The United States has never freed itself from being a racist society since the first African slaves arrived in this land in 1619. The young generation inherits racism from their ancestors and from the company. Huck, a thirteen-year-old boy, can utter one of the most offensive words, the "N-word", in his conversations without realizing its harsh effect on others. People who read the novel will think that Huck is a sinful racist who doesn't care about people's sensitivities. However, Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, does not write the word only once in his novel. The “N-word” is mentioned two hundred and fifteen times in his novel. Twain writes this word on purpose to convey something more than a racist word or joke. Before starting the novel, Twain writes the letter to William Dean Howell in which he states that "[I] have begun another children's book" (Otfinoski). However, after finishing his novel, “What started out as just another children's book became something very different” (Otfinoski). Huck Finn is as full of racism, corruption, and murder as the society Twain lives in at the time. Readers cannot criticize Twain and Huck as racists or Jim as inferior because Twain reveals that society determines their identities regardless of their true nature. On the one hand, many parents fear that the novel is racist. Beatrice Clark, an African American mother, for example, says: “She carries with her the blood of our ancestors. They were called by this word while they were being lynched; they were called this world while they hung on the great magnolia tree” (Roberts). The “N-word” is used to suppress black people and highlight how pointless their lives are and how cruel society is. Twain in fact writes it to portray the truly wild s...... middle of paper ...... also, while everyone praises Jim who helps the doctor cure Tom, Jim may not want to help Tom, who plays with his freedom but “the fate of the slave divided between his master's will and his own” (Smith 370). Helping Tom is his master's will and running away is his. He does what white people want him to do because he shouldn't make white people angry at him. Assuming Jim escapes, the doctor will get angry and ask everyone to capture him. In reality, Jim can no longer escape because he and Huck float a raft downstream to the South where almost all the slave catchers live. Now, if Jim wants to be free, he must rush back to the North, which is impossible for him to be safe. Like Jim, all black people live in a society with too much injustice and suffering until what they do reflects what they want. They all wear the same “mask” to survive.