Reader Response 1: Huck Finn (1 - 6)

Racism

"I says to the people, why ain't this n***** put up at auction and sold?" (Chapter 6, pg. 20, par 2) is what Pap said about an African American that is aloud to vote and is treated like a white man. Pap thinks that African Americans are meant to be used as slaves for the white men.

I think that the quote that I chose is wrong in a couple of different ways. The first thing that I think is wrong is that Pap used the "n" word. I don't think that that word is appropiate for use from anyone. The second thing that I think is wrong with the quote is that people should not be sold. People are not property. We are all human beings, and we are all different, but some people are different on the inside and others are different on the outside.

I think that when Mark Twain was writing this quote he was considering the way that most of the white communities felt during this time period. He seemed to understand the way that other people felt about racism, so I think that people that he knew were probably racist. I don't think that Mark Twain was a racist man due to the fact that he was around all different races of people all day long on a boat.