Reasons Why Huckleberry Finn Should Be Taught

Most people think of education as only happening in a school but there are many different ways to get an education. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, a young boy named Huckleberry Finn finds adventure and learns lessons along the Mississippi river with A runaway slave, Jim. Huck's unorthodox education is given to Huck by four different people: Pap, the King and the Duke, and Jim.

Character, Values and Morals in Huckleberry Finn     Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is perhaps one of the most controversial novels the North American Continent has ever produced.  Since its publication more than a hundred years ago controversy has surrounded the book.  The most basic debate surrounding Twain's masterpiece is whether the book's language and the character of Jim are presented in a racist manner.  Many have called for the book to be banned from our nation's schools and libraries.  Mark Twain's novel is about a young boy who was raised in the south before slavery was abolished, a place where racism and bigotry were the fabric of every day life.  The novel is the account of how Huck Finn, who is a product of these

Huckleberry Finn contraveresy The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been causing controversy since the day the book was published. The book has been banned from multiple schools for several reasons. None the less I think it is a classic novel and should be taught in schools.

Starting the Conversation “The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter- ‘tis the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.”(Mark Twain). Mark Twain, the author of an extraordinary yet controversial novel; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had a great way of capturing moments in time and bringing them to life through the use of meaningful and direct diction. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a vexed novel for it 's a use of the “N-word”. However, many scholars and associations have devised a “solution” for this problem such as, completely banning the book, creating sanitized versions, or even replacing the book for another American literature novel. “What is so wrong

Huckleberry Finn is Not a Racist Work “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” this is what fellow writer had to say about this classic novel. Still, this novel has been the object of controversy since it was published more than 150 years ago. Some people argue that Huckleberry Finn is a racist work, and that the novel has no place in a highschool classroom. This feeling is generated because a main character in the story, Jim, and other slaves are referred to many times as “niggers.” When Mark Twain wrote this book, he was striving to show the general public that society was wrong in the past, that the way white people thought black people were less than human was a wrong viewpoint. The

Huck Finn is a historical fiction novel that uses offensive language in a satirical way to portray slavery in the nineteenth century. The novel is questioned for its historical inaccuracies and use in junior high and high school classrooms. Some believe that the “reading aloud of Huckleberry Finn in our classrooms is humiliating and insulting to black students” (Wallace, 17). Yet, others believe that “one gathers a deeper understanding of the meaning of living in a slave society such as the one Huck and his peers lived in” (Barksdale, 49). Because of the novel’s vulgar language and repeated use of the “n-word”: “the appellation commonly used for slaves in slavery time, appears more than 200 times”, the novel can become a source of discussion within the classroom environment (Barksdale, 52). Although students would have to be prepared for the “far-flung historical and psychological causes and consequences”, after reading the novel, its negativity and racial discrimination can be discussed rather than its status as a literary classic (Barksdale, 53). This novel can create a safe way to discuss the use of racial profanities as well as racism during the 19th and 20th centuries compared to the racism experienced in the 21st century. If teachers and students are able to discuss The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a constructive manner rather than

Huckleberry Finn deals with the issue of racism. Racism, however, is only a single scourge of society. The book is suggesting social change in any form it may take (and it takes quite a few). Racism is only a readily available example that people where already taking notice of, easy pickings for mister

Mark Twain used this book to demonstrate how society after years of slavery being abolished, that we still have racism in many different ways.The main reason the story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written is to show how much racism there was in the 1840’s. I feel that society has changed for the better since 1840 because the violence, racism, language they use in this book and in this time still exist but it’s better than what it used to be. I feel the purpose of this book is to show that racism has gotten better in some ways but in other ways it has not gotten better maybe gotten worse. And that everyone is going to feel how they want to feel and do what they want and only hope that one day we can all be

Society has had problems with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shortly after being published. Huckleberry Finn was first published in January of 1885 and only two months later in March of 1885 the book was banned. The problem first with the book was it was too friendly toward African Americans and believed to lead children astray from certain values. Now over 100 years later “Huckleberry Finn is still making news” (Pitts). Now in the 21th century we have a problem with Huckleberry Finn not because of kindness to African Americans or believing it would lead children astray from traditional values but because of “one reason - one word: nigger” (Pitts). This word has been seen as a problem in the classrooms and teachers and schools refuse

When the argument of replacing the word "nigger" with "slave" one sees the issue with that. The issue being that "nigger" in that time meant African-American, not necessarily a slave. So looking at a high school or college student in the future reading Huckleberry Finn for the first time and reading is with the word "slave" the story loses its effect on the reader. It does not give a sense of the time, it would only give a vibe that something is not right in the story. When reading this story for the first time, one must have an open mind and not pay attention to little things like racism in this book. The main plot is not, lets raft down a river and see how racist we can be. As one reads the story flows, and part of that flow is to allow discrepancy in racial slurs. It is okay to have the

Name : Chance Taylor-Clark Date : 11/18/2017 Period : 6th Teacher : Mr.Martin Racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Apart from being one of the landmarks of American literature, Mark Twain’s classic tale,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a mirror of the deeply embedded racist attitudes of the Deep South in the 1880’s. First, not to mention the most controversial and obvious, is the liberal use of the “n” word throughout the book. Taken as a derogatory term by modern-day Americans, Twain’s use of the “n” word is simply a reflection of the times. Huck Finn was written when cruel and unjust treatment of colored people were commonplace and use of such a word didn’t get so much as a second thought.Huck Finn depicts a time when slaves were not treated as people but as things without emotions or personalities, mere property. For instance, Jim is initially known only in relation to whose property he is. He escapes from being continuously treated as property, even sold to a family that will most likely treat him even less humanely.

In addition to this, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be taught in schools because it teaches important moral lessons. Early on in the book, after Huck had come across Jim on Jackson Island, he’d decided to play a mean trick on him. He kills a rattlesnake and puts it on the foot of Jim’s blanket and expects that he will react like any stereotypical black person. “Jim’s eyes will bug out; his teeth will chatter; his knees will knock together,” (p.63) The joke turns bad when Jim gets bitten by the snake’s mate, and as a result Huck feels ashamed. But at this early point in the book, Huck doesn't blame himself because all his life, everyone around him had reiterated the idea that black people were property, not people, and they deserved

Not Banned, Included The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a controversial book that leads to disagreements amongst educators. Schools have to decide whether it is appropriate or not to teach this book. A school in Pennsylvania stopped teaching this book and made national news. The school in Pennsylvania decided not to teach this book because “‘the community costs of reading this book…. outweigh the literary benefits’” (Flood). Schools believe that Huck Finn is either too racist to be taught or the perfect opportunity to discuss racism. It creates discussions that are too hard for some teachers like Marylee Hengstebeck who stated that “if [she decided] to teach it, [she] must virtually ignore parts of the novel”. Huck’s struggle between

Within the article Henry evaluates different opinions on the book being taught in school. One that stood out was, “Hentoff believes that confronting Huck will give students ‘the capacity to see past words like ‘nigger’... into what the writer is actually saying.’ He wonders, ‘what’s going to happen to a kid when he gets into the world if he’s going to let a word paralyze him so he can’t think.’” (Henry 387). The N-word is overused in the book to bring up a problem, however the real problem is when the people reading it don’t see the satire which then causes them to be immature. The book should only be taught by someone who sees these problems and knows how to teach those people who do not see it.

To start, allowing Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of The Huckleberry Finn to be read without any changes by students in schools can bring various of aspects to their learning. Mark Twain wrote in depth of an adventure story that depicts about a young American boy and a runaway African American slave that have wanted to be a free man. He was writing the content with the knowledge of slavery and the geographic location of the South in order to show the crucial history of the African Americans and their unjust treatment. Students, in reading Twain's book, would be influenced on their evaluation of the Americans and the United States on how they treated the African-Americans back then. They would sought that the Americans were crucial and not