Huckleberry Finn Literary Analysis

The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been called a literary classic for over one hundred years. It has also been deemed one of the most controversial books of all time. The novel depicts the adventures of a twelve year old boy, Huck and a runaway slave, Jim. The novel has a childish exterior but in reality is a grim depiction of racism in the south. This book has been banned in schools and libraries in numerous locations for its constant and nonchalant use of the “N-word”. “Rough, coarse and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited for the slums than to intelligent, respectable people.” (Boston 1) This book caused an uproar at release and has continued to stir up trouble ever since. Many schools stay far away from the controversies of the novel, due to the weight the word still holds our society. My personal opinion is to defend Mr. Mark Twain and his novel. This book is grave depiction of a grave time in

In fact, I can say that this book is grotesque and crude and genuinely believe it. This book focuses around a time in history that was despicable and the actions of many were crude and demeaning. However, without this grotesqueness, this book and the message it is trying to convey would lose it’s severity. An example of this is how there are versions of the book that replace the N word with the word slave. That isn’t how people talked back then, that isn’t what people were used to hearing, that gives too much credit too a society where owning another human being was a normalcy. Without this word, a word that was synonymous with oppression and depravity, the novel would lose it’s eye opening approach and Mark Twain knew this as he wrote this book. If students can not be taught about this time period in American history due to the fact that it might make some people uncomfortable than how will we be able to grow in knowledge as well as