Nat Hentoff's Response to Huck Finn

When the main character of a novel vehemently exclaims his preference to “go to hell” over reporting a lost slave, it would seem that the readers of Huck Finn would understand Twain’s aversion to slavery and the horrors that this obscure institution imposed on millions of imprisoned persons (Twain as quoted by Nat Hentoff). Nat Hentoff, a First Amendment expert and Twain scholar, argues in an article titled “Expelling ‘Huck Finn’” that despite the many hesitations one may have about allowing controversial books to be taught in schools, it is necessary to keep the students educated on the topics these books discuss and inspire. While Hentoff’s appeals to emotion are persuasive enough for a newspaper article, his lack of evidence and shaky support for the main arguments prove to weaken his appeal to the American public for a cause that is completely necessary: continuing youths’ education of past events, ideals, and stereotypes, causing them to reflect on judgments and morals presently held by society. In an attempt to rebuke the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s claim that controversial books damage the self-esteem of African-American children, Hentoff recounts an experience where he talked with a group of eighth-grade students who were studying Mark Twain’s Huck Finn alongside a history of cities with a reputation for having a high tolerance for racism. One student in the class was bold enough to comment that his class was taught that the “bigots” Twain referred to in his novel commonly referred to African-Americans as “niggers,” stating that just because of Twain’s over-zealous use of the term did not equate to an assumption that Huck Finn was a racist novel (Hentoff). On the contrary, this particular student claimed that as evidence that Twain was expressly critiquing the word and people who used it in order to write a very anti-racist novel.
While this outspoken student may have grasped Twain’s purpose, it is very likely that many of his peers did not fully understand the satire Twain’s novel is drenched in. Aside from just his classmates, children across the nation may not have the ability to fully comprehend the complexities of the book. Novels taught around the nation that are teeming with literary complexities and moral impositions, novels such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding, are reserved for students until early high school or later. Golding’s subtle hints, as well as his obvious ridicules, expose the inhumane nature of humans and are important – just as Twain’s assertions on human nature and follies are important. Hentoff’s assertion that going into extreme detail on the horrors of slavery is acceptable for eighth-graders is absurd when juxtaposed with the fact that books with similar content are withheld from students for years more. One must take into consideration the maturity level of students, however, both emotionally and mentally, when deciding when the book should be allowed. As for Huck Finn, the notion that Hentoff posits where eighth grade students are fully developed is not necessarily plausible, making it necessary for the novel to be suspended for students to read until later in their high school career.
After basing his foundation for his whole article on the idea that Huck Finn is so easy to understand even a pre-teen can get it, Hentoff quotes a slew of malicious names to describe the white counterparts in Twain’s novel. “Drunkards, liars, frauds, [… and] hypocrites,” are typical descriptors of a villain in a novel, words that no person would like to be associated with. Instead of ending his description of the classical villain with these grotesque qualities, Hentoff suggests that there are people who far surpass the evils of simply being a liar or a drunk: “Lynchers, abusers, […and] traders” (Baker, as quoted by Hentoff). These are classic characteristics used to classify the Caucasian race, names that cause whoever is reading the article to think back to some of the dark days of America’s past and shudder at the thought of a whole race’s deprivation of human rights. These are names that cause whoever is reading the article to wish for a brighter future, one free from inequality and hatred—a future that is only possible by learning from past mistakes. Hentoff quotes these names as an appeal to the reader’s emotions, trying to help him or her understand that Huck Finn is a medium whereby the disasters of the past are discussed, presented, and rebuked. While this appeal may be acceptable to gather enough support from several readers, name-calling is not a logical approach to explain the reason Huck Finn should stay in schools and weakens Hentoff’s argument. The description of a feud between 1998 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and an African American parent/teacher suing to have Huck Finn removed from reading lists in Arizona schools (an action backed by the NAACP) acts as a last attempt at captivating the reader’s support (Hentoff). Instead of presenting ideas from both sides of the argument and discussing the merit of each argument, a route that would significantly increase Hentoff’s strength of persuasion, the notion that if people took more time to think critically about the usage of the “racial epithets” in Twain’s novel, then the words would not hurt is presented (Judge Reinhart, as quoted by Hentoff). On the contrary, these words would be seen as a tool to further the cause of equality. The demand for evidence and critical thinking on Hentoff’s part is again replaced by his appeal to emotion. Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is a novel commonly used in schools to present the horrors that existed during times of slavery. Because of the controversial nature of the novel, some have suggested that it be taken off of the reading list. Others, like Nat Hentoff, suggest that the novel’s ability to showcase these horrors is unsurpassed by most any other book and should be kept on the reading list. Although Hentoff’s arguments are satisfactory for a newspaper article with the intent of simply stating his ideas and gathering support, Hentoff’s approach of appealing to mainly the emotions of readers is not as strong of an approach as appealing to logic and reason.

Works Cited
Hentoff, Nat. “NAACP Wants Huck Finn Expelled.” www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Class/pol_325/Huck.htm. November 27, 1999. Web: August 26, 2010.

Cited: Hentoff, Nat. “NAACP Wants Huck Finn Expelled.” www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Class/pol_325/Huck.htm. November 27, 1999. Web: August 26, 2010.