Audience

Chapter 1-16 Carmen Mascarenhas

“‘Nuffn’ never come of it. I couldn’ manage to k’leck dat money no way; en Balum he couldn’t. i ain’t gwynn to len’ no mo’ money ‘dout I see de security (…) I’d call it squash, en be glad er de chanst’” (54) [Note: Said by Jim]

“Well, it’s all right, anyway, Jim, long as you’re going to be rich again some time or other” (54) [Note: Said by Huck]

If ever in doubt as to how to tell what race a person is, it looks like Mark Twain has the answer- or at least he did back in the 1800s when, you know, America hadn’t really grasped the concept of equality. From the offset of the novel, Twain knows and writes to his audience of Americans who are more or less fresh out of a civil war that ended with the abolition of slavery, and tensions are still running pretty high. Society at that time hadn’t quite caught up with itself, so racial linguistic stereotypes were still prevalent. Twain is writing to an audience that lives in a society that is split by class divisions; one of his main characters is black, and you know how you can tell? Barely anything he says is understandable. Why? Because he’s obviously uneducated. Because he’s a slave.  Which means he’s black. But wait! the other main character here, Huck Finn, is also uneducated. So how come the reader can understand him? OH. BECAUSE HE’S WHITE. But Huck isn’t stupid, you say. He narrates the whole story and it makes sense; in fact, it’s even clearer when he’s narrating than when he’s talking. So we know he’s really intelligent on the inside. Well maybe that’s the reason Jim isn’t the narrator here. Maybe Twain understood that his audience wasn’t quite ready for a black man to be intelligent, understandable, in command of his own story. This novel is about the adventure that both Huck and Jim embark on, although its title is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You fill in the gaps.

Chapter 17-21 Natalie Fung

Pyramid of Success

       “Each person had their own nigger to wait on them—Buck, too. My nigger had a monstrous easy time, because I warn’t used to having anybody do anything for me, but Buck’s was on the jump most of the time” (111)
“There was another clan of aristocracy around there—five or six families—mostly of the name of Shepherdson. They was as high-toned and well born, and rich and grand, as the tribe of Grangerfords.” (112)
Huck Finn has officially hit the jackpot, not only is there delicious food, people waiting on him hand and foot, but this family he has happened to cross is super rich that “each person had their own ‘nigger’ to wait on them” (Twain 111). Huck has never experienced being around people who are wealthy enough to have multiple slaves on the other hand “Buck’s [slave] was on the jump most of the time” (111) which means the reader can assume that Buck has grown up in the higher status of society. Twain continues to tell the reader that “there was another clan of aristocracy” (112) that had a bad reputation with the Grangerfords. Which explains why the Grangerfords had Huck at gunpoint when he entered their property. Mark Twain reveals this perspective of “aristocracy” (112) to the reader because individuals of today’s society may assume that white individuals of that time period were of a social hierarchy of wealth whereas in truth they were not. With this comment, Twain invents his main character not as an individual who looks down to belittle the African American community but to look at them as equals, an example would be how Huck befriends Miss Watson’s runaway slave Jim. The purpose of showing the social ladder during this period of time was to show all readers that even though Huck, a white thirteen year old boy, has the chance to belittle individuals who were African American, like Buck who is around the same age and race had done, Huck does the opposite and befriends Jim.

Chapter 22-28 Kristen Allan

Chapter 29-35 Carolyn Lo Coco

The intended audience for Twain’s novel is people who are comfortable with racism. Twain sets his characters to coincide with societal ways of the time. Characters, such as Huck, constantly refer to black people or slaves as “niggers” and other racist slang words that only a audience comfortable with racism would be able to understand.

Chapter 36-the last Margo Irie

“I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars—and kind treatment, too. I had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he would a done at home—better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I WAS, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck would have it the nigger was setting by the pallet with his head propped on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was about, and we never had no trouble(316-317)”

Throughout the entire novel of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the black slaves are refereed to as “nigger”(316). This derogatory term towards black people is intended by the author to make the audience not only understand the time period of the story, but to develop feelings towards to character. Through rhetorical strategies and strong diction, the author intends for the reader to feel all the emotions. The fact the author deemed it necessary to say “a nigger like that is worth...kind treatment”(316) makes the audience feel a hole in their heart for the slaves who never got the kind treatment. The fact a person needs to be worth kind treatment evokes anger and sadness inside the reader, as the author intended. Author Mark Twain is aiming to show the audience a glimpse into the time period, and the unjust conditions that black people faced, through the story of a thirteen year old named Huck Finn.