Why Is Huckleberry Finn Controversial

The Adventures of Controversial Finn; Racial Edition

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has seen controversy after controversy over its entire lifetime, and in this moment of history, it is no different. The Adventures of Huckleberry, a novel by Mark Twain, revolved around Huck (a white child) and Jim (a black runaway slave) who join together to escape a dark and limiting past. In the late 19th century, when the book was published, it was banned for being deemed as abolition propaganda, while today it is banned in many school districts, nationwide, for its constant and recurring use of the “N-word”. There has been multiple answers to this controversial book, but currently there are three core solutions: leaving the original

This seems like the halfway solution between leaving the book in its original form, and completely scrapping the book and replacing it entirely. By replacing the “N-word” with the word “slave”, the entire novel completely loses a grand deal of strength and punch. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is meant to cause a conversation about abolition, and how society has embedded such a morally flawed and disgusting system, which would transcend and taint American values and systems with racism against black people. By replacing the N-word with “slave”, the novel loses the issues about racism, and begins to revolve around only slavery. Of Course, slavery is a gigantic, problematic evil against black people, but it is like criticizing a branch, rather than the tree itself. Mark Twain calls for action against racism, and its spawns as a whole, rather than specifically criticizing one aspect that came from racism. Replacing the “N-word”, will erase its bloody history of slavery, stereotypes, subjugation, and suppression. Nearing the end of the sixteenth chapter, Huck begins to argue with Jim, in which he ends by telling the audience, “I see it warn’t no use wasting words — you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit,” which plays on the racial stereotype that black people are not as intelligent nor capable as a white person to have a coherent discussion (Twain). However, Jim was extremely successful at explaining his side of the argument by using sound and accurate logic. Yet, by replacing the N-word, it cools the book and controversy ten times over, which allows the classroom to feel more comfortable and more willing to receive lessons and values that Mark Twain is trying to communicate with his audience. These lessons include, but are not limited to, society’s impact on an individual's moral compass and the importance of keeping