Huckleberry finn should it be taught in schools

There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since. In the end, Huck relinquishes the moral standing that he has agonizingly attained and regresses into meaningless Tom-foolery. Twain leaves the reader with the conclusion that the adventure has meant nothing. Defenders of the ending of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn argue that the dissatisfaction is the point. The episode of freeing Jim, who is already free, is an allegory and satire of emancipation and the reconstruction era.

Twain wants us to consider how Huck is led astray. Tom plays the role of the planter class and cannot comprehend the gravity of the injustice he has imposed. In this allegory, African Americans are free only in a technical sense, and the white establishment, like Tom Sawyer, is oblivious. The possibility of this misinterpretation is a major objection to teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is racist.

In this way he fits well into his society. Huck is intelligent in many ways, but his racism makes him ignorant in fully understanding Jim. Jim must wear the mask of Jim Crow at times in order to navigate the precarious route to freedom.

In thinking about the pros and cons of teaching Huckleberry Finn , make sure that your students can navigate this issue. This factor and the emotional harm that the racist point of view might cause students are the most important considerations in weighing the pros and cons of teaching Huckleberry Finn. Twain had personal approval of the illustrations for the first edition, yet the edition includes terribly racist portrayals.

Nevertheless, the illustrations for the early chapters were approved. When a student says that presence of the n-word or racist portrayals is creating negative feelings, we must take this concern very seriously. Many students would not admit to this sensitivity, but the harm may be occurring nonetheless. There is no easy answer here. How can we balance the well-being of the students with our obligation to explore the troubling issues of America and its past? I offer no solution.

Whether you decide to teach the original novel, keep the n-word silent, teach a version that removes the n-word, or drop the novel entirely, be prepared to defend you choice. Huck is much smarter than Jim Jim knows nothing about children and family life Huck Finn teaches us this: That which we're certain we know of others is, more often than not, as suspect as that which we're certain we know of ourselves. Sometimes, though, Twain's humor conceals nothing profound; it's simply comedy for comedy's sake.

This is another reason the book works. Teenagers' television and movie choices testify to their love of silliness. Many of my students laughed out loud at my reading of the ridiculous conversations of Tom Sawyer's gang Chapter 2 and Huck's female impersonation Chapter Affect a falsetto in the latter performance -- even if you're already a woman -- and let your students enjoy the parody.

Real learning takes place All is not fun and games, however, and Huck Finn 's more serious episodes provide the final arena wherein real learning will take place. Huck is sometimes a clown; he is at all times a rebel. This complaint of many of Huck Finn 's original readers strikes unwittingly at the heart of young Huck's journey to maturity. Huck's ultimate decision to assist Jim was a blatant rebellion against the mores and ethics of society.

If allowed to admire Huck's rebel spirit, your students -- rebels themselves -- ultimately will share in his heroic victory. I have found two of the book's more distressing episodes to be chief junctures that demand scrutiny as a class. The first is Pap's horrific "govment" speech in Chapter VI. Some teachers will be tempted to whitewash its ugliness. Pap's racist harangue more effectively reveals the evils Huck must overcome than do Twain's brief descriptions of slavery and Huck's constant use of the "n-word.

What they don't often hear are brutally honest revelations of the heart of hardcore racism. Sentiments like Pap's are not uncommon; the expression of them, in such straightforward fashion, often is.

I read Pap's speech aloud to my students. I try to sound as indignant as Pap would have sounded if we could have heard him.

On one occasion, after I finished, a white girl said meekly, "Mr. Harris, those were the ugliest words I've ever heard. Everyone nodded silently. It was a tough moment, yet a poignant one. An honest one. We all breathe the same air; we all live on the same planet. In the story, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is about a young boy and a runaway slave throughout the journey it has many obstacles which Huck has to make decisions with. The future students need to read this novel because it teaches the value of friendship and what it truly means.

Lastly, it teaches you the journey that Jim and Huck had to make throughout the story. Huck has changed though the course of his journey by becoming kindhearted, selfless, and taking action to protect others especially Jim. The old version is a part of history and we should keep it that way. I think that the youth of this generation is pampered and that their parents are overprotective. The teenagers just need to learn not to use them towards people.

It will also broaden their knowledge by …show more content… It shows the friendship between Huck and Jim, were as history books are dry and boring.

The history books do not always relate things to the past, this book shows you what it was like. It shows that slaves and white people could be friends and that not everyone hated slaves. We should support the fact that they traveled together because in this day and age these races have negative views about each other. The only way to end racism is to exploit all of it and learn from it. This book is the best way to show that not all black people are thugs and that not all white people are rednecks.

That is why I think that this book should be taught in schools and that at the very minimum that they teach the clean version. Preferably I would teach the old version to teach that racism is not born but picked up. The best way to end it is to start them out by saying that these words are bad and that you should not use these words outside of the book.

And for more than one hundred years, the bees have obliged, swarming out with criticism of the tale of the friendship between a poor white boy, Huckleberry Finn, and an escaped slave, Jim. The school board agreed to keep the book in the curriculum, but only if Chadwick returned in August to lead a workshop for instructors on how the book should be taught.

She did and the book remains on the reading list for students. Whatever the reason, the continuing complaints about the book have landed it as No. It not only deals with a difficult time in American history, it marks an important transformation for Twain himself.