Humor, Race and Misunderstanding ” Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.” Peter Ustinov In “On Being Crazy”, DuBois defines crazy as behavior based on illogical perceptions. Both the narrator and wayfarer agree that the wayfarer walking in the mud and becoming muddy rather than walk along side a dirty nigger who is clean is crazy. DuBois illustrates that society prefers to cut off its nose to spite its face instead of fixing the nose. Twain builds much of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the same manner. His commentary regarding the social injustice is buried within the story’s humor. While it isn’t readily available on the surface, if one is so inclined to look, it can be easily found.
In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain satirizes the idiocy and cruelty of society in general. The language of the book, despite its accurate reflection of 19 th century dialect, in and of itself is an illustration of misunderstanding. Nigger. Although it has acquired additional connotations in today’s society, at base, it still evokes an intense emotional and psychological response.
Even now, in print or in speech, the word nigger causes one to cringe. Today, no one would tolerate being referred to as a nigger let alone called a nigger to their face. However, Jim and every other black, free or slave, endured that insult daily because it was a part of the social fabric. Even those with ‘good intentions’ used nigger as a utility word to describe blacks. In six letters, n-i-g-g-e-r summarized black life; it was a name, a 2 rank, and a means of determining value.
The Essay on Mental Illness A Society Of Stigma
I would like to start this essay by saying that mental illness is an issue that hits extremely close to home. Both of my uncles on my fathers side developed schizophrenia in their 20's. One of them, upon being diagnosed, committed suicide. This happened before I was born, but the fall-out is still visible in my family. The other now lives in a home for those with mental illness. He is on ...
No one then, with exception of a few, understood the psychological impact the word had on the recipient. Twain’s use of nigger illustrates that the nigger was not only a means of identification, but a description of what one was. It stripped away the humanity and individualism of a person leaving a shell, which was considered sub-human. When a nigger wasn’t a nigger, whites were astonished but they didn’t separate the nigger from the man. Huck, along with every other white person of the time believed blacks couldn’t be as intelligent as whites. .”..
Well, he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a nigger’ (Norton Anthology 266).
DuBois makes the same case in “On Being Crazy.”‘Niggers’ is dirty,” he said. So is mud, said I. Moreover I added, I am not as dirty as you-at least not yet. “But you ” re a ‘nigger’ ain’t you?” he asked (Dubois 2).
Although the narrator isn’t dirty or ignorant, the white wayfarer simply can’t comprehend that a black man could be anything other than a nigger.
In fact, it is the white man who using the standards of the day embodies the personification of a nigger. Huck is truly a product of his time. Although he is our hero, he too is guilty of engaging in racial misunderstanding, as evidenced when he tries to protect Jim. ‘When we was ready to shove off we was a quarter of a mile below the island, and it was pretty broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the 3 canoe and cover up with a quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a nigger a good ways off’ (Norton Anthology 251).
Huck was more concerned that people would see a nigger rather than two people-two men because niggers couldn’t be men- floating down river. Twain inserts his attack on slavery within the conflict of nature versus civilization.
The Essay on White Man Huck Society Twain
Racism and slavery - One may wonder why Mark Twain would choose to write an antislavery novel some twenty years after the end of the Civil War. By the early 1880 s, Reconstruction, the plan to put the United States back together after the war and integrate freed slaves into society, had hit some shaky ground, although it had not yet failed outright (that wouldn't occur until 1887, three years ...
To be civilized is to enslave another human being, de-humanize them and treat them as property, as things. Twain argues that civility is to maintain the status quo. According to DuBois, to be civilized is to practice inequality. Throughout “On Being Crazy”, the narrator attempts to participate in everyday activities only to be denied because whites fear social equality. To whites, practicing social equality was an attack on society itself. Huck is the antithesis of civility.
He treats a black man as a man with 19 th century respect and dignity and foregoes many of the trappings of society such as money and clothes. By retaining his independence and embracing nature, Huck illustrates that it is the individual who determines his worth and path in life, not class and status as assigned by civilization. Unlike its contemporary, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Twain uses humor and comedy to argue his anti-slavery beliefs. By disguising his true intentions, Twain was able to attack society from within. Although many early readers didn’t fully embrace the depth of the book, nonetheless his point about the state of society is made. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the embodiment of the maxim, “many a truth is said in jest.”.
