Racism Essay

Racism
Is there still racism in the world today?   We can all probably agree that racism is present in our everyday lives.   Back in the 1800s, racism was worst than ever imagined today.   Slavery was still enforced in the South and free blacks were not treated better than the slaves were in the South.   In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain expresses the South’s attitude toward racism through certain characters and events that take place.
In the beginning of this novel, Twain uses Huckleberry’s father, Pap Finn, as an example of the South’s attitude toward racism.   Even though Huck and his father are the lowest in the social class besides blacks, Pap still is racist towards blacks.   For example, one of the times when Pap Finn goes into town and leaves Huck locked in the cabin, he meets a half-black college professor from Ohio.   Pap Fin is enraged whenever he gets back to cabin.   He says that man had the nicest shirt, shoes, and cane he had ever seen.   But what enraged Pap most of all was that the half-black, free black, American citizen could vote.   Pap said he would never vote again because that black man was allowed to vote.
After Huck escapes from his father and is traveling downstream with Jim, he is very racist towards Jim.   Huck plays many tricks on him, thinking that Jim does not have any feelings and so he will not mind.   For instance, one example is when they get separated in the fog when Huck is in the canoe and Jim is on the raft.   Huck sees that Jim is asleep and just tells Jim that he had a bad dream. Jim is offended that Huck would lie to him like that when he thought Huck was dead.
Later on in the novel, whenever Huck, Jim, The King, and The Duke are in Pikesville, Arkansas, there is another example of how racist the southerners were.   The Duke and The King realize they are out of money.   In a bar one night, The King decides to sell Jim for forty dollars.   Then after he receives the money, The King spends it on whiskey...