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How Should Huckleberry Finn Be Censored

743 Words3 Pages

Hanna Baker
Mrs. Swiergosz
English 1
4 December 2014
Censoring The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemens') Huckleberry Finn is so often cited as being racist, when it was written against slavery and racism." Jamey Fletcher said this quote on the extremely disputed matter of one of Mark Twain's greatest masterpieces in history. The subject of censoring The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a controversial topic since the idea was first introduced to the public. Although the arguments to why the piece should be censored are often well supported, how can we know that we are not taking away elements from one of America's most iconic pieces of literature? If we censor The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we could as …show more content…

This book proves that not everyone who grew up around racism was cruel, as Huck began to love Jim for who he is, despite the society he grew up in. An example of Huck maturing could come from chapter forty, "I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say - so it was all right, now, and I told Tom I was agoing for a doctor." (Twain 301). This quote clearly shows that Huck is maturing, and seeing past the color of Jim's skin. The book shows us how hard it was to grow up in a racist society and not be racist. Twain's writing cuts deep into the heart of racism, and shows us that it does not matter what we look like on the outside, it only matters what we have on the …show more content…

We know that Twain is not racist, but he did use the N-word to show what kind of people his characters were. Delila Lloyd wrote a document that addresses both sides of the issue, but one of the points that sticks out is "Take the N-word out of Huck Finn, and is it really Huck Finn?" (Lloyd). Huck uses the N-word because he grew up in a society where the word was meaningless, and was used to describe slaves as scum. The word practically means nothing, but not as in the word doesn't have a meaning, but in the sense that the people described as the word are meaningless. A Washington Post writer compared the move to renaming "War and Peace" just "peace" because war is so unpleasant (Cooper). Twain uses this word to delve into the heart and soul of slavery and show how carelessly it was thrown around in the parts of the country that had the most racism. If we deprive Twain of his creativity, we could also be depriving our youth of the history of our

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