Representation of Race: A Derridean Analysis of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

This study revisits the question of race in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges the long-standing view that the novel is inherently anti-racist. Racism is approached here as both personal prejudice and systemic discrimination rooted in perceived racial and ethnic differences, most often directed at marginalized groups. While some scholars regard racism as an innate human tendency, others understand it as socially produced and sustained by cultural and institutional forces. Although Huckleberry Finn is widely celebrated for its apparent critique of slavery and racial injustice, this study reconsiders such claims by asking whether Twain truly opposed slavery or simply represented its cruelty for narrative effect. It also questions whether his depiction of enslaved characters fully escapes racial bias and stereotyping. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's concept of “double reading,” the analysis uncovers tensions and contradictions within the novel's racial representations. Through content analysis and a descriptive-analytical approach, the study ultimately suggests that Twain's portrayal of both enslaved people and slaveholders remains unresolved in its stance toward racial objectivity and resistance to bias.