The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a book of Racism. Support or refuse this statement.

I think like most classic literature we really need to understand it within the context of the time period. Twain set this novel before the Civil War; roughly 1835–1845. Slavery in the Southern United States was a reality and the characters' words and actions had to reflect this. Really, if anything, Huckleberry Finn is a book despoiling many of the ideas about racism at the time. As Huck grows and matures, he begins to see Jim (the escaped slave) as a human being and a friend. Jim becomes a character more worthy of friendship than even Tom. The vernacular is offensive only if we take it in todays context, this however would be a misreading of the book.