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Ed. James Leonard, et al. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. 173-194.
Kaplan, Justin. “Born to Trouble: One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn.” Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Eds. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston: St. Martin’s, 1995. 348-359.
MacLeod, Christine. “Telling the Truth in a Tight Place: Huckleberry Finn and the Reconstruction Era.” The Southern Quarterly 34 (Fall 1995): 5-16.
