The Role Of Race In Othello And Huckleberry Finn - 941 Words

The population of African Americans imprisoned is 5 times larger than the population of caucasians imprisoned. This is because of the racial prejudice that police officers have against them. The amount of police officers in a African American dominated neighborhood is much higher than the amount of police officers in a predominantly white neighborhood. These are examples of how race affects our daily life. In the play Othello written by William Shakespeare and in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, race is challenged through conflicts in the plot, social class, and character relationships. The idea of race is challenged by conflicts on the plot of Othello and Huck Finn. Race is challenged by the conflicts of Othello.†¦show more content†¦Social classes in Othello and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn challenge the racial norms during the time period the stories were written in. Othello challenges uses the idea of social norms when Othello is put in charge of the military. In the first scene of the play, Othello is put into the position of power and this leads Iago to become mad at him. Iago and Roderigo talk and then Iago says â€Å"do well thrive by them; and when they have lined their coats, Do themselves homage†(Othello.1.1.57-58). Othello is put into the position of power, which of course he will become hated by some people. The real point that we must focus on is that he is a black man in power, he is essentially the first black man in English literature, giving him this power and putting him in the upper social class challenges the ideas of race. Similarly, In Huck Finn, Huck and Jim become very close as they travel the river. They become so close that when Huck and Jim met after being separated Jim happily exclaimed â€Å"my heart was mos’ broke bekase you was los’, en I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf’†(Twain 94). Jim is explaining that he would be nothing without Huck and he lost hope in the short amount of time they weren’t together. Their relationship challenges the social classes, because it is an adopted white boy hanging out with a slave. It was not very common. The idea of race is challenged by the ideas of social classes. The idea of race isShow MoreRelatedA Malevolent Villain Essay1086 Words   |  5 Pagescentral role in many literary works, like the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, O’Brien in 1984, and white society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These characters threaten, attack, trick, and persecute the mai n character or another central character within their story. They add to the plot and tension of the work. Another malicious character is Iago, the villain in one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Othello. In this play Iago sets out to destroy Othello for multipleRead MoreEssay Prompts4057 Words   |  17 Pages King Lear Anna Karenina Madame Bovary As I Lay Dying The Mill on the Floss The Awakening Moby-Dick Billy Budd Mrs. Dalloway Bleak House Native Son Bless Me,Ultima One Hundred Years of Solitude Catch-22 Othello Crime and Punishment The Scarlet Letter The Crucible Slaughterhouse-Five A Farewell to Arms Song of Solomon Ghosts The Stone Angel The Great Gatsby The Stranger Heart of Darkness A Tale of Two Cities The House ofRead MoreLangston Hughes Research Paper25309 Words   |  102 Pageseventually took a job in Mexico. Carrie refused to follow her husband. Instead, she traveled around the country, living with friends and relatives and working at temporary jobs as a maid or waitress. She had ambitions to become an actress, but roles for black women were scarce. Sometimes she took young Langston with her, but most of the time he stayed with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. Grandmother Mary Langston, an American citizen of French, Cherokee, and African descent, was nineteen