Black, White and Huckleberry Finn: Re-Imagining the American Dream

Mississippi Quarterly, The, Summer, 2000 by Angela M. Thompson

Black, White and Huckleberry Finn: Re-Imagining the American Dream, by Elaine Mensh and Harry Mensh. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000. 168 pp. $29.95 cloth.

WITH BLACK, WHITE AND HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Elaine and Harry Mensh make an important contribution to the impressive selection of recent books and scholarly articles that examine the racial issues in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from new perspectives. This insightful new book both expands and extends the ever-evolving critical conversation about the issue of race in the novel and about the novel's place in the curriculum of America's public schools. The Menshes examine representations of blacks and whites and the relations between them in the novel and connect these fictional representations to nineteenth- and twentieth-century racial attitudes. They find that the contemporary critical debate over "fictional black-white relations [is] also an argument over nonfictional black-white relations: over black images in white minds, unequal authority along racial lines, conflicting perceptions of black-white amity, and ... differing interpretations of the American dream" (p. 2). The authors show how critical opinion has often overlooked historical fact as they consider the implications of these representations for the black characters and for the novel's black and white readers. They contend that this connection should force us to reconsider the novel's place and function as required reading in our schools. The central question the Menshes attempt to answer with their perceptive and provocative new book is whether Adventures of Huckleberry Finn subverts or upholds customary beliefs regarding race.

This question has been at the heart of Twain criticism for quite some time, and the Menshes attempt to formulate their answer by analyzing representations of Huck, Jim, and their relationship in light of nineteenth-century historical documents left by slaves, slave-owners, and non-slaveholding whites and free blacks. Because the novel is often believed to be an authentic representation of the antebellum era, their methodology seems particularly relevant and appropriate. Their meticulous research meshes well with their incisive close readings of key passages in the novel, and these readings often challenge conventionally held critical opinions.

Specifically, the Menshes' analysis complicates the characterization of Huck as a societal rebel who transcends the hypocrisy and racism of his culture. The authors argue that, despite his many transgressions from societal strictures regarding race, class, and conventional morality, Huck does not overcome his racist beliefs, for he continues to accept the institution of slavery. Further, while the Menshes' commend the accuracy and consistency of Twain's characterization of Huck, they find his representation of the fugitive slave Jim to be less veracious. The authors argue that Jim's actions and reactions often fail to conform to those of a fugitive slave as evinced by nineteenth-century slave narratives, and they attribute this inconsistency in characterization to Twain's avowed interest in blackface minstrelsy. Jim's regard for Huck, his concern for his own freedom, and his reaction to Huck's apparent disregard for his safety seem less than authentic because his literary roots lie, at least in part, in the minstrel tradition. The Menshes also take issue with critical opinion which holds that race ceases to matter when Huck and Jim are away from civilization during their river voyage. Addressing a central and often overlooked paradox, the Menshes point out that Jim's voyage of freedom is actually a voyage that takes him due south, away from freedom, and they argue that the transgressions of the color line made possible by life on the raft must be read in light of the direction of the voyage. Finally, the Menshes provide a thorough analysis of the novel's final chapters, which prove central to their contention that the novel upholds traditional racial attitudes.

The Menshes include the result of their meticulous and exhaustive research of nineteenth-century historical documents in support of their timely analysis. However, the impulse to historicize is not limited to their literary arguments; they also historicize their own critical approach by framing their discussion between two key dates in the history of America's cultural conversation about race and education. September 4, 1957, marked the first attempt to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the system was successfully integrated eleven days later, on September 25. The Menshes' discussion of the events that took place on these key dates provides both a frame for the their argument and the foundation for their explication of the continuing controversy over censorship of the novel and its place in America's schools. While this discussion seems, at times, tangential to the authors' central claims about the novel, the historical perspective helps to situate their analysis and to highlight its relevance to contemporary scholarship. Black, White and Huckleberry Finn is a welcome addition to the critical conversation, one that will certainly inspire further instructive debate among scholars, educators and students.