I am writing my thesis on Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift. The book Satire or Evasion?, ed Thadious Davis, has been very helpful as far as covering the debate on whether or not Huck is a racist book. So far, I would argue that although Twain probably thought of his work as having abolitionist aspirations, he was unable to completely remove himself from the racist ideology that dominated his own society. After reading The Black Image in the White Mind by George Frederickson, I learned exactly how "natural" it was to think that "Negroes" were scientifically inferior to whites, and could serve as childlike, sensitive emotional foils for the agressive tendencies of the Anglo Saxon race. Twain may have tried to end Huck with a positive, more humanistic portrayal of Jim, but he could not break the ties of minstrelsy, prejudice, and other degrading traditions of his time. -Jen