under tutelage that his identity splits apart as if it were an outdated Jim’s “white” casque or shell. The raft is only rarely (and briefly) a sanctuary from conflict, a of in words (483). For most of the time in the novel the “raft hope” Ralph Ellison’s raft is the primary locus of the civil war in soul, and the violence he Huck’s encounters on other rafts or onshore seems only a shadow of the trouble in own heart. What magnificent opening portion of his novel makes Huck’s Twain’s indelible—especially if the passage is included—is that conflict raftsmen’s Huck’s over his bond with Jim is really a conflict over whom he understands himself to be. And conflicts and his mask-wearing are also the they are Huck’s nation’s: continually denied and misunderstood yet are always there, shadowing the nation like that barrel in the ghost story. 3. I turn now to a brief consideration of the post Civil Rights era consensus about the notorious ending of Huckleberry Finn, in which Tom’s torturous freeing of an already free man is often read as a satiric farce about race relations in the 1870s and early 1880s, when the limited reforms instituted by were systematically dismantled with the approval of many Northerners and Southerners. I believe that it is a mistake to ask whether the Tom Sawyer-dominated episodes exploit racist stereotypes for humor or undercut them through irony and satire. Such a question implies we have an either/or choice in assessing the cultural work (or cultural damage) accomplished by novel. Rather, we Twain’s should attend to the ways in which the last chapters of the novel enact doubleness and duplicity in ways that can never be reduced to a single way of interpreting their meaning. In their own demonic way, they complete the novel’s cultural work of making identity-split representative of the Huck’s nation’s.
under Jim’s tutelage that his “white” identity splits apart as if it were an outdated casque or shell. The raft is only rarely (and briefly) a sanctuary from conflict, a “raft of hope” in Ralph Ellison’s words (483). For most of the time in the novel the raft is the primary locus of the civil war in Huck’s soul, and the violence he encounters on other rafts or onshore seems only a shadow of the trouble in Huck’s own heart. What Twain’s magnificent opening portion of his novel makes indelible—especially if the raftsmen’s passage is included—is that Huck’s conflict over his bond with Jim is really a conflict over whom he understands himself to be. And Huck’s conflicts and his mask-wearing are also the nation’s: they are continually denied and misunderstood yet are always there, shadowing the nation like that barrel in the ghost story. 3. I turn now to a brief consideration of the post Civil Rights era consensus about the notorious ending of Huckleberry Finn, in which Tom’s torturous freeing of an already free man is often read as a satiric farce about race relations in the 1870s and early 1880s, when the limited reforms instituted by were systematically dismantled with the approval of many Northerners and Southerners. I believe that it is a mistake to ask whether the Tom Sawyer-dominated episodes exploit racist stereotypes for humor or undercut them through irony and satire. Such a question implies we have an either/or choice in assessing the cultural work (or cultural damage) accomplished by Twain’s novel. Rather, we should attend to the ways in which the last chapters of the novel enact doubleness and duplicity in ways that can never be reduced to a single way of interpreting their meaning. In their own demonic way, they complete the novel’s cultural work of making Huck’s identity-split representative of the nation’s.