# What is "Twain's retraction" in Huck Finn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2001, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804 "2001-11-11T21:30:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Partida](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Kevin\_Partida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevin_Partida)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/1 "2001-11-11T21:30:49Z")
I am wondering what “Twain’s retraction” is. Supposedly critics dubbed the last part of Twain’s Huck Finn (ch. 32-42) as “Twain’s retraction” and Hemingway called it “cheating”. Am i completely blind because the last part of the novel seems like its the same as all the rest, but then again, I am no good at analyzing litearature. ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/2 "2001-11-11T21:53:48Z")
SPOILERS. For those that haven’t read it. Where Huck meets up with Tom and they are in no more danger anymore is considered a cop-out ending by some critics. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/3 "2001-11-11T22:05:14Z")
Or when the law catches - - SHIT! What’s his name??!?!?! - - the runaway slave, and they let him go? Talk about cop-out. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/4 "2001-11-11T23:22:37Z")
**Daowajan** , admit it-- You just didn’t want to type “Nigger Jim.” Now _I_ feel dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/5 "2001-11-11T23:25:58Z")
I THOUGHT it was Jim… wasn’t certain tho ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/6 "2001-11-12T01:38:39Z")
Off to Cafe Society bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/7 "2001-11-12T02:20:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > **Daowajan** , admit it-- You just didn’t want to type “Nigger Jim.” Now _I_ feel dirty. Well, you don’t have to type it – in the book he’s just called Jim, although lots of people who have written about the novel in the past use the n-word as if it were part of his name, for no good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Green\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Fool)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/8 "2001-11-12T07:33:55Z")
…I don’t know what version you have been reading but Jim is referred to as Nigger Jim quite often in all the books I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/9 "2001-11-12T07:38:57Z")
perhaps in the latest editions they leave out the nigger bit? like Agatha Christie’s “10 Little Niggers” being called “10 Little Indians” ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/10 "2001-11-12T07:53:18Z")
read here: [http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/hf\_debate.html](http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/hf_debate.html) ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/11 "2001-11-12T08:24:41Z")
Some critics have argued that the one flaw in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a poor ending, one which seems to contradict and make a farce of much of what has gone before. They suggest that, during events at the Phelps farm, both Huck and Jim revert to the stereotypes which they have spent the novel trying to shed and that the manner of Jim’s `escape’ is, at best, unbelievable, and at worst, renders his yearning for freedom nonsensical. The social order so obviously castigated throughout the novel, they claim, appears to be restored at the end. Other critics deem that the ending, although elaborate and perhaps weak, is necessary in order to return Huck to the anonymity his character needs to get on with his life. It would be important that any study of this novel considers the appropriateness of the ending and whether it detracts from the richness of the rest of the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/12 "2001-11-12T08:36:35Z")
btw i did a search but it is not called “Twain’s retraction” anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Bossk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Bossk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bossk)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/13 "2001-11-12T08:47:23Z")
This flap notwithstanding, am I the only living soul that considers \*Tom Sawyer \*a better read than _Huck Finn_??? I just liked it so much more. Am I a criminal now? ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-twains-retraction-in-huck-finn/92804/14 "2001-11-12T19:58:20Z")
Jane Smiley wrote a very good article on this for Harpers about seven or eight years ago. She though that Twain had begun Huck Finn as another nostalgic romp in the manner if Tom Sawyer, but had been drawn inevitably into the issue of slavery. She saw the episode at Aunt Sally’s as an attempt to avoid confronting the reality of slavery in Twain’s childhood. Personally, I disagree, but I don’t have time to explain why right now.