He said that he didn't at first he didn't think of himself as a modern day Huck Finn, but as the media gained more coverage over his trip, he started to agree.
He kept saying he was looking for positive American stories and living others' lifestyles. I believe that his story was incredible, but it got me wondering about whether or not that was what Twain wanted us to see Huck was doing. Was Twain representing positive American stories? To me, his satiric commentary showed me just the opposite.
Huck definitely went out of his comfort zone, and was greatly inspired, but also displayed highly racist attitudes from a young age. This got me wondering about Huck Finn being a coined "classic" - was this video displaying a large bias? Are we trying to preserve the integrity of Huck Finn so people will accept it more? It got me thinking about the letter we got.
There's no way I can get an answer, but I'm wondering how positive Huck Finn's story really was to Americans. What do YOU think?
I think that this story is a prime example of the way that people read what they want into American history. Just as America has never apologized for slavery, we have never really acknowledged what Twain was saying with his text. To me, I put it in the same league as other pessimistic texts that use racist terms satirically (Breakfast of Champions comes to mind). But we like to think of our past as stoic and beautiful. Admitting that a national treasure was not trying to reflect the beauty of childhood in America, but that he was trying to pick apart everything wrong with us contradicts such a belief. It also does not make nearly as compelling of a news story. Americans don't like to think, so it is fitting that our best movies are explosions and human bodies (both gore and sex) and our best books are seen in the same shallow light.
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