Angelica Flores

English 1A

                                            Huck

Huckleberry Finn novel has raised a lot of controversy through out time. A lot of Controversy rose because of the text of the book. Some people argue that the text is racist, sexist and along with many other critics. In Peaches Henry’s essay she argues that the text is not races, she talks about other critiques that are against the book to help her support her point of view. She talks about those essays and gives the other side of the coin. I agree with Peaches Henry that the book is not racist. However I do agree with other critics that the book shouldn’t be present in elementary, junior high, or even high school. I also disagree with Henry for presenting that novel as an American Classic.

            John Wallace a former administrator at the Mark Twain intermediate school was against the book. While serving on a school’s human relations committee, he did a campaign to have Huck stricken from school curriculum Later schools from New York City, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Iowa to Texas concur with Wallace’s assessment of Huck Finn “demands the attention of the academic community”. It was news that the book was number nine out of thirty books that is frequently challenged which instead of being a positive thing it was turned to be a negative thing, Classified as a “racial problem”. Still the book is one of the most requested.

            I do agree with the removal of the book from schools because of its issues.  A lot of children aren’t ready to read a novel with its complicated text. Children are the ones that are more cruel at younger ages, because they don’t stop and think of what they’re actually saying. New York Times received a letter from Allan B. Ballard recalling the moment was he was in class reading Huck Fin in a class with white children.

“I can still recall the anger I felt as my white classmates read aloud the word “nigger.” In fact, as I write this letter I am getting angry all over again. I wanted to sink into my seat. Some of the whites snickered, others giggled. I can recall nothing of the literary merits of this work that you term “the greatest of all American novels.” I only recall the sense of relief I felt when I would flip ahead a few pages and see that the word “nigger” would not be read that hour.”(p386)

            On the other hand Henoff believes that “ by confronting Huck it will give students “the Capacity to see past words like nigger”….into what the writer is actually “saying” (p.387)

Henoff wonders “what’s going to happen to a kid when gets into the world if he’s going to let a word paralyze him so he can’t think” (p.387)

I do think that children should get presented with certain books at a young age, but not Huck Finn. Huckleberry Finn was a book written years and years ago and the text was how people would call slaves back then. I’m saying that it was okay for them to treat human being like that, but the text was presented how it was back then.

            On the other hand Langston Hughes offers a convincing explanation of the signification of  the word “nigger” to blacks:

            The word “nigger” to colored people of high and low degree is like a red rag to a bull. Used rightly or wrongly, ironically or seriously, of necessity for the sake of realism, or impishly for the sake of comedy, it doesn’t matter. Negroes do not like it in any book or play whatsoever, be the book or play ever so sympathetic in its treatment of the basic problems of the race. The word nigger, you see, sums up for us who are colored all the bitter years of insult and struggle in America”(p.388)

            I can understand what Langston is talking about when he says that it is like waiving a red rag in front of a bull. Me being Chicana I have had to deal with racism myself. I know what it feels like to be called names by someone who is from another race. However if you really think about it, a word is just a word. It’s the idea of someone trying to disrespect you. So I think that it really depends on how the word is being used. I don’t think that Mark Twain was trying to disrespect anybody when he wrote the book. He was just trying to show how it was back then. If you’re going to tell a story that has to do with history, then you shouldn’t leave anything out because no matter what, you can’t change history.