Prejudice in Huck Finn and Minister's Veil

The prejudice in today’s society causes many people to pass judgment based on appearance rather than a true character on a daily basis. For example, someone with a green Mohawk and face tattoos, wearing ripped and baggy clothing may still be in the top of his class, However, its unlikely that one of his classmates would think to ask him for help with the homework. This is because of how society has decided to characterize an “intelligent” person Individuals are more apt to ask someone wearing glasses and a button-down shirt for help, as opposed to the smart, green Mohawk kid.

Unfortunately, social prejudice, like this, tends to make the population focus more on one‘s outward appearance, overlooking the good in many people, Hawthorne and Twain use their characters, Jim and Reverend Hooper, to criticize society by showing readers how its preconceptions are not always right, Members of society tend to follow its bias mainly because it is an easy way to live.

Nevertheless, working a little bit harder to get to know an individual for who they are can have countless benefits. In The Minister’s Black Veil, Reverend Hooper shows up around town wearing a black veil to make a statement to everyone in his townr No one in the town has any idea what the true meaning behind the Reverend’s new attire is, but they automatically jump to their own negative conclusions. The townspeople judge the Reverend negatively for wearing the veil simply because it is a bit out of the ordinary, especially for a reverend.

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A woman may have been less scrutinized for wearing a black veil around town, but for the Reverend, society characterized it as a symbol of sin, A lady even said “How strange that a simple black veil, such as any woman might wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper’s face.”

This is a great line that Hawthorne used to show readers how insignificant the black veil should have been. It seems like if a woman wore it no one would say a word about it, but since it was a socially abnormal thing for Reverend Hopper to wear, it created a huge problem, As soon as the black veil changed Hooper’s appearance, the townspeople immediately changed their opinions on his character and the good person that they thought he was. Because of social prejudice and the innate rejection of the irregular, Reverend Hooper’s “simple black veil” turned him into a monster and a sinner in the eyes of society. Eventually, the Reverend’s own wife gets so consumed by what society thinks that she gives the Reverend an ultimatum; the veil or her lover Reverend Hooper was criticized and thought about negatively by society because of a piece of fabric he chose to wean the fact, however, is that society was the true negative in the equation.

It was wrong by judging and shunning someone the second he went against the “socially acceptable” way to look. Before Reverend Hooper was even given a chance to explain the meaning behind the black veil, social prejudice took overt In The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin, there is a strong contrast between how Huck feels about his friendship with Jim and how society feels about it. During this time period, interracial friendships like this one were socially unacceptable to say the least. Throughout the novel, there are many occasions that highlight what a good friend Jim is to Huckleberry, One incident was when they were on the raft and Jim let Huck sleep instead of be on watch. Another example would be when Jim gave up his freedom to help Huck’s friend Tom when he was shot. Even though Jim had proven himself to be a good friend, the fact that he was black kept Huckleberry questioning whether or not this friendship was okay.

If one were to ask Huckleberry what he thought about Jim, there is really only one negative thing that he would be able to come up with. This one thing would be the color of Jim’s skin, which society had practically given Huck no choice but to view as negative. It said that a black man was nothing but a piece of property, not someone to become friends with. If that were true, then no black man was even capable of being a friend, right? All of the good things Jim had done for Huck along this adventure couldn’t have been because Jim was actually a good person on the inside, that wasn‘t possible, was it? Not according to society‘s prejudices it wasn’t Twain used the friendship between Huck and Jim to show how corrupt society‘s prejudices were and still are.

“Then they come out and locked him up. I hoped they was going to say he could have one or two of the chains took off, because they was rotten heavy, or could have meat and greens with his bread and water, but they didn’t think of it, and I reckoned it warn’t best for me to mix in” Authorities arrested Jim on the assumption that he was a runaway slave, just because he was a black man. This quote shows has Huckleberry struggled to fight against his society and the way they viewed and treated Jim based on his surface appearance. It exemplifies how it is generally more difficult for an individual to oppose the views of an entire group, making it easier to share those views instead. In addition to the friendship between Huck and Jim, Twain also let the town’s treatment toward Jim serve as an example of social prejudice. Duke and King completely dehumanized Jim when they tied him up to the raft all day so they could go to town. He went from being equal with Huck on the raft, back to being an undermined black man, lesser than everyone else due to his skin color.

They just automatically assumed that this was a great plan for everyone, not even putting Jim’s feelings into consideration. But this isn’t the only instance where Jim’s feelings were thrown under the bus due to his skin color. When Huck and Tom were planning to help Jim escape, Torn explained all the details, to Jim, about how they were going to get him out. Everything from sawing the bed post in half, to making Jim live with rats and snakes After hearing this elaborate plan, Jim didn’t understand why it had to be so difficult. Jim knew, however, that as a black man in society he shouldn’t dare question Tomi “Jim he didn’t see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better then himi”.

This line says it all. Of course Jim didn‘t see any sense in Tom’s plan, who would? But because society had taught Jim that “white folk” knew better than black people, Jim falls to social prejudice and does what he is used to doing; obeying and doing as he is told. These relationships and instances that Twain and Hawthorne share through their stories show how outward appearances are characterized by social prejudice. Both Jim and Reverend Hooper are essentially good people that are no different on the inside than anyone else, but there is one thing that separates and makes them “lower” than the rest; their surface appearance Social prejudice is put into play a lot more then we realize in these stories.

In fact, it might take reading the stories again to realize how much Jim and Reverend Hooper were brought down by society because of their surface appearance, Twain and Hawthorne wanted to let the readers know that Jim and Reverend Hooper were actually good people and that society’s prejudices lead many into overlooking someone that could be as loyal of a friend as Jim or someone who was willing to admit to his sins and not hide them from others like Reverent Hooper, solely based on their surface appearances.