1975. Although literary critics have tended to praise the unique in literary characterizations, many authors have employed the stereotyped character successfully. Select one work of acknowledged literary merit and in a well-written essay, show how the conventional or stereotyped character or characters function to achieve the author's purpose.
Often modern society frowns upon stereotypes and makes an effort to erase them. However, in literature stereotypes can be used to successfully portray a message. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he uses a typical stereotype of both Jim and Huck in order to convey a message. By using stereotypical characters in his novel, Twain effectively sends an opinionated message about the status of slavery in the United States.
Although Twain wrote the novel several years after slavery was abolished, he set the story in an earlier time when slavery still existed. By doing this, Twain sends a message about the hardly improved situation for slaves, and the inequality of the world they still lived in. The two main characters of the novel, Jim and Huck, are extremely stereotypical. Jim, an escaped slave, is characterized as the typical slave: separated from his family and in desperate need of escape and salvation in the north. Huck is a young white boy who comes from a low level of society; he has been abandoned by his mother and drunk father and often finds himself alone. Throughout the novel, stereotypes of many characters are used, such as the affluent whites and racists. By creating this stereotypical situation, Twain sets up the novel to make a statement that, although years have passed since slavery existed, the life of many blacks have not changed. Readers of the time would be able to assess their current situation in comparison to this novel, and probably not find many differences.
Despite the stereotyped characters, the friendship between Jim and Huck is not typical of the times. Through their adventures together, Jim and Huck form a bond that is not often seen between a black slave and a young white boy. By the end of the novel, readers may believe that Huck has learned a valuable lesson and has rethought his judgment of blacks because of his newfound friendship. However, readers must keep in mind that Huck is young and probably does not see all blacks the way he sees his friend Jim. Huck may have befriended one black man, but that doesn’t mean he is stripped of the racism he has grown up with. This situation can be compared to the actual status of slavery when the book was published. Although some may have thought everything was different because the slaves were free, the reality was that hardly anything had changed.
Twain uses stereotypical characters of Jim and Huck, as well as others, in order to make a statement about slavery in the United States. Many situations of the novel can be compared with real life and cause readers to rethink the status of society.
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