When reading Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I can not decide whether Huck and Jims' absurd conversations are meant to mock ignorant beliefs, or reenact discriminatory minstrel shows. I found myself laughing at Jim's twisted logic in chapter 14. Ironically, his rhetoric defeats Huck's, when explaining why Frenchmen talk the way they do. Irony presents itself when Huck states that "it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit" (102).
Maybe Twain planned his work to spark controversy all along, writing along the fine line of humor, separating racism and idiocy. I prefer to consider the more flexible approach, and enjoy Twain's questionable challenge to society's sense of humor.
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