Parry Grimm's Research

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as an African American Road Narrative

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain and first published in 1885. By focusing on Jim's experiences as a runaway slave on the road to freedom, Huck Finn can be examined as an African American road narrative. In Twain's novel, the river and raft represent the means of mobility for Huck and Jim. By organizing the novel around symbolic settings of plantations and towns, Twain expresses a social commentary on the African American role in society during the 19th century. He also defines the values of 19th century culture and manipulates the river to symbolize escape, freedom, safety, and an idealized America.

An important road for African American culture in history was the movement from southern American to northern America during the Great Migration of the 20th century. The Great Migration occurred for two main reasons. First, new educational and economic opportunities existed in the North that were not available to African Americans in the South. More importantly, African Americans wanted to escape the racism the South still represented. The road to the North provided hope for a life without violence, Jim Crow laws, and political and social discrimination. Railroads and interstate highways represented the road leading to freedom.

The road provided escape for both Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and for the African Americans of the Southern United States during the early 20th century. Although the road represented hope, freedom, and safety in both cases, there were often disapointments along the way that gave the road a negative side. Jim and the African Americans of the Great Migration were discriminated against throughout their journeys. In Stewart E. Tolnay's article titled The African American "Great Migration" and Beyond, it is explained that "southern migrants were greeted with suspicion and hostility by black and white northerners alike" upon their arrival from the South (Tolnay 218). However, Tolnay balances this negative aspect of the road by stating that many black mayors were eventually elected in the North, black-owned businesses and black professionals found success, and the culture of the black community grew (Tolnay 223). Jim faced similar discouragement as he and Huck experienced settings such as the Grangerford and Wilks homes.

Sources Used

Tolnay, Stewart E. "The African American "Great Migration" and Beyond." The Annual Review of Sociology 29 (2003): 209-232.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Penguin Classics, 2002.