Banning Novel Huck Finn from School Reading

Introduction

Banning the novel Huck Finn from school reading lists my essay deals with banning the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from high school reading lists, and why this behavior is inappropriate. Surprisingly enough to those who would ban it today, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was also originally banned because it showed too great of a friendship between a white boy and a slave. To some defenders of the book, this proves that the novel was groundbreaking in that it shattered the stereotypes of the time. After all, writing about a white boy who befriends a slave and frees him caused such a controversy purely because it was unheard of during those times.

Analysis

Specifically, it addresses the following question: Columnist James J. Kilpatrick wrote that Huck Finn is a fun book for white boys to read… For black children, I have come to realize, it is a brutal slap in the face. He condemns the book because of its use of the word nigger. Many school districts have banned this book for the same reason. What are your views on this subject? Since the Civil War, racism has been a very delicate issue with the American public. Whereas some people have tried to transgress this issue, pretending that race no longer plays a significant role in our country; other people still believe that there are serious racial dilemmas in the United States (Arac, pp 23-17).

I am one these people. However, unlike some, I do not believe this problem can be solved by avoiding or sugarcoating the issue of race, as James L. Kilpatrick and several schools appear to be doing. In the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain presents an adventure story filled with deeper meanings and controversial topics, two in particular being slavery and racism. Despite the usage of the word nigger and the stereotypical portrayal of African Americans, I do not think schools have any justification in banning this book from reading lists. Mark Twain wrote Huck Finn during the Reconstruction period in the south, at a time when most Americans wanted to forget all about the institution of slavery and its consequences (www.humanevents.com).

However, Twain set the time period of this novel prior to the Civil War when slavery was at its peak. Thus, the racist views he included in the book mirrored the attitudes of most southerners during ...