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Why Huckleberry Finn Should Not Be Banned Essay

1255 Words6 Pages

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). Since this book contains many racial slurs and violence, people want it banned or censored. Although, Huckleberry Finn should remain how it is because altering it changes the impact of the book, people will still be exposed to these slurs, and it is an opportunity to teach readers.
The censored version of Huck Finn replaces the ‘N-word’ with the word ‘slave’. This would be an inaccurate representation because they have a …show more content…

Mark Twain wrote this book to show readers what life was like. He connected it to his life growing up and wanted to make readers aware of the way people were treated for the color of their skin. Censoring or banning this book would be a crime because it teaches so much and we do not need to change it. Racism was and is a problem in our society and Mark Twain brings it to the surface through a fictional novel. By forcing a book to be changed and molded to make people more comfortable, it is saying you can alter history and history cannot and should not be erased. If you do not like what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn teaches and stands for, then simply do not read it instead of trying to change a

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