Mark Twain

[James Devine]

>I think that what is annoying to black American readers of the novel is
>this assumption that Jim (as well as real-life black persons) mainly exists
>for Huck's (and by extension all white persons') "self-actualization."
>
right. I don't think that Huck is actualized in the book, but it's
absolutely true that Jim's character is totally undeveloped compared to
Huck and Tom and so is too much of an object and not enough of a subject.
He's too much of a foil for the white boys.

with my little excursion into ethics, I wasn't talking about the actual
plot of HK as much as the ethical vision. 

BTW, HK was published in 1884. It can be seen as a critique of "Jim Crow"
in the form of a critique of slavery. The justifications for Jim Crow were
much the same as those for slavery. 

Jim Devine jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html