75 years of American Literature

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is about a young boy who reaches out and finds himself. It takes him an adventure down the Mississippi River to find what is right and not right morally. Huckleberry Finn runs away from home. He soon lives with his dad who is an abusive parent. Pap, Huck’s dad, locks Huck in the cabin every day. Huck finally escapes from the cabin and took a raft down the river. On his way down the river, he meets his friend Jim, a slave. Jim and Huck team up on this adventure to escape from home. Jim had run away from home and his is a runaway slave. People think Huck is dead so they both want to find a better place. During this adventure, they encounter many trials of tough times. They meet some con artists who want money so Huck and Jim tag along to just survive. They sold Jim to another white family and Huck saves him. Black and White by Paul Volponi is about two young boys getting in trouble by robbing people. They did this because they needed money for their senior trip. Marcus and Eddie get caught, but only Marcus gets in trouble. Eddie’s name is never revealed to the cops by Marcus. Marcus was sentenced to go to jail. Eddie was getting a scholarship for college to play basketball. Their friendship remains the same as best friends. Marcus feels like he is treated unfairly, but they get along well. These two stories have the same concept of having a friend, but The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in the 1800’s and Black and White was written in the 2000’s. In Huckleberry Finn there were a lot of derogatory words degrading African Americans. Black and White has some racist content in it, but there weren’t any offensive words in the book. The themes of these books also varied. They both consist of racism in the book, but Huckleberry Finn had to deal with moral development. Black and White had to deal with being loyal or a good friend, but doing what is right is telling the cops the truth. Both of these books were obviously written in different locations. Huck Finn was based on the Midwest of America and Black and White is based on the city life of the east coast. The American literature throughout history had changed, but still has some of the same aspects. Authors, to this day, still talk about and write about racism between white and black people. During the antebellum era, it was considered taboo to talk about racism and slavery during that time. Now currently, it is a popular idea to discuss and criticize racism. American literature had changed through the style of writing, morals, and plot of the stories.