To Kill a Mockingbird vs Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Inherently, two American authors, Haper Lee and Mark Twain, have published two books with similar themes despite the fact that they were written in different eras. To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee presents Atticus who is a proud parent as well as a legislator and a successful attorney. Atticus plays a significant role in the reformation of race relations along with civil rights in the Alabama city. On the other hand, Twain brings out a boy who has experienced a lot of troubles; moreover, he speaks out of these experiences that have to do with slavery and his negroid friend. Essentially, through his friendship with Jim, a black slave, Huck becomes enlightened and realizes that the society has a very wrong attitude towards black. In other words, both Lee and Twain bring out the racist theme in their books.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, racism is a major issue that most of men, women, and children had to go through during time periods. Atticus expresses his disappointment in the way the whites handle the African-American race. He says, “there is nothing more sickening to me than a low grade white man who will take advantage of a negro’s ignorance” (Lee, 2010, p221). Similarly, in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, slaves in the south like Jim were denied any formal education and even more, they were not allowed any independence. In addition, slaves received constant mistreatment and abuses from the whites (Twain, 2011).

Similarly, Scout, a young girl living in Maycomb town and a protagonist, encounters severe prejudice due to racism. In fact, Maycomb is a small town where the issues of racism are very prevalent (Lee, 2010). Unfortunately, scout is adversely affected by the racism when a grudge develops between the society and Scout that eventually lead to attack of Jem and Scout. On the other hand, in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is presented as a boy who was travelling more into the south together with a black slave called Jim. Throughout the book, Huck experiences prejudices consistently in his endeavors to free Jim (Twain, 2011).

In the town, the societies of blacks and whites leave in segregation such that when Atticus defended Robinson, an African-American, in a court case when he was accused of raping a white lady, the town of Maycomb turned against him. Consequently, this made Atticus become furious and wonder “why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a negro comes up,” (Lee, 2010, p242). However, despite the fact that Huck’s father fervently objected the idea of government to grant suffrage to an educated black professor, he also believes that he is superior to the professor merely because of their differences in race. More importantly, when Huck decides not to turn Jim in during the time that they met, he is confronted by the societal forces. In fact, Huck does not see any reason why Jim, who had become a very close friend, should be a slave.

Both Lee and Twain use racism to portray how bad the racist thoughts and ideas can be. In Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird, the sentence of Tim Robinson, Atticus’ defending Robinson, and the attack of Scout are among the examples of racism. Similarly, in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the denial of formal education to black slaves, Huck’s father belief on the black professor, and confrontation of Huck are among the instances of racism in the book. In both books, Scout and Huck endure prejudice due to racism but eventually, they were in a position to overcome it owing to their decisions not to side with societies along with their positive influences.

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