Huckleberry Finn

In 2000, The American Library Association published a list of the 100 most often challenged novels of the 1990’s, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ranked number five. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is frequently seen as a ‘racist’ novel because of the continuous usage of the racial slur, ‘nigger.’ Due to its status some high schools will ban the novel from their literature curriculum, believing it will rid of the racial slur. However, by banning Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, high schools are actually causing students to miss out on not only the literary revolution the novel began, but the history behind the south during the mid 1800’s as well as the historical value it holds connecting to the slavery period. American Literature
is crucial to high school curriculum, and during the 1800’s American Literature revolved around controversy and revolutionary Mark Twain writings. Famous novels such as The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Moby Dick by Herman Melville and Irwin Shapiro were published in the mid 1800’s, and stirred up early book critics across America because of their risky plots. Controversial novels continued on throughout the late 1800’s when Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was published. Twain’s novel captures the life of not only a young, troubled Southern boy, but his friend, Jim, who is a slave during the 1830’s. Making the novel one of the first to have an African American main character. After much backlash, critics began to realize what Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was truly about. Twain did not write the novel to tear down African Americans or promote racism. Instead, he gave Jim a genuine personality and a big heart, making him a well-respected character by the readers. African American novelist Ralph Ellison writes, “Twain allows Jim’s ‘dignity and human capacity’ to emerge in the novel,” (Ellison.) Booker T. Washington, another African American educator, notes, “Twain succeeded in making his readers feel a genuine respect for Jim,” (Washington.) The attention that was being drawn to this novel makes it revolutionary. A white male author, writing about an African American slave with dignity during the 1800’s? Not a common sight to see. Mark Twain wrote one of the first American novels to have a genuine, well-respected African American main character, making it a revolutionary novel that should be included in high schools’ curriculum. Twain’s novel not only includes a revolutionary plot, but also teaches students important American History. Different decades in American history bring different dialect, settings, and even names.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn introduces students to what the United States was like during the 1800’s in a creative literary format. In the novel Twain uses specific dialect to reflect on the setting, 1800’s Southern America. Twain emphasizes certain slang from the Southern times. A word used often in the novel’s dialogue is ‘reckon’ or ‘reck’n.’ Each character tends to use it at least once in the novel, some more than others. When sharing a conversation with Huck, Jim says, “Huck, does you reck’n we gwyne to run acrost any mo’ kings on dis trip?” (Twain, page 134.) In this line of dialogue, Jim uses multiple other examples of Southern slang such as; ‘dis,’ ‘gwyne,’ ‘acrost,’ and ‘mo’.’ A large section of Chapter Five is dedicated to Twain delivering the message that education was seldom to lower class families during the 1800’s in the Southern part of America. In this chapter Huck’s father is outraged by the fact that Huck goes to school to improve his education. He speaks that Huck’s mother, nor was he himself, educated. This part of the novel really gives students an insight into the Education System during the 1800’s. History and Literature combine in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when Twain’s dialect tells lessons of the Southern United States. Another history lesson taught in the novel is the history of the slavery era in the United
States.