Monday, February 27, 2012
Chris Primo
At the end of chapter fourteen, after Huck and Jim argue about kings and rulers of higher rank, Huck says, "It warn't no use wasting words-you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit." Do you think that Mark Twain used this statement as a form of racism to say that Africans are unable to learn from anything? Why?
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3 comments:
Marc St. Amour
This quote really highlights not only the ignorance, but the arrogance of whites in the 1800s. It is easy to see how Twain is making a point about how whites just simply assume blacks were mentally incapable of learning. It almost shows the cowardice of Huck by the way he simply annulls the argument by saying. Jim does make a good point about the halving of the baby with the story of Solomon and how kings are usually pretty ridicuous. It makes Huck seem like a very closed-minded individual.
I do not think that is what Mark Twain is trying to say at all. I think he is actually weaseling in the stubborness and ignorance that the white race has acquired when talking to someone we think we dominate over. At this time, sure, white men were more dominant than Africans were but I do not think Fuck is saying that Jim is stupid. Because Jim is an African he has not had real opportunities to learn.
-Madeline Russell
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