Even though only 13% of surveyed Americans believe that the word “slave” should replace “nigger” in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, it still seems to be an extensive debate. Some think that Twain’s language and use of the word “nigger” is unnecessary and inappropriate. It is apparent that the masterpiece should stay in the teaching curriculum because it is apart of our history, it is not offending the “right” people, and the d used leads to a great learning experience. Although the book is fiction, it accurately represents slavery and discrimination. During the period that it portrays, unfortunately, African Americans were referred to as “niggers”. It is not fair to all of the people who lived during these times to hide it just because a student is uncomfortable in a classroom. Those are the historical facts and that is not something that should be ignored. Slavery occurred for almost three centuries in America and there were around 7 million slaves in that time period (History Channel). It is entirely understandable why people do not want …show more content…
As an article in Bartleby states, “Twain’s choice of language allows the reader to travel back in time to the 1800’s and discover how inhumane the racist society was towards the African American community”. In modern times, we are so used to slang that we forgot that it did not always use to be like this. Without the improper grammar, readers would not be able to interpret the book like Twain intended. Although some scholars believe that removing the language and “nigger” will make the book easier to teach, “This change may confuse some students, though, since Jim has freed himself by running away from Miss Watson, and so is not actually a slave during most the book. And by making the substitution, many good teaching opportunities are lost,” (Rawson). Removing the dialect used would lose the main focus of the