Racism Huck Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an Classic American Novel that accurately displays the south's attitude towards race in the 1800s. The novel is widely banned throughout many schools in America because of its strong racist slurs. These racist slurs include the n-word which is used over 200 times in the novel. Although this novel is racist, it displays southern racism accurately, is a classic piece of American literature, conveys an anti-racist message, uses satire in a form of a picaresque, and can do this all while keeping the readers engaged in a wild adventure making the novel interesting. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great novel to be read in school because it achieves multiple purposes in one novel. First of all, it is a piece of classic American literature. Classic American literature is important to learn because it depicts how literature was in earlier times and is a piece of history. As stated in Text 5, “the reader inhabits the mind of a person from another place and time . (The reader) can step outside himself and try to understand what the world looked and felt like then.” What is remarkable about this is that the reader can learn about history, all while reading a novel instead of a textbook. This novel is not only a classic, but is a milestone of its kind. The novel was one of the first novels that used a great amount of dialect. This dialect accurately displays the speech that was used during the time period which will further immerse the reader in the time period. It is important to read dialect because without it, we would not know the differences between how people acted in different time periods. Another reason it should be taught is that the novel teaches us about racism in the south and addresses issues of religion and mob mentality. Slavery in the south is very important to learn about. It is one of America’s biggest mistakes and goes against the country’s own morals. Knowledge of slavery is something that is needed to make sure that this mistake is not made again. The novel also …show more content…
Although this is apparent, it displays the language and attitude of the time period. Additionally as stated in Text 1, “ (a ban on Huckleberry Finn due to the use of the n-word) would also ban from the nation’s classrooms many of the greatest and most inspiring works by black writers in the 19th and 20th centuries.” There is nobody arguing to ban those books, therefore, there is no reason to ban Huckleberry Finn. If one were to argue that the word would make African-American students feel uncomfortable, there is evidence against this claim. As stated in Text 2 “hip-hop music uses the same word.” Since plenty of people listen to hip-hop, and books written by African-Americans contain the same word, there is no reason that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is any different and it should not be banned.
In conclusion, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should most definitely be taught. While reading this novel, people can learn multiple topics that would require two or more books to be read for the topics to be covered. This novel is capable of teaching about racism, slavery, the 1800s, and covers the units of novels and classic literature. Therefore, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be taught because it is time efficient and will allow the learning of multiple topics that would need to be otherwise taught