Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and Percival Everett’s James (2024) are separated by a century and a half. Yet, both confront the legacy of American racism through the lens of a fugitive slave named Jim. Twain’s novel, which is one of the most popular books in American literature, is simultaneously revered and reviled for its use of racial slurs and portrayal of antebellum attitudes. Everett’s version reimagines the same narrative from Jim’s perspective.
Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a satirical indictment of Southern society’s racism, focusing on Huck’s moral awakening and his decision not to expose Jim. Twain does a masterful job exposing the hypocrisy of a society claiming Christian virtue while upholding slavery. But Twain’s use of the N-word and depiction of Jim as a superstitious and childlike character have raised the question of whether he truly transcends the racist tropes it portrays.
What makes Everitt’s book unique is that he gives Jim a voice that Twain denied him. Jim is literate, philosophical, and acutely aware of the racial dynamics that shape his world. The novel deconstructs the original’s paternalism and reframes Jim not as a victim but as a protagonist navigating the violence of white supremacy, making Everett’s work more than a retelling but a reclamation, challenging readers to confront the false narrative of American literature and the erasure of a Black worldview.
Music and language play key roles in defining James’ awareness of the injustices and absurdities around him. Jim manages to hide from the slavers who are in pursuit by becoming part of a blackface minstrel show, which contains a veiled reference to a slave’s indifference. One song in particular, which I sang to my children and still sing to my grandchildren, “Jimmy Crack Corn,” also known as “Blue Tail Fly,” strips the song of its innocence and reframes it as a bitter echo of systemic violence and forced servitude. Ironically, the entertainers of the group were mostly white in blackface, offering the ideal cover for Jim’s escape.
Jim is also aware of how language is used to control and dehumanize. It reflects how enslaved people were expected to perform joy or detach in the face of trauma. The author often depicts Jim saying what is expected of him by those around him. The exception of this form of linguistic gymnastics is abandoned towards the end of the book when Jim confronts a bastion of Southern society, Judge Thatcher, who knows the whereabouts of Jim’s wife and daughter, whom their owner had resold to another plantation. Although Jim had a pistol, it was his direct and threatening speech that shocked the judge, who kept saying, “Are you crazy?” (to talk with him this way.)
Both books have faced censorship over the years, although for different reasons. Huckleberry Finn is banned for its offensive language and insensitivity. At the same time, James has already sparked controversy for his unflinching portrayal of racial violence and his challenge to racist, hierarchical authority.
PEN America includes Huckleberry Finn as one of the most frequently banned books in U.S. history. They do point out, “Forestalling academic engagement at this juncture—the point of outrage—is a mistake…Banning and censorship are forms of repression that only succeed in shoving racism deeper into the shadows of our nation’s collective psyche.”
Although PEN America hadn’t issued a formal statement on Everett’s book, the author did observe, “People who seek to ban that book, let’s face it, haven’t read it. If they have read it, they’re not capable of understanding it.”
Which might have been the case with Huckelberry Finn in the late 1800s. Yet the very discomfort these books provoke makes them essential as they force readers to grapple with the moral contradictions of their culture and the power of storytelling to either obscure or illuminate the truth.
About the Author
PERCIVAL EVERETT is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and the Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction, the feature film based on his novel Erasure, was released in 2023. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Danzy Senna, and their children
About the Reviewer
Mark D Walker was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world. Walker’s three books are Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, named Best Travel Book, and The Guatemala Reader: Extraordinary Lives and Amazing Stories. He’s written 80 book reviews, and of his 30 published essays, two were recognized by the Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing. He’s a contributing writer for “The Wanderlust Journal,” “Literary Traveler,” and “The Great Writers You Should be Reading.” His column, “The Million Mile Walker Review: What We’re Reading and Why,” is part of the Arizona Authors Association newsletter. His honors include the “Service Above Self” award from Rotary International. He’s a Board member of SEEDS for a Future, Advance Guatemala, and the Arizona Authors Association. His wife and three children were born in Guatemala. You can learn more at www.MillionMileWalker.com