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Why Should Huckleberry Finn Be Banned

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The controversy over whether or not The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be banned has been a recurring topic over many decades in public school districts. The appearance of the ‘n’ word and the treatment towards the African American race, has made many readers uneased. In this novel, Mark Twain expresses realness of the world in that time period and projects it onto the characters in this story. Getting rid of this book in schools would reflect on children not learning the realness of the past, our history. Why should Mark Twain’s writing be penalized because of what’s going on in the world today ? This novel should not be censored nor banned due to the fact of citizens animosity on how it is written, good or bad this story is a part of American history. We do not have the right to change Mark Twain’s writing just because we do not …show more content…

In the novel the word “nigger” was used alot by ‘Pap’ the father of Huck. For example,when pap found out that a Black man is able to vote he immediately says “they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says i’ll never vote agin.”(Twain 6) . Now yes there were many racist remarks made in this book over the word nigger, but that should not be the only view point of this novel . This book was never fully understood because people decided to base their view on this book solely on one word. Having the word “nigger” in Huckleberry Finn is one of the biggest teachable moments for students to grow and learn about the era of those parts in history. If you take out everything in the book that causes the teachable moments then you have no teachable moments, no room for your students to grow and learn. Those who have opposed this book never fully comprehended the full story and how Huck grew to understand that the people who have raised him were wrong about their ways

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1044 Words | 5 Pages

The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by writer Mark Twain is a very divisive book and the reason for that is because of it controversy with racism. It is banned from lots of school because they believe that it could make a lot of students uncomfortable. Maybe making them uncomfortable is a good thing. High school students can see how it was like back then for the black people and how they were treated. They weren 't treated as humans at all.

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943 Words | 4 Pages

When the King and Duke steal the fatherless sisters’ money and are deciding where to temporarily store it, the king says, “First you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put ‘em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow it? “ (Twain 181). Twain exemplifies people’s stereotyping and discriminatory treatment of African Americans that comes with the “n word” throughout the novel, as well as the shocking nature of the word’s use. The “n word” is similarly used to dehumanize African Americans and make them seen as subhuman, shown by Huckleberry speaking to Tom’s aunt about why his ferry was delayed:“‘It warn’t the grounding—that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.’

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163 Words | 1 Pages

For the reason that the n-word appears 219 times in the novel, many schools have decided to ban the book in their classrooms. Cautiously questioning students whether or not the novel arouses an “uncomfortable” (Coeyman) feeling, teachers debate on teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Multiple teachers feel that their inter-racial classes may include students who feel offended by the n-word. Various schools have considered the novel to be “...too racially offensive…”(Coeyman). For instance, school districts in Virginia have banned the book after a mother complained about how her son was disturbed by the “‘...racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can’t get past…’”(Balingit).

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1666 Words | 7 Pages

All the complaints against the book were for being racist, and it is not a racist novel if you have the right understanding of the time period. People argued among one another about whether the novel should be kept in classrooms or not, and people just do not understand. Some people are not as extreme with their ideas about the novel but some do believe it has no right to be taught it in classroom. For example, “University of Pittsburgh English Professor Jonathan Arac, author of “Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target: The Function of Criticism in out Time,” agrees that the book should be removed from required reading lists.

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1255 Words | 6 Pages

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

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901 Words | 4 Pages

The uses of satire, the time period, and friendship reveal Twain’s unprejudiced views achieving its place in the curriculum. The glimpse of history Twain provides with slavery and society is very important to understanding of the novel and its overall messages important to the curriculum. This remarkable narrative has many examples of realism and literature elements important to the learning the history of literature. One of America’s most prominent and informational works of literature ever written Adventures of Huckleberry Finn must stay in the high school curriculum

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1456 Words | 6 Pages

Toni Morrison effectively analyzed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covering different perspectives and ways to interpret the novel that displays a higher level understanding of a “challenging” text. Good writing and analysis skills are crucial for a variety of different tasks students will have to perform beyond school. Additionally, challenging literature offers a great opportunity for students to learn about censorship. As many books read in schools today are being censored, any opportunity for students to directly learn more about the issue is beneficial. In the article “Schools Can’t Ban Books Because of Complaints, Court Says,” Mark Walsh addresses a woman who wishes to discard of controversial works, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that provoke racial harassment in the school system (Source B).

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620 Words | 3 Pages

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, why this book written by Mark Twain should be on the banned books list in schools and why it is too mature for it’s students. This book is full of situations that honesty students are not able to handle, leaving inappropriate impressions about racism and how to treat people and is going to cause teenagers and young adults to repeat the language and personalities seen in this, to other groups of this century that are fitting now The problem with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn isn’t that it is a bad book, not that maybe it is poorly written or isn’t a learning experience. The fact of the matter is that students do not hold the attention span or mental capacity to be forced to deal with this. While some may use to excuse that high school students may have enough knowledge over these situations, or if explained, people would enjoy the moral of the story more, that is not always the case.

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828 Words | 4 Pages

With the novel being told in the first person point of view of Huck, we get a first hand experience of the prejudices then. We are able to see just how stereotypical and racist white people were in the past. A majority of the people in the south viewed blacks as inferior, or below them in social ranking. They ordered around their slaves and treated them with little respect at times. Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can make students feel “uncomfortable," it is beneficial for students to read it.

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724 Words | 3 Pages

After reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I could not understand people 's argument on banning this story that had gone way past it 's time showing the friendship between a black man and a white boy, which was almost unimaginable at the time in many people 's minds, and exposing the worst parts of humanity, showing that we don 't live in a picture-perfect world. While doing some research, however, I had found that most arguments against letting Huck Finn were because of the conspicuous and repetitive use of the n-word, as well as the extreme racial theme that is played out throughout the course of the novel. It all made sense to me then. As always America is again trying to cover up their insightful, but very real history, in hopes that it will be forgotten so that they can go on to be recognized as the

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743 Words | 3 Pages

We know that Twain is not racist, but he did use the N-word to show what kind of people his characters were. Delila Lloyd wrote a document that addresses both sides of the issue, but one of the points that sticks out is "Take the N-word out of Huck Finn, and is it really Huck Finn?" (Lloyd). Huck uses the N-word because he grew up in a society where the word was meaningless, and was used to describe slaves as scum. The word practically means nothing, but not as in the word doesn't have a meaning, but in the sense that the people described as the word are meaningless.

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815 Words | 4 Pages

If he used slave instead of Nigger he would no longer be staying true to what he says about dialects. This is how they spoke and changing these words doesn’t make them any less racist than they already were, but acknowledging the words that he used shows people how much has changed since those horrible times. If the word Nigger is erased from the book it gives off the idea that there should not be talk about racial injustice or divides. Twain said “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning” (Mark Twain Quotes).

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283 Words | 2 Pages

History Banned because it is Offensive Was Huckleberry Finn written at a time when racism was considered acceptable? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a controversial book series considering its racial attributes. This book is about a boy who fakes his death and starts an adventure with a runaway slave who he befriends. Many argue that the book should be banned for racism, but others disagree because of its originality and illustration of a major turning point in history for America.

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1195 Words | 5 Pages

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, is a book in which captures the adventures of a young boy named Huck Finn who runs away from home and makes his way down the Mississippi River in which he meets a runaway slave named Jim, together they undertake serious of adventures. This piece of literature has left many of its readers shocked and angry due to the extensive use of the n-word. In Huckleberry Finn, the n-word is used over 200 times which has led many schools to ban the teaching of this book or simply replace it with another classic American literature. There is always two sides of a story, in this one there is three. The argument continues with the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn whether it should be kept

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1537 Words | 7 Pages

‘’Roman Fever’’, written by Edith Wharton in 1934, tells the story of two wealthy, American women who are in Rome visiting their daughters. Rome, known as the Eternal City, gives significant meaning throughout “Roman Fever” and highlights the sequence of events that happen to Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. The ladies had met in the city previously and presented each other with the idea that each led a perfect life since they had each found their significant other within the city during their stay. As the story progresses, the reader will pick up on minor clues that enable them to better understand the relations between the women, their daughters, and the Eternal City. Throughout the short story, the uses of symbolism in relation to the story,

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