"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain, has been referred to as the source of all American literature. But it has also been subject to the discussion whether the book is or is not a racist novel. Racism means the unfair treatment of people on the belief 'that racial differences between people are the main influence on their characters and abilities, and especially that one's own race is the best (from the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture). In this essay, I am going to explain why it is not a racist novel.
             An important character in this novel is Jim. Jim is a black slave who ran away from his owner because he was afraid of being sold. Together with Huckleberry Finn, he went to the South on a raft to become a real free man. A reason that this novel is not a racist novel is that Mark Twain does not describe Jim as a negative person. On the contrary, Jim is always ready to help and he is not a mean person with bad intentions. This becomes clear when Huckleberry Finn has doubts about helping Jim or not (page 1383, line 46-48 and page 1384, line 1-4 'I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping, and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and could everything he could think for me, and how good he always was')
             Jim does believe in supernatural powers and is very superstitious. He is visited by other black people for his help and they too believe in it and practice it. It is something particular to that time. Jim also is very naive. It can be explained that Jim does not know certain things because it was not allowed for black people at that time to have any education. Huckleberry Finn wanted to help Jim become a free man. This is very unusual for that time. Huck had problems with it at first, but then he ...