Term Paper on "Classism and Racism Literature"

Term Paper 12 pages (3754 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Classism and Racism

Literature is a reflection of the world of the writer, not only as he or she sees it but often as it is. The writer experiences the world as if he or she is an observer and feels compelled by some unknown force to express the story of the world in which he or she lives. In many cases these stories are wrought with messages that are progressive even revolutionary for their time but are considered archaic in the legacy of the work. Within two works in particular this can be seen. Charles Dickens in Hard Times, racism and classism as well as does Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The perceptions of the work detail both a step back into a time when people were openly dehumanized by virtue of the status of their birth and also represent a marginal look toward progress away from dehumanizing and exploiting people. The works should then be thought of as a balancing act between what a people will accept as progress and what a people see as fair and real, the way it always has been and should remain.

In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in; at the heart of the labyrinth of narrow courts upon courts, and close streets upon streets, which had come into existence piecemeal, every piece in a violent hurry for some one man's purpose, and the whole an unnatural family, shouldering, and trampling, and pressing one another to death; in the last close nook of this great exhausted receiver, where the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught, were built in an immense variety of stunted and crooked shapes, as though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who might be expected to be born in it; among the multitude of Coketown, generically called "the Hands," -- a race who would have found more favour with some people, if Providence had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the seashore, only hands and stomachs

Dickens 83)

Dickens' early life reflects a view of the rapidly industrializing England in which he lived, where nature is pushed back, reserved only for those who could afford to live in it or at least visit it, while the urban centers became choked with pollution and poverty as a reflection of the birth of the man woman or child, relegated to it. Though Dickens was a member of the middle class, afforded the luxury of propriety, he was also a writer of words for many and Hard Times itself was written as a serial for his magazine, meant to be received by the masses, with a new sense of empathy and a new sense of hatred toward those who profited from the poor, utilizing self serving ethics like those taught in the early part of the novel by Gradgrind, that were later capitulated at least by him but not by some of his followers.

And if the masters deny the Christian message, or twist it to their own ends, the Union leaders do the same. It is perhaps a sign of the shaky balance which Dickens saw it as his mission to maintain that this should be so. Slackbridge is a slightly more secular Chadband, and what Dickens christens "the gospel according to Slackbridge" contains frequent references to Judas Iscariot, the serpent in the garden and the "God-like race" of workers.

Barnard 48)

The world around Dickens as both a child and a middle class man with his own ups and downs

Straus 16) was fraught with the seeds of change as sites of unbearable cruelty grew and fell as a result of economy and eventually social well-being if not social order.

The Victorian workhouse has come to symbolize on one hand systematic, institutional cruelty informed by abstract economic principles, and on the other hand the moral heroism of social critics who saw through and indignantly protested this inhumane dogma. This is another way of saying that the workhouse is strongly associated with Jeremy Bentham and Charles Dickens. (Stokes 711)

Dickens reflected a belief in the need of change, or at least his works, and especially Hard Times reflects his desire to feed this potential change through writing down for the masses to read, the point-of-view of a villain, conscripting those who he or she believed to be worthy of hard work alone, for the profits of others.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn expresses the reality of Clemen's life growing up as a poor but upperclassman in his white world of slavery. He was practically raised by slaves and witnessed social situations many of us would have nightmares about, with regard to slavery. His view of the world was tainted by the reality of the slave owning south where human beings were dehumanized by virtue of birth, expressions of class and race. In Dickens' Hard Times the issue of race is not at the forefront but classism is the thematic center of the work. At the beginning of the industrial revolution the definitions of class become blurred as individuals with relatively small amounts of money and a great deal of luck invest in industries that make them into a new class, the wealthy middle class. Yet, in the process they must establish a sense of "greater than" entitled by class and the protestant ethic to demand labor from the poor. In a single generation they must learn how to unlearn any lessons of empathy they may have learned as the poor and revert to a thought process that is demoralizing and dehumanizing to those whose backs they profit off of. "Dickens belonged to that queerly sensitive division of the middle class which looked, and still looks, upon 'gentility' as the brightest virtue of all."

Straus 110)

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there is a clear note of racism and classism as these two issues were sharp in the minds of the contemporary world of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Huck's relationship with Jim is the most striking example of the inherent racism of his time and place, as despite Twain's attempt to clarify Jim's dignity as a human being, he still had a place in race and class that was not completely bridgeable by Huck, despite his obvious feelings of friendship for him.

A got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now Twain 296)

Despite Huck's obvious love for Jim, and the return from Jim, as a friend and a father figure Huck was forced to speak of him with other white people as propriety would have him, calling him a "nigger" and saying he was trying to steal him away from another, not as if he were his equal in life, as they treated one another. Huck knew the system of right and wrong that included open disdain for black people but challenged it against the wishes of many. This is also reflected in more modern works, such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, where the accepted way for a white person to treat a black person is challenged and the accepted way to treat a child or a wife is questioned through vivid stories of history's wrongs. (Bloom 5)

Mark Twain is a pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens who lived from 1835-1910. Twain was one of the most famous American writers of his time spanning the scope of writing from fiction, for which he is most famous to journalism, the manner in which he often earned his living. His fictions were famous for their expression of youth and many of his works fall into the category of humor. His two most read works are Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn but Twain was a prolific writer and speaker throughout his long career.

He was born on… READ MORE

How to Reference "Classism and Racism Literature" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Lady in the Lonoking Glass Essay

English

Looking Critically at "The Lady in the Looking-Glass"

Virginia Woolf is a prominent figure in feminist literature. She wrote many pieces, including poems, and short stories. One of her… read more

Essay 3 pages (944 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Modest Proposal Literature Is a Window Essay

Modest Proposal

Literature is a window into the society of Jonathon Swift's time in which created he created "A Modest Proposal." It mirrors English society and addresses the concerns of… read more

Essay 4 pages (1631 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl Literature Review

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl

What Anne Frank wrote in her diary has become symbolic of the strength of the human spirit. In Anne Frank's book, Anne Frank:… read more

Literature Review 3 pages (1086 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

What Is Tragedy? Essay

Tragedy

As a form of literature, the tragedy has been in existence since the time of the Ancient Greeks. It has evolved over the centuries from the ancient world to… read more

Essay 3 pages (1047 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Huckleberry Finn and How to Read Literature Like a Professor Essay

Huckleberry Finn and How to Read Literature like a Professor

Four aspects of the Quest: Mark Twain's the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The quester: Huckleberry Finn must escape a stultifying… read more

Essay 1 pages (339 words) Sources: 0 Style: MLA Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>