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Huckleberry Finn; or, Consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Stacey Margolis
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Abstract

A long-standing debate over Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn turns on the question of intention. While defenders of the novel say that Huck's change of heart toward Jim represents a critique of social conformity, recent detractors claim that the novel's celebration of this change of heart represents a form of liberal bad faith. This essay argues that both readings misunderstand the novel, which works not only to highlight Huck's good intentions but also to replace this sentimental model of responsibility with one drawn from the emergent law of negligence. Having effects rather than intentions be grounds of liability, this new legal paradigm made persons responsible for the inadvertent harms they caused others. From the perspective of negligence, Huckleberry Finn is an indictment of post-Reconstruction racism—not because it offers friendship as a model of reform but because it imagines accountability even in the absence of malice.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 116 , Issue 2 , March 2001, pp. 329 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2001

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