The+Episode

Throughout the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Jim is constantly discriminated against by numerous people merely because of his skin color. He was thoroughly insulted and seen as inferior by many whites such as; Widow Douglass, Miss Watson, Silas Phelps, Sally Phelps, The duke and the Dauphin. Jim endured a surplus of pain and humiliation by all of these people in one way or another. Although Twain wrote this novel after the abolition of slavery, his intention was to remind the American Society of its hypocrisy and the harshness and inhumanity of slavery, and how the American Society still viewed, the now freedmen blacks, as inferior. Twain strongly emphasizes his critique on the hypocrisy of the American Society despite the Constitution’s claim that “all men are created equal”. The novel openly displays the ignorance and hypocrisy of people during the mid 19th century due to their ruthless treatment of blacks and slaves.

Sally Phelps:

Huck- "It warn't the grounding—that didn't keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head." Sally- "Good gracious! anybody hurt?" Huck- "No'm. Killed a nigger." Sally- "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.

After Jim was sold by the con men, Huck quickly found Jim’s owners and decided he would try to save him. Sally, Tom’s aunt mistakens Huck for Jim. She asks why he had taken so long and Huck lied by saying there was an explosion and despite the death of a black man, Sally appears to not care and not regard black men as humans or even close to humans! This represented the absolute insanity and ignorance of the white people during the mid 1800’s, especially in the south. Her perspective to a black man is absolutely racist and bias simply because Jim was black!

Little Boy on the road:

Boy- “He’s a runaway nigger and they’ve got him for forty dollars”

Since back in the mid 19th century, slavery no longer existed in the north but strictly in the south, countless of blacks tried to escape to the north one way or another. Because of this, southerners were extremely strict and cautious about the supervision of their slaves and they would immediately turn in runaway slaves and Jim was no exception. He was betrayed and sold by the Dauphin and the Duke to the Silas family. Even little kids, especially out in the south were influenced and taught by this ignorant and racist society to despise and treat niggers as inmates or worse, as property. Not only were these black people forced to be slaves but they were treated very unjustly and could be sold as any other inanimate object!