Kevin, I agree absolutely that Twain's _Huck Finn_ is a grim and darkly
ironic novel.  Much of the laughter comes from pain.  And the ending is
apt--and as dark as it gets.  Huck and Tom treat Jim as a grinning darky,
one who gets rewarded for his "pains" in the service of Tom's fun.

Jim responds by retreating behind a comic mask and letting Huck know--in no
uncertain terms--that the only adult male whom he's ever been able to count
on, the only man he's ever trusted, the "nigger" to whom he has "humbled"
himself HAS BEEN LYING TO HIM ALMOST FROM THE BEGINNING.  "Ha, ha, Huck, by
the way, you've been running from nothing.  All your fear has been for
nothing.  Pap's been dead since we left the waters near St. Petersburg, and
I didn't bother to tell you because I needed your help and couldn't trust
your silence or your promise.  Ha, ha.  Ain't that funny?"

How grim can you get?  No wonder Huck wants to light out for the territory.

Aunt Sally may be too civilizing, but Jim's cold and humorous revelation of
his betrayal takes the prize.  And it puts Huck's own betrayal of Jim in
stark perspective.

_Finn_ is a pretty interesting novel in its own right, but like Kevin, I'm a
little bothered by language that doesn't ring quite true and by situations
that don't gel with the historical research I've done of the period and the
place.  But those things happen to all of us, and they don't get in the way
too much.  The story is exciting and the overall pace is good.  The sinister
psychological atmosphere in particular is well crafted.

I don't think the novel hangs well with _Huckleberry Finn_, though.  One of
the most radical things Twain did in that novel was to portray a white boy
seriously questioning race and racism, seriously questioning what those
horrible and all-too-common-and-quick-to-the-tongue epithets such as
"nigger" and "trash" meant.

Now, for a poor boy to question class is not radical.  But for a white boy
to question constructions of race and the stereotypes he has thought were
true?  For these questions to be at the center of a novel that uses the
"n-word" over 200 times?  At the heart of a novel that puts the egregious
construction of race right in your face?

The thing that disturbs me most about _Finn_'s "secret" revelation that
"Huck"'s mother is black is that it puts conversation about the construction
of race comfortably where most white people seem to want it even today:
among people of color.

All those "n-words" and all that "humblin'" and "goin' to hell" become two
"black" guys just funnin' around.  And one of those poor backwoods
ignoramuses doesn't even know he's black.

And white folks?  We can relax, because once again, race is not about us.
It's about "them."  Except that some of "them" pretend to be "us."  If Huck
is a mulatto, then he's passing whether he knows it or not.  No wonder he
thinks race is important.  It's in his blood, right?  'Cause white folks
don't ever need to think about race, right?

I stand with Twain's text on this one.  Race is not a discussion white
people can afford to excuse themselves from.  And I think _Finn_ lets us off
the hook in more ways than one.

Sharon McCoy