Blog 10

After reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, I just thought about the book as its purpose was giving me some information about the slavery in American history. Until I read Peach Henry’s essay, I realize that the Huck Finn book has been the center of the controversies about race. In her essay, Peach Henry argues that the book, despite its intensive use of the N-word, still shouldn’t be banned from the school system at all. I definitely disagree with Peach Henry’s argument. For me, even the book is considered a piece of American literature; it still should be banned from the school system due to its negative effects on young students who are not fully mature enough to understand the implying intention of Mark Twain when he wrote the book.
The use of the N-word in the book has given most readers offensive feelings, especially if the reader is of color race and at a young age. People criticize the book of its racial word because this word gives no good uses except insult and humiliation to black children in school. Henry writes,
Critics vilify Twain most often and most vehemently for his aggressive use of the pejorative term ‘nigger.’ Detractors, refusing to accept the good intentions of a text that places the insulting epithet so often in the mouths of characters, black and white, ague that no amount of intended irony or satire can erase the humiliation experienced by black children. Reading Huck Finn aloud adds deliberate insult to insensitive injury, complain some. (386)
I believe Mark Twain was trying to focus as true as possible to the real lives of the southern people along the Mississippi River at that time. The use of the N-word in the book, if the readers don’t understand the intended imply meaning, would cause a stir in a classroom where there is a diversity of races. Even though the book is a piece about the historical time of the country, people would still get upset when they are reminded of their unpleasant memories of their ancestors’ lives, especially African American people who were treated unfairly and inhumane at that time. As of today we have overcome our differences to live together united as of today but there are still some differences which differentiate us from each other. That is what makes us so unique. However, a unique won’t eliminate the hurtful feelings by being called one “nigger” like that. The word is a serious racist against one race. That is one of the reasons why the book should be banned from the school system.