Criticism Against Slavery in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
... It is not accidentally that Mark Twain chooses a small boy for his protagonist. Had he presented his ideas through a grown up person they could sound just like a personal opinion that could be wrong or could be right and could be easily defeated by reasoning. But the author chooses a very different strategy. He makes his hero acts in the right way doing what he feels is right not what society says is right. And when a little innocent, still uncorrupted kid acts in a certain way and has certain values they seem most natural, the seem to be the natural way of the world and not some artificially imposed set of standards. Moreover, Huck Finn has grown up more or less in this or near this society and has come to believe in certain things, which are inherent to this society. He does not even question whether slavery is should exist or not, he perceives it as something that just is. At the same time, he cannot treat Jim as a slave and cannot turn him over when he has the opportunity. This is something that makes the author’s criticism against hypocrisy of society and against slavery stronger. The moments when a little child willingly goes against the values with which he has grown up and is even willing to sacrifice himself by “going to hell” but protecting his friend, these are the moment...