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Racism in american literature
Racism in english literature
Racism in english literature
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Racism in american literature
Racism in english literature
Racism in english literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
If you ask two different people what the n word meant you would probably get two completely different responses. One might say it is insulting and degrading, another might say it is a term of endearment. Throughout Huck Finn this word was used a total of 219 times. If the n word were not a degrading term there would not be so much controversy about banning and censoring Huck Finn. However, the word has been altered since it was used in the time period of Huck Finn.
The irony is that nobody went to rescue Huck from Pap's cabin, yet a crowd gathered to search for his supposed remains. One would expect that one would have tried to stop the search party from being necessary. They didn't want the responsibility of having to care for when Huck was alive, but are more than willing to help now that he's dead. The difference in the amount of reward money for Paps and Jim’s crimes or also ironic. One would expect that the homicide of a child would be a greater offence than a simple run away.
For the reason that the n-word appears 219 times in the novel, many schools have decided to ban the book in their classrooms. Cautiously questioning students whether or not the novel arouses an “uncomfortable” (Coeyman) feeling, teachers debate on teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Multiple teachers feel that their inter-racial classes may include students who feel offended by the n-word. Various schools have considered the novel to be “...too racially offensive…”(Coeyman). For instance, school districts in Virginia have banned the book after a mother complained about how her son was disturbed by the “‘...racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can’t get past…’”(Balingit).
Many books have been censored or banned in libraries and schools across the United States because of their suggestive or inappropriate content. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a sequel to the popular The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is one of the books that are being illuminated as “unfit to read”. It is the story a young boy, Huck, and a black man, Jim, in the 1800s, who ran away and their journey across the Mississippi River. It is a controversial piece in a majority of the classrooms across America. In this book, the N word shows up over two hundred times (Here's Why Banning 'Huck Finn' Over The N-Word Sends The Wrong Message).
Pitts utilizes anaphora, “...any work of art represents a series of conscious choices on the part of the artist — what color to paint, what note to play, what word to use — in that artist's attempt to share what is in his or her soul.” (Pitts 7) to emphasis the critical importance of why an author decides the precise diction towards their novels to portray events. Publishers may take note that altering the initial diction originally published, alters the historical background influencing the diction and phrase choice used in context. The audience may also sense a hasty generalization Pitt exhibits when judgmentally addressing how individuals find the racial slur used in context to be obscene; although many popular artists lyricize the same word exposing a number of individuals to become accustomed to the slur, absentmindedly ignoring the original degrading meaning as not everyone is comfortable hearing the slur. Although I do agree with not alternating original contents of novels, the way Pitts dictates his argument is too biter; it would be much more effective to explain how Huck Finn was written in 1884, a time in which there was a surplus of slave plantation workers and free individuals would coin the term to emphasize the downgrading nature of being a person of color compared
Censorship Rough Draft “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame” (Oscar). The words remarked by renowned author Oscar Wilde oppose the numerous efforts of many current governments to censor threatening texts. Many books are banned, because they showcase offensive themes; however, this depicts America’s appreciation of literature, or rather lack thereof. Books should not be banned because they depict realistic ideals and conflicts that many people may relate to.
There’s one thing about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn people don't agree on and it's the use of the n-word. Should it, or shouldn’t be taught in schools, there are multiple reasons why Huckleberry Finn should be taught! One of the reasons is how it shows the times back then, it gave people a visual on what “normal” looked like in the past. This book could also teach what the n-word actually means. Kids should be taught what it means in a school environment, not in the “real world” where they might not grasp the words' full meaning.
The constant usage of the n word can be demeaning and harmful to African American students — in 1995, a group of African American students in Cherry Hill, NJ suddenly began failing tests and quizzes in their English class. This happened as a result of an incompetent teacher, who forgot to mention the 200 plus instances of the n word and the fact that the book was controversial. And to make matters worse, the white students would snicker and stare at the African American students when the n word was read aloud. (Document E) This should not be the case — I was lucky enough to have a teacher who would make sure to make reading Huck Finn as comfortable as it would aloud.
Don’t censor To Kill a Mockingbird Rosa Parks once said, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird the author Harper Lee uses the n-word 48 times and negro 54 times. This alone could cause readers to feel uncomfortable, along with the vulgar language and references to sexual activities. Some people may think that the best solution to these problems are to take out these words and censor the whole book.
The racial epithets in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee should not be removed for various reasons. The use of such slurs strengthen the impact of the message while making the speech of the characters more accurate, and it also gives the reader an idea of how the people of Maycomb function as a whole in terms of their treatment of African-Americans. To Kill a Mockingbird is an iconic novel that has played a definitive part in the lives of millions of people, whether they read the book with their class or picked it up just for fun. The book focuses on a racist and judgmental town, so the vocabulary used should align with the views of the characters. The use of the n-word is crucial to the plot and sets up the overall image of life in Maycomb,
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird there is evidence of a racist past that is still brought up to this day. There are many lessons to be learned from this book that are still relevant today such as inequality in the justice system and underlying racism. In modern day society, historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor talks about how the “n-word” is used by many but most of the time people do not know the harm or history behind the word. I believe that Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is still relevant to this day and that it can help teach future generations to stray away from using the “n-word” by learning from its racist past. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird brings about the unfairness of the justice system for African
Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn when the word "nigger" was simply used as a reflection of what the times were like in those days, using it didn't not cause a second thought. Twain makes out a time when Dark colored individuals were not treated as human
Students should learn about the value the novel provides from that time-period in which Mark Twain wrote, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain put the N word in the novel for a reason, to describe the time-period in which these events had occurred. Phillip Rawls writes, “‘It’s such a shame that one word should be a barrier between a marvelous reading experience and a lot of readers,’ Gribben said. Yet Twain was particular about his words.”
In the book “Adventures of huckleberry Flinn” the timeline was set during the time of slavery, and the purpose was to show the American institutions at that time. “Twain's hero Huck Finn… is struggling to overcome his own racism. In one of the most moving paragraphs in American literature, Huck decides he’d rather “go to hell” then turn Jim, a runaway slave over to authorities. Huck’s struggle with his conscience in a society invested in white supremacy at every level is what students are deprived of when the book is banned because of the “n” word (Norman). This source makes it clear that individuals who desire to have certain historic pieces banned are not looking at the whole picture altogether.
The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1885. Twain wrote this book as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In the process of writing he ended up creating a book about how racism and how wrong it is. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was in 1839-1840 in the Mississippi Valley where Jim and Huck meet many different people, and this is where most of the stuff they went through happened. Huck Finn is a 12 year old boy ,who has no sense of right and wrong Huck is the main character and affects how the story went.