Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, attempts to take the reader into the dark heart of American slavery, but ultimately of the novel, the reader follows the childhood escapades of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. The novel follows the journey of a young boy growing up in Southern society, directly before the impending American Civil War. Huckleberry and Jim, an escaped slave, develop a strong friendship as they travel together along the Mississippi River. Towards the end of the book, Jim is captured and Huck makes the decisive choice to save him. Tom Sawyer, the protagonist of Twain's previous novel, knows that Jim has already been freed by the will of Jim's owner, but Tom convinces Huck to implement elaborate plans to "free" Jim, simply for the sake of the adventure Tom desperately seeks. craved. Even before Tom Sawyer's return, much of the story seemed to be a distraction from the relevant social issues addressed by Twain at the beginning of the novel. Many people believe that Twain seamlessly denounces racism through Huck's moral revelations. However, by the end of the novel, it is clear that the issue of racism has been put aside as the plot is diverted towards the fictional adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck's character's journey of growth remains unfinished. Literary critic Jane Smiley explains: “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have little to offer in the way of greatness. There is more to be learned about the American character from his canonization than through his canonization” (Smiley). Fundamentally, there is more to be learned from the fact that the novel is glorified, than from the ideas for which it is glorified. Although many praise The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for Twain's social commentary on the flaws of 19th-century Southern society, the glorification of this novel says more about America's misunderstanding of racism than Twain managed to do. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the beginning of the novel, Huck idolizes Tom Sawyer and is willing to do whatever Tom says. Even though Huck grows and changes a lot as a character, as soon as Tom is reintroduced in the novel, Huck reverts to the companion he started with. Jim, who had already begun to seem like Huck's sidekick, is pushed even further to the margins of the novel, despite how vital Jim's character is to the messages Twain attempted to convey. Supporters of the novel blame Tom's influence on the regression of Huck's character and the halting of significant plot progression. They point to the memorable scene in which Jim is captured, for here Huck is faced with the internal question of whether to stick his neck out and save Jim or text Jim's owner where he is. Huck proceeds to tear up the note he intended to send to Jim's owner and says "All right, then I'll go to hell" (Twain 228). Defenders of the novel will claim that this shows significant character growth for a boy who had never had to care for anyone but himself, who had been raised to believe that helping this slave escape would lead to eternal damnation at the hell. If Twain had ended the book here, it would have been a fitting conclusion to the novel. Instead, in the following chapters, Twain undoes everything he had built. No matter how impressive it was for Huck to make that decision, it means absolutely nothing if Huck takes no initiative to act on it. Huck gives in as soon as Tom puts pressure on him. Even though Huck decided earlier in thenovel to no longer play pranks on Jim, Huck gets along well with Tom, as Tom creates a series of unnecessary obstacles that prolong Jim's imprisonment, including making Jim live with spiders, snakes, and rats. If Huck is unable to speak for Jim in front of his friend, he has not demonstrated that he has learned anything. He knows what Tom is doing is an annoyance at best, but he remains passive, saying "So I let it go, though I can see no advantage with Tom while he works out his foolish plans" (Twain 256). Huck loses all the qualities that had previously made him an admirable protagonist; he loses his compassion, his courage and, above all, his independence of thought. Huck is no longer the complex character the reader had learned to root for. The heart of the problem with this evident regression of the character lies in society's perception of the novel and the praise it receives for its denunciation of racism. If Huck goes back on every promise he makes to Jim and bends to society's expectations as soon as anyone else looks at him, he should convey to the reader the absurdities of racism, this does not speak very well about the social situation in America. As Jane Smiley says, society thinks that “If Huck feels positive about Jim and loves him and thinks of him as a man, then that is enough” (Smiley). The opposition thinks they can be pleased with a protagonist who can demonstrate basic human decency. Glorifying this novel ignores the underlying issues of racism and slavery and allows the opposition to rationalize an oversimplified understanding of it. Twain, unable to address the darker themes he addressed with Huck's story, not only denies plot development, but also leaves Huck's character's journey of growth unfinished. Much of Huck's growth comes from him ignoring the childish mentality of accepting what he is told and learning to make decisions for himself about what is right and wrong. Through Huck's friendship with Jim, Huck begins to untangle racism and other social issues in society. However, even though Huck begins to see Jim's humanity, by the end of the novel, Twain has not done enough to resolve these issues and certainly does not deserve to be praised for speaking out against racism. It is true that Huck has learned to treat Jim with more respect and compassion, but it is clear that Huck is going in the wrong direction for one simple reason: Huck learns to apply the concept of humanity only to Jim and not to any other slave or African. Americans. When Jim tells Huck about his family, Huck thinks “and I think he cared about his people as much as white people care about their people. It doesn't seem natural, but I think it is so” (Twain 167). It is evident that Huck thinks that Jim is an exception, that Jim is more like “white people” than people of color, and this is what makes Jim more human. Huck doesn't learn to treat African Americans like human beings, he learns to treat Jim like a white man. Even if Huck were to gain respect for all black people, this would be invalidated by the fact that Huck thinks he is a bad person for it; he thinks what he is doing by helping Jim is morally wrong. When Tom offers to help save Jim, Huck thinks less of Tom for it, saying, “It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard – and I must say Tom Sawyer has fallen considerably, in my estimation. I just couldn't believe it. Tom Sawyer a fucking thief!” (Two 240). Huck still has a long way to go before he can become one of the great literary protagonists symbolizing racial equality, but Twain does not insinuate any further learning after the end of the novel. By cutting Huck's growth as a character short in this way, Twain neglects to give the 1884.