The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn

by Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua

Especially in academia, controversy rages over the merits or evils of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , in particular its portrayal of Jim, the runaway slave. Opponents disrupt classes and carry picket signs, objecting with strong emotion that Jim is no fit model for African-American youth of today. In continuing outcries they claim that he and the dark period of American history he portrays are best forgotten. That time has gone, Jim's opponents charge. This is a new day. But is it? Dare we forget? The author of The Jim Dilemma argues that Twain's novel, in the tradition of all great literature, is invaluable for transporting readers to a time, place, and conflict essential to understanding who we are today. Without this work, she argues, there would be a hole in American history and a blank page in the history of African-Americans. To avoid this work in the classroom is to miss the opportunity to remember. Few other popular books have been so much attacked, vilified, or censored. Yet Ernest Hemingway proclaimed Twain's classic to be the beginning of American literature, and Langston Hughes judged it as the only nineteenth-century work by a white author who fully and realistically depicts an unlettered slave clinging to the hope of freedom. A teacher herself, the author challenges opponents to read the novel closely. She shows how Twain has not created another Uncle Tom but rather a worthy man of integrity and self-reliance. Jim, along with other black characters in the book, demands a rethinking and a re-envisioning of the southern slave, for Huckleberry Finn, she contends, ultimately questions readers' notions of what freedom means and what it costs. As she shows that Twain portrayed Jim as nobody's fool, she focuses her discussion on both sides of the Jim dilemma and unflinchingly defends the importance of keeping the book in the classroom. Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua is director of the American studies program at Dallas Institute for the Humanities.

Genres: Nonfiction

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kristine M Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a long-time Mark Twain aficionado (white, 58, grew up in a very white world in the Pacific NW), I was very taken with this book. I was out of the loop about "the controversy" re: the Jim character and whether or not Twain was a racist. The book was a real eye-opener for me in that regard. Now I want to poll my African-American friends and discover what they think of the novel -- and if they don't love it every bit as much as I did, I will refer them to Chadwick-Joshua's book if they regard Twain as a racist or Jim as an Uncle Tom!

Not once during reading THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN did I discern a racist attitude in its author. I twitched and twisted ruefully as Twain carefully revealed racism as it existed during the times in which the novel takes place (pre- and post-Civil War) but attributed it to his acute observation of people, places and his times, not to his own (contrary)belief system.

Of course he saw racism. As a child living in Missouri, he probably saw little else: it was all around him, even in the pulpit. (Even to this day, Sunday religious observances are reportedly "the most-segregated hour of the week" in most churches). But just like Huck Finn, the more often Twain was exposed the the African American slave and slave-owners as a youngster and teenager, the more he recognized the attitude and behaviors for what they were.

I think Chadwick-Joshua does an exemplary job of peeling back the layers of Twain's book and exposing exactly what he was trying to say during a time when most folks really didn't want to be educated out of their biases and presumptions. He had to tread a mighty fine line. He had to show what the prevailing attitudes were, both north and south, and the inherent dangers of changing one's mind or allegiance during that period in America history.

I always felt that Jim was the hero and that Twain "channeled" him very well, so that readers would be carried -- willingly or not -- into admitting to themselves that slavery was far more than a "peculiar institution," -- it was Perdition to those who had to endure it. And Twain shows, too, that Reconstruction was no picnic, either... not that any year since then has been particularly jubilant for the African American until November 4, 2008.

Both books (Chadwick-Joshua's and Twain's) belong in every library. Yes, it hurts to see what has been done to other fellow sojourners in our country, but it's also instructive. Those who want to push away the history that we all wish hadn't happened, by banning Twain's most enduring legacy as a writer, are misguided at best. I hope those who feel negatively about THE ADVENURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN or Mark Twain way will read this tome and then re-read Twain's book. The insights you'll discover will open eyes in the way Twain intended.

Jim is a hero. Always was to Twain -- always will be to me.

Bravo, Jocelyn!

Kristine M Smith
http://kristinemsmith.biz

[Jen H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hit home because every year I struggle with Huck Finn. I feel compelled to share it with my students, yet I'm always uncomfortable with its use of the n word. This book answers to the unfair charges of racism against the book, and made me see Jim in an entirely new light.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. "Black Perpectives on Huckleberry Finn" is a better choice for opening up debates about caricature and minstrelsy.

[John Kissell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Jim Dilemma" is a remarkable analysis of Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" ... I've read "Huck Finn" at least four times, always admiring it. But after Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua's explication, I see that I've misread parts of Twain's masterpiece, even as I've held it in highest esteem. I will read "Huck Finn" again with a keener eye on the satire, the racial masking, and the critique of American slave-dependent society that led to the failure of Reconstruction. I used to talk a long time about "Huck Finn"; I can talk even longer now.

[Traci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! When one of my students didn't want to read Twain's Huckleberry Finn, it made me do some research. This book is a beautiful defense of Twain's masterpiece. It made me see the novel in a different way and made me more committed to teaching it.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

good critical essays about Huckleberry Finn.