There is no use trying to explain why Twain should not offend. It
strikes me as rather elitist to simply dismiss people who are offended
by his use of the word "nigger." There is also the artistic issue of that
last section of the book, where Tom and Huck "free" Jim. Maybe Twain was
trying to make a final point somehow, but it looks to the uneducated eye
like he just got lost. And it seems that for awhile there Huck and Tom
have an awful lot of fun at poor Jim's expense.

And if Twain was racist, it doesnt excuse it to say Hawthorne was more so.
Did Hawthorne know any black folks, or was he one of those Yankees that
lived in a completely white bread world?

Ted Ficklen
University of Missouri - St Louis