Should Huckleberry Finn Be Kept In The Curriculum

The Youth Needs Huck “All modern literature, comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” says Ernest Hemingway, a well known American novelist (“Light Out Huck They Want to Sivilize You” written by Michiko Kakutani). The book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain tells of a great adventure that is shared by the main characters; Jim and Huckleberry Finn. Many classrooms and schools are willing to risk gaining valuable knowledge from this book solemnly based on it’s touchy subjects it contains with the use of the word nigger, the upbringing of America’s dark past with the mistreatment of African Americans, and slavery. The novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be kept in the high school curriculum because of its

Throughout the novel Huck challenges society’s values because he is trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong on his own. The river is a symbol for freedom because both Huck and Jim go to the river to be free of their struggles within society. While journeying on the river Huck makes a realization that one should not always blindly follow the rules. In Southern society Huck was taught to not to think of slaves as equals to himself but of lessers. He realizes that society is wrong because he sees the hurt that comes from his mistreatment towards Jim without realizing he had done anything wrong at first. Huck plays a joke on Jim because he believes it’s easy to fool someone who is African American or in other words different from him. Huck’s trick on Jim was to make him believe he had been on the raft the whole time they were actually apart from each other without knowing where they were in the fog. Jim puts Huck is his place and makes him feel ashamed for lying to him, and Huck says this; “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but i done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d ‘a’ knowed it would make him feel that way,” (Twain 89). The reader can learn from Huck’s experience that lying to a friend because you think less of them doesn’t do any good. This can open up a topic for discussion in the classroom on how one should treat another even if they are different from oneself. This lesson will also help readers better understand the meaning of equality and what good it does for the world when we treat one another with the same amount of respect. While the ultimate life lesson of equality can be learned from this novel alone, may people are willing to risk not