Two- hundred nineteen times, that is how many times nigger is mentioned in three-hundred sixty-six page novel. That would mean the word nigger is mentioned at least once per page. Mark Twain’s “ American Classic” has been used in many education institutions since it’s conception. However, with the rise of the black community in the civil rights movement, it was met with the dismay of many black students. After the segregation among blacks and whites ended in schools, many black students felt this book was not only racially insensitive, but that it had no real literary value. A new critical analysis of Huckleberry Finn shows that it racist, lacks an intelligent depiction of black males, and imposes racial discomfort from black students.
In 1935, Ernest Hemingway claimed that “all American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” This book even with all it’s adventure is ultimately racist and insensitive
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The uneasiness in your stomach as you look around and see your classmates of the same skin tone of your teacher while reading aloud the word NIGGER. As the teacher reaches the end of that word with the hardest of r’s and your classmates look as if it should affect you. Again, Henry gives another example this book has affected black students in the classroom :
” A situation as emotionally charged as the introduction of the word "nigger" into class discussion requires a sensitivity and perspicacity that parents are unconvinced a majority of teachers possess. Those who want the "classic" expelled dread the occurrence of incidents such as the one described by Hentoff on ABC'S "Nightline." According to Hentoff, a teacher in Texas commenced her initial class discussion of the novel with the question "What is a nigger?" In response, the white students in the class looked around the room at the black