While refraining from arguing that the word, "nigger," is by any means acceptable by today's standards, those who do not see the book as racist suggest that the term is used only in the context of its time, and does not serve as a means to insult blacks today. Despite the fact that Twain wrote in a time when the word was commonly used, however, his book was actually banned by the Library Committee of Concord in 1885 for "course language" (Smith), a fact which serves as fodder for the other argument
In the first part of the book, it is obvious that Tom and Huck do not treat Jim with respect. Even the fact that Huck encourages Tom not to tie Jim to a tree is not born out of compassion for the slave, but is done out of necessity -- Huck does not want anyone to find out that he is not asleep in his bed (Twain 7)
In "Sonny's Blues," violence materializes in the streets in which Sonny and his brother lived. We are told about the "stony, lifeless elegance of hotels and apartment buildings, toward the vivid, killing streets" (Baldwin 29) that are present in the boys' lives on a daily basis
Early in the story, we know that men fighting in the streets are a regular occurrence. We read that their faces look like those of "true assassins," Crane tells us (Crane 3)
He states, "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (Twain 269)
It tells how to hunt life and adventure around us. "Huckleberry Finn might well be described as a story emphasizing the qualities of art and joy and elaborating a picaresque tale in the amoral fable form" (Burg, 316)
So he plans to work hard and save money to buy his wife and the two children."(Joshi
"Indeed, it is a mistake to view Huck and Jim's ongoing acts of mutual cooperation as products of two rational, self-interested players who have correctly surmised the benefits of collaboration. Such a view strips away all the humanity in the bond of friendship that Huck and Jim form" (Reeb, 106)
It is not money, job or land that satisfies free souls. It is carelessness and freedom from norms that pleases them as said "I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied"(Twain, 4)