PuhTayToe PoTeighTow

In this article about Black-Face Minstrelsy, the writer takes a decided stance that Mark Twain was depicting the African Americans as uninteligent, and subservient to the white folk. Did Mark Twain "cast [Jim] in the role of the 'minstrel darky'?", he asks.

Although this could be the case, I think he used Jim to show how African Americans were during that time period. They were uneducated: never taught how to read or write. Therefore, people viewed them as 'stupid'. My theory is that their speech also sounded 'dumb', because first of all, they were uneducated, but also, because English was not their language. Many "Blacks" were brought from Africa, so they had a heavy accent once they learned English. Their children then learned English from them, accent and all. Therefore their speech was not 'dumb' or 'wrong' at all, merely just different. Just like American-English and British-English sound different, "Slave"- English and "Slave-driver" - English also sound different.

I would also like to take this time to show my disgust of how anybody could think that they were better than anyone else. How on earth did anybody ever justify the thought that because of the color of someone's skin, they were less of a human-being as someone

else?

Because Mark Twain was against the racism going on during his time, I like him, and therefore can make allowances for his wield of the "n-word", simply because he was using it in a way to critique the revolting way his society treated human beings with darker skin.

Yet, I still don't really like Huckleberry Finn. Okay, let me rephrase that. I do not like the novel's main body, the ending being the exception. I love that Mark Twain made it a happy ending, and I love his Jim. And I love how his Jim talked. But I don't like reading about slavery. It just is a depressing topic.

"Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you? -what I tell oou up dah on Jackson islan'? I tole you I got a hairy breas', en what's de sign un it; en I tole you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be righ agin; en it's come true; eh heah she is! Dah now! Doan' talk to me--signs is signs, mine I tell you; en I knowed jis' 'swell 'at I 'uz gwineter be rich agin as I's a-stannin' heah dis minute!"