Isn't Huck Supposed to be Black?
So why are they using a white kid?
shareNo! Huck is not supposed to be black.
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MovieChat Forums > Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2015) Discussion > Isn't Huck Supposed to be Black?
No, JIM is black !!
shareWow! Really!? I have lost all faith in the world. Do you not read? Did you not go to school?
shareWhy should anyone go to school to read, when Hollywood can make an adaptaion of a book and tell people a story with a Hollywood fix?
For those of you who cannot tell, yes, I am being sarcastic.
Extras names should be in a film's credits.
Huck was white. Jim was black. Didn't you even read the book?
sharei only read tom sawyer
shareIf you get a chance read the book 'Huckleberry Finn'. The Finns were considered white trash because old Pap Finn, his dad was an alcoholic and a troublemaker. And Huck himself was a nice kid, but the ordinary parents in Hannibal didn't want their kids hanging around with him because they considered him trouble...smoking, cussing, not going to school, etc. Also, in this book he ends up leaving town traveling by raft on the Mississippi southward and ends up meeting a runaway black slave named Jim who was also from Hannibal. In fact Huck and Jim knew each other from previous days. It's a good book. Read it if you get the chance. The books always go more into detail than any movie can because of time restraints.
sharehuck is half black according to the novel Finn by Jon Clinch, but this characterization may not be canonical.
shareI don't know who Jon Clinch is or what novel this is you're talking about. But in the book "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" which was written by Mark Twain, he was white, not mulatto. However I have noticed that in modern day books and movies they keep turning characters that were originally white into blacks for some reason, either in books like this or in movies like The Nutty Professor, Dr. Dolittle or Wild, Wild West. I don't know what this obsession is for, but if they want black characters in these particular roles they should give them completely different names and storylines than the books or movies where the characters were originally white.
shareIt's ludicrous that Hollywood would change any details from important works of art such as The Nutty Professor, Dr. Dolittle, and Wild, Wild West.
www.podcastofthetough.com
Very funny smart ass, but if they want to change white characters to black characters in their movies, the least they can do is change the titles to the movies. And we all know damned well they'd never make a movie about something like Sanford and Son while making Fred, Lamont and Esther white. The whole thing would be ridiculous....kind of like making Jim West black was ridiculous.
sharePersonally I can think of lots of better ways to spend my time than worrying about characters in movies having the "wrong" skin color.
www.podcastofthetough.com
Tell that to the original poster on here then. The original Huckleberry Finn was a white kid. If somebody wants to write a story about a kid during that era where the kid is black, at least give the story and the character a different name.
shareCalm down mate. You are coming across as a racist.
shareI don't think so. I'm just telling the truth concerning Mark Twain's book "Huckleberry Finn". I don't know where some of these posters are getting the idea that Huckleberry Finn was a black or mulatto character. In Twain's novel he is definitely white. In fact he looks down on white yankee abolitionists and seems to be at odds with himself for helping Jim the black slave escape. Now, it's obvious that if Huck was black or a mulatto he would have been a slave in antebellum Missouri, rather than a homeless waif and wouldn't have had conflicting thoughts concerning helping Jim to escape. Now I realize in today's hyper pc climate, people love to accuse anybody who's white, Christian, heterosexual etc. of racism, but it's just not there in this case.
shareDefinitely not being racist...you are absolutely right.
Anyone with a sliver of knowledge about literature or public education knows that "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has been one of the most controversial novels taught in school based on the nature of the first person narrative(Huck)and the racist language.
It is set in the antebellum south and of course a white kid in a slave state is racist...duh...but Huck overcomes his own racism(to a point) and Jim is an inspirational figure in literature for his selflesness.
NOT RACIST- Huck is white and if he were any other color the story would've never made any sort of sense...period.
Hes not making it clear that the character of Huck has to overcome his own racism in "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
Its one of the greatest character arcs ever written, so obviously making him black would negate an integral part of his character
And you're coming across as retarded.
shareActually, Sanford and Son is a remake of a British television show called Steptoe and Son, where the characters were white.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steptoe_and_Son
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Gypsies steal buttons.
I think, if the characters race has nothing to do with the story, like in Dr Doolitle, then it's really irrelevant which actor they choose for that role, may it be black or any other race.
However, in Tom Sawyer it's obvious that Huck is a white tramp, son of a white-trash drunken man, and so they really shouldn't change his race in any movie.
oliverxia said and I quote;
huck is half black according to the novel Finn by Jon Clinch, but this characterization may not be canonical.
I've read many of Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemmons) books. If Huck was a mulatto Twain would have said so because he pulled no punches with his words. That's why a lot of his works were banned in schools. Mr. Clinch may be basing his assertion on one of the modern day censored politically correct versions.
I agree. And in those times a mulatto would have been a candidate for slavery also. I don't know where this Clinch got the idea that Huckleberry Finn was a mulatto, but he's dead wrong. The character of Huckleberry Finn, as written by Mark Twain, was white.
shareWhite, Black. White, Black. You guys keep arguing. ...they still casted a Latino/Hispanic actor to play the role. lol xD
Not that I have a problem with it. Austin looks pretty good in the pictures. :)
It's stupid to cast a black actor in the role of Huckleberry Finn because he's white. It makes about as much sense as casting a white actor to play the role of Jim.
sharehttp://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976060,00.html
There has actually been quite a bit of literary debate over this topic. While the most widespread and literal translation of the book is that he was caucasian, there are a number of arguments to which we can draw conclusions to the character being afroamerican, or at least black at heart.
The article above has some insight to one of the arguments regarding Twain's influence of the character, those specifically relating to Huck. There are other arguments that claim Huck's soul was african american, who had been white washed by a white family and returned to many of his roots in his adventure with jim.
The book is about questioning morality, coming of age during the reconstruction period, and an overall critique of a termulterious historical period in America. Hope the movie can at least shed light on some of the many complex moral and ethical questions the book raised.
This is incorrect. Huck is usually depicted with red hair.
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My problem is that both Huck and Tom are very clearly southerners. Jake T Austin doesn't look or sound southern-ish whatsoever. I like the kid (he's great in The Fosters) but I don't think he's right for this part AT ALL!
shareBecause Huck is White and there's no need to appease the constant crying of the multi cultural racist parties who insist that anything White must be bad ( get over it racists he was WHITE ) everything after Mark Twain's work is just pure bull.
Oh and Jesus if he existed was either Black or Egyptian not White as we whiteys like to portray, you bible bashers can get over that too.
Huckleberry finn is not black
Look like Tarzan talk like Jane! HAHA