Huck Finn Debated

The Controversy Surrounding the Novel,

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huck Finn Debated



Why is the teaching and reading of

Huck Finn

controversial?

so



How have the criticisms about the book changed over the years?

Huck Finn Debated

 Mark Twain's

Tom Sawyer Huckleberry Finn

and were excluded from schools and public libraries.



Huckleberry Finn

has been dropped from high school reading lists due to alleged racism.  Recent objections have often concerned the use of the “n-word,” a word that has also gotten

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

challenged in similar ways.

Huck Finn Controversy



Racist content

 Use of “the n-word”  Jim’s character: his dialect, subservience and superstitious attitude portray him as stupid  “White” society: the white people in the book take advantage of the black people

Huck Finn Controversy

 Violent content  Crude, offensive behavior of characters  Young and ignorant narrator/protagonist  Derogatory language and stereotypes

Defense of Huck Finn

 First Amendment Rights violation  Serves as social commentary that calls attention to the issues surrounding racism  Violence is mild in comparison to content in books, films, and television today  Derogatory language is necessary in order to accurately reflect its time period

Controversy Through the Years

 1884-1885  During the time when the book was first published, it met controversy. Huckleberry Finn was not a good role model for children because he swore, didn’t speak well, and renounced religion. The book was disliked a lot by the critics, and even banned from the Concord Library. Even with this and the fact that educated people could not relate to Huck, the book sold very well and was liked by the readers.

Cited from: http://membres.lycos.fr/atelierinternet/usessays/html/controversy_overvi ew.html

Controversy Through the Years

 1886-1945  People started to realize what a literary masterpiece the book was. Helped along by rave reviews from Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Eliot and other influential authors, the public recognized that Twain had revolutionized American literature by writing through a young, ignorant narrator and writing like his narrator and other characters would talk.

Controversy Through the Years

 1957-1990  During the Civil Rights Movement, people began to realize how blatantly Twain addressed the issue of race in

Huck Finn

. Because the book was so realistic, it had derogatory language and dealt with issues that were happening during the period. The people often did not look further into the book, nor see that Twain was satirizing the feelings and not expressing them.

Controversy Through the Years

 Present  Now, it is mostly taught in schools, but with care taken to examine and explain the issues of racism in the book. There is still some controversy, however, because many people think a different book, one not so offensive, could be used in place of

Huck Finn

, perhaps even one that brings up the same issues of race.

Huck Finn Controversy

 How does knowing about the history of the controversy make you feel about reading the book?  Under what circumstances, if any, do you think a book should be taken off a school's reading list and/or out of its library?

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.”

~Mark Twain