Why Is Huckleberry Finn Be Banned

Art is Restricted by the Chains of Censorship
The thought that the book they have to read in class was close to being banned at one point in time, might delight a lot of high school students. The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was and is still criticized for the exceeding use of the word nigger. In our society today this word is considered politically not correct and kids are told not to use it at all. Therefore some students do not understand why they should have to read Mark Twain’s book in class and especially students with African American roots sometimes get offended by the fact that the book that contains the word nigger is on the reading list of a lot of high schools. Lately the controversy regained actuality as
Quite the contrary, its use does contrast with Jim’s kindness and does actually help to emphasize it. From the beginning of the book, Jim never says anything mean to or about Huck, even though latter has a lot of prejudices about black people at first. The circumstances in which Huck is raised leads him to think about black people as inferior to white people. Even though Widow Douglas always seems to treat Jim quite well, there is never any doubt that she thinks that blacks are supposed to be slaves. The fact that she plans to sell Jim to a slave trader and makes it impossible for him to be ever reunited with his family, shows how little she actually cares about him. Huck’s relationship with Jim does change a lot throughout the book because he isn’t under the influence of the Southern society anymore. A lot of times he struggles with an internal battle between thoughts about Jims kindness and his support and what the society has taught him about right and wrong behavior: “ It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger […]” (Twain 66). Huck himself knows that he hurt Jim deeply by disappearing and lying about it afterwards. Nevertheless, it takes him fifteen minutes to get himself to actually apologize to Jim and overcome all the racism that society did try
But often times it is exactly these books that would be important to be read, so that the next generation can learn from the faults of their ancestors. An author that dealt a lot with art and whether or not it should be censored was Oscar Wilde: “The books that the world calls immortal are the books that show the world its own shame.” It is visible in literature that the times in which horrible events happened are also the times that left us with many important works of literature. World War II with its many amazing, shocking books about the holocaust is just one of many examples. Talking about the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jewish population during that time is painful. Still it is very important that especially students read and discuss controversial topics like that. That way they might be able emphasize with others more and develop more respect and tolerance for other cultures and religions. Events like the Holocaust or racial segregation should not get forgotten, because their shocking memory can hopefully prevent similar situations to occur. The word nigger was a part of that period of time and should not just be deleted out of people’s minds, by censoring it; society should always remember to learn from their mistakes of the