Old Facts New Questions

As I read Blackface Minstrelsy, I learned some facts about Mark Twain’s life which made me question how we see his life captured by the essence of his novels. The author of the article states that in 1906 Twain “said, using a word that would have bothered almost no white Americans at the time but which now makes us wince, that "the genuine nigger show, the extravagant nigger show" was "the show which to me had no peer" and "a thoroughly delightful thing"” (Blackface Minstrelsy). Once again we find the present issues with the word “nigger” and his proximity to the racially discriminatory society the author lived in. Clearly an author’s live affects his writing, specially when using experiences and childhood memories to create novels.

After showing the possibility of Huck and Jim being a minstrel show author of the article mentions how “MT's contemporary white readers would have seen nothing wrong with a "minstrel-show" version of an African-American. But the question of what kind of "source" minstrelsy was for MT's novel remains unanswered by a reference to the racist prejudices of his popular audience” (Blackface Minstrelsy). The possibility that the novel was inspired by minstrel shows and that it satisfied Twain’s readers desire for racist art exposes the dark side of Twain’s time period. In cases like these readers must search for answers that correspond to facts about author’s lives and interests which may sometimes lead to more unanswered questions.