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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain |
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HUCK FINN An American Classic or a Racist Novel? by Maria Bianchi "I am the entire human race compacted together. I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large way." - Mark Twain Students embarking on the journey of reading Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, may experience some notorious encounters. “Teacher’s Choice,” now practiced at several Middle Schools, is the concept that many of the controversial American literature pieces will be left to the discrepancy of the teacher. Whether or not the teacher chooses to use the book for education purposes is entirely up to him. At first glance Huck Finn is an adventurous –and somewhat humorous- story: a 13-year-old boy (Huck) leaves home in search for adventure and rafts down the Mississippi River. Along the way, he helps a black slave escape to freedom, creates mischievous “games,” and struggles with lying and confrontations. It is about maturity and freedom, success and failures, innocence and experience. But according to the American Library Association's “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ranked fifth and has held this position since 1990. It has continued to be a topic in critical controversy for several reasons which caused the banishment of its existence from school libraries all over the country. The more obvious of the reasons is the offensive language Twain uses throughout the novel, together with the controversy over race both probe at the same question: does Huck Finn combat or reinforce racist attitudes? According to University of Oregon’s Professor of English, Bill Walsh, this novel was in trouble from the very beginning. First published in 1884, Huck Finn, was banned only a year after its completion by the Concord, Massachusetts Public Library, but not for its language. It was characterized as "rough, course, and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people." Twain wrote to the library, thanking them for the ban because it would mean that people would have to buy the book in order to read it. Even today, about 120 years after the book appeared, much controversy still remains, although the focus sometimes differs. Huck Finn is both praised and loathed. Some would call it one of the best American classics, but others would say it needs to be removed from libraries and required reading lists in schools. It continues to be one of the most banned books in America, according to Walsh. An editor of Simon and Schuster Publishers and professional writer, Justin Kaplan, says Huck Finn, who seems to accept slavery as a way of life, “nevertheless has come under attack for its alleged ‘racism.’” For example, the NAACP condemned the book as “racially offensive” in 1957. Action in other states has since followed trend. Kaplan describes that in 1982, an administrator at the Mark Twain Intermediate School in Fairfax County, Virginia called Huck Finn “the most grotesque example of racism I’ve ever seen in my life.” In 1984, school officials in Waukegan, Illinois removed Huck Finn from the required reading list after an alderman, according to the Associated Press, “objected to the book’s use of the word ‘nigger.’” Unpacking what to do with these ethical issues is complex. For several reasons one can see the good and the bad of banning Huck Finn, and also of keeping it in schools across America. On one hand, the option is total banishment. The way the book depicts Jim, the slave character, is degrading to an African American. Mark Twain shows no respect when he describes Jim as a child’s “plaything.” Professor of Judaic and Far Eastern studies and the University of Massachusetts, Julius Lester, argues for the deportation of this book from schools. In his essay Morality…Lester writes, “Jim in an excuse…to be used as it suits the fancies of white folk, whether that fancy be a journey on a raft down the river or a torchlight parade. What Jim clearly is not is a human being.” The way slaves are portrayed in Twain’s novel is also demeaning. When students read such literature, they become desensitized to the fact that slavery was in fact a horrible period for blacks alike. Careless use of the word ‘nigger’ may also fall short of teaching the real history of slavery. One might argue that ethically, Huck Finn is not a necessary piece in teaching an account of slavery throughout history. “Twain doesn’t care about the lives the slaves actually lived,” Lester said. “Because he doesn’t care, he devalues the world.” Enslavement is used too lightly throughout the course of the novel, another reason why it should be banned. In the novel, Huck is almost represented as a “slave” to his drunken father. “A boy held captive by a drunken father is not in the same category of human experience as a man enslaved,” Lester said in his essay. “Twain willfully refused to understand what it meant to be legally owned by another human being and to have that legal ownership supported by [the government]. Twain did not take slavery, and therefore black people, seriously.” Jim is also characterized as slow and childlike. He is the model of a ‘good black man’ who lacks self-respect, dignity, and a sense of self separate from the one whites want him to have. In some instances he is more like a member of Tom Sawyer’s gang than a grown man with a wife and children. “The novel plays with black reality from the moment Jim runs away and does not immediately seek his freedom,” wrote Lester in his essay. “If defies logic that Jim did not know Illinois was a free state.” If schools chose to completely prohibit the teaching of the book, forbid its pages access to student’s hands, make it disappear from library shelves, students may be deprived of further education. It is already evident that schools are allowed to choose banishment on a classic novel that is able to depict slavery and arouse class discussion on not only topics of race, but of gender and sexuality, independence and growth as well. This very well may be a hamper to higher education of young and old students alike. To dig even deeper, one may agree to banish the book because the word ‘nigger’ should not be repeated from a sixth-grader’s mouth. If a student is not allowed to say it, but in the classroom, the student is allowed to read it, are teachers being hypocritical? One could argue that our culture is polluted with things that we need not repeat, but we still watch television, we still go to the movies, we still buy our favorite artist’s CD, so how is Huck Finn any different? “As the reality of racial discomfort and mistrust cast its shadow over the classroom, the tension would become almost palpable,” said assistant professor of woman’s studies at the University of Wyoming, Peaches Henry, of confronting the word ‘nigger’ in her classroom. Her students would be unable to utter the word “taboo word ‘nigger.’” According to Henry, students would become nearly paralyzed, white students by their “social awareness of the moral injunction” against it, and the blacks by their “heightened sensitivity” to it. “Slowly, tortuously, the wall of silence would begin to crumble before students’ timid attempts to approach the [word],” said Henry in her essay “The Struggle for Tolerance…” “Finally, after some tense moments, one courageous adolescent would utter the word…as the class released an almost audible sigh of relief.” Students were then able to “embark upon a lively and risk-taking exchange about race and its attendant complexities,” according to Henry. So while some schools chose to ban Huck Finn, others have found ways to overcome the offensive language and engage students in a deep, meaningful discussion over race and racial slurs. There may be ways for students to understand the depth of race and the complexity behind it, the years of hurt and despair faced by African Americans across the country, without reading Huck Finn, but this is a book written during a time when slavery was prominent. Although a fiction novel, it is in some ways like reading a first-hand account of slavery in Cairo, Illinois, pre-civil war. If one decides to banish the book deontologically, without giving much contemplation over how this will affect the future of students, one could argue that ‘nigger’ is far more than a synonym for slave. It signifies a concept. And according to Henry, “It conjures centuries of specifically black degradation and humiliation.” In Henry’s essay, she gives an example of the feelings behind the word ‘nigger’ from an African American’s perspective. “In his autobiography, Langston Hughes offers a cogent explanation of the signification of ‘nigger’ to blacks: “The word ‘nigger’ to colored people of high and low degree is like a red rag to a bull…Negroes do not like it in any book or play whatsoever…the word ‘nigger’ sums up for us who are colored all the bitter years of insult and struggle in America.” While banning is a solution to the concern, such banishment may not contribute to opening up student minds with an American classic such as Huck Finn. In her essay, Henry wrote about a 1972 study that measured the influence Huck Finn had on the racial attitudes of black and white students. The data concluded only positive results. She found that white students reading the novel had reduced hostile or unfavorable feelings toward members of another race and increased favorable feelings. Students who read the novel under a teacher’s guidance showed ‘significantly greater positive change’ than those students who read the novel on their own. With a problem such as this schools have loyalties to consider. For example, Middle Schools have a loyalty to each of their students. Their principle concern is to educate, instruct, guide, and train students to be culturally aware, prepared for the future, and able to formally discuss and share opinions, even those concerning issues on race. Yes, personal growth and development is up to the individual student, but teachers are aids in that process and should be advising students to get involved in discussions, which will in turn open up the eyes and minds to the world around them. Huck Finn is just a stepping stone to get them there. On the other hand, Middle Schools also have a loyalty to the parents who have children at the school. Therefore, if the parents feel that Huck Finn is a dangerous read for young students to encounter, then the Middle School needs to respect that opinion and take the right course of action to ensure that students are “safe” in school. If this means having to throw out Huck Finn, then maybe that is the necessary procedure. Ethically, there are extremities at both ends of the dilemma. In one case, one completely throws out the idea of even purchasing books to have in a school library for student correlation. To contrast with the other side, a teacher requires Huck Finn to be read, furthering a thriving student’s education. According to philosopher Aristotle, there must be a way to compromise or find the good between two evils. Perhaps teachers can keep the book, but take special care when students feel uncomfortable with racist words. Keep in mind the maturity level of the students. What one teaches to a fourth grade class is different from a class of say, sixth or seventh graders. As a student’s maturity develops, teachers should keep in mind what is suitable for that particular age group. Another solution is to teach the book but remind students that in a classroom setting, and for the purpose of Huck Finn, it is okay to read aloud certain words. If the students can understand the severity of the racist issues brought to the surface, then Huck Finn is a treasure to teach in classes. Consider every possible aspect and outcome of teaching this book before making a decision. Note its polarities with race and culture, growth and independence. And take the time to carefully digest what this 20th Century American Classic will give to a student’s education.
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