<p>A true visionary would not have bought into the whole notion of racial superiority.</p>
<p>They would have challenged common beliefs and thought for themselves, like Mark Twain and Charles Darwin.</p>
<p>Mark Twain is an awful example for your point.</p>
<p>No it’s not.</p>
<p>Mark twain’s writing merely reflecting the dialogue of his location. He wrote a realistic novel.</p>
<p>If you actually read his novel Huckleberry finn, a slave is the hero of the story.</p>
<p>It’s this same thinking style that made people remove the N- word from his novel</p>
<p>Oh, so this is only about the time period. Locations don’t matter. I got it.</p>
<p>That’s not what I am talking about.
When Mark Twain uses the N word he uses it not because he is a racist, but because he wants a more realistic Novel. When Abraham Lincoln talks about using blacks as cannon fodder he is being point-blank racist. He isn’t writing a novel or anything.</p>
<p>Big difference between PORTRAYING racism and just plain BEING racist.</p>
<p>That’s actually a good point. </p>
<p>However, I still don’t see how Mark Twain “challenged common beliefs”.</p>
<p>In his story “Damned Human Race,” he argues against the idea of Man being better than an animal, when in fact man is much more cruel.</p>
<p>[DAMNED</a> HUMAN RACE–Mark Twain](<a href=“http://www.skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id14.html]DAMNED”>DAMNED HUMAN RACE--Mark Twain)</p>
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<p>Uh, no he’s not. He is in hiding for the major plot points of the novel.</p>
<p>A hero is defined as a person noted for feats of courage or
nobility of purpose. The character of Jim in Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain certainly fits that description. He risked his life in order to free
himself from slavery, and in doing so, helps Huck to realize that he hasworth. Huck becomes aware of Jim’s sense of love and humanity, his basic, goodness, and his desire to help others.</p>
<p>Making somebody see the worth in a person regardless of skin color is a great feat. An Unlikely hero.</p>
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<p>As far as I remember (read the book almost 2 years ago now), he didn’t risk his life at all. He was trapped in that hut thing doing absolutely nothing about his situation. He didn’t even address the stupidity of Tom/Huck’s plan to help him escape.</p>
<p>I can’t remember that part exactly, but he did make Tom realize something.</p>
<p>Which still makes him a hero</p>
<p>nah, it makes him what we call in the literary world a secondary character</p>
<p>bsmd11 is right. lolz</p>
<p>Well my english teacher told me chuck was the hero</p>
<p>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is most certainly an anti-slavery novel in which Jim is portrayed in a more positive light than just about any other character, including Huck.</p>
<p>He did risk his life for Tom at the end by helping him and waiting for the doctor rather than fleeing downriver to safety, like he could have. He also acts selflessly for Huck at various points. His ignorance of the fallacy of Tom’s plan is an analogy to the slaver’s argument that blacks are inherently unintelligent, though in reality they are unintelligent because they are not taught.</p>
<p>I think I’ve rarely seen people excuse other people’s racist actions. However, I have seen people try to use race as an excuse on why people don’t like them. It’s a bit pitiful. </p>
<p>“She/he just hates me because I’m <em>insert ethnicity here</em>!”</p>
<p>No, she/he doesn’t…</p>
<p>As for the Mark Twain responses on here. Its basically what I told my sibling a while ago when she read this “sad, mean book”. Life’s not perfect. It’s not like the writer can rewrite history and say “so all the blacks and whites lived happily together in Happy Land without no prejudices and racism at all. Oh, and the Native Americans? They just went on vacation and loved it there so much they never came back!”</p>
<p>I should be nicer to my sister. I think novels like Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and other similar works should be kept in it’s original format to make people realize the struggles that come with trying to reach equality so they can appreciate it much more.</p>
<p>^ We have a winner</p>
<p>^^ We have two winners.</p>
<p>Yea Pippa i agree, my aunt has spent a lot of years supposably “watching white people and how they act.” So she can tell the difference between how somebody says a word to you and automatically deem them as closet racists.</p>
<p>Ug.</p>