The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place during a very difficult time in American history. Although Mark Twain wrote the story years after Emancipation Proclamation, he set the story when slavery still existed. Twain shows, through the hypocrisy of slavery, how racism affects both the discriminated and those who do the discriminating. Twain demonstrates how seemingly good and moral people, can be affected by such a terrible thing.

During this time period in the South, racism was normal. A white man who was racist against blacks was not considered a bigot. He was just a man of his time. Twain shows how some people were caught in the dilemma of whether slavery was right or wrong. A good example of this is Huck. He was brought up believing that slavery was acceptable. But as he becomes friends with Jim he becomes torn between what is right and what...