Thinking Before Reading: Huck Finn

If you were in eleventh grade honors English in my high school, you read Huckleberry Finn. Unfortunately, I was not in eleventh grade honors English. From what I heard from my friends about the book, it was a hard read with excessive use of the word "nigger". Many people told me they didn't like the book, at all.

However, when I was a kid, I had seen many shows that depicted the story of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I enjoyed those stories a lot, so I'm surprised that not many people enjoyed Huck Finn. But I suppose the story of Huckleberry is different than Tom's story.

When I read, I expect to be challenged, at least a little, by the language of the story. I'm not sure how much I will enjoy the story itself, but I hope its more than my friends in high school did. Hopefully the fact that I'm not reading it until college will help. I know I enjoyed Catcher in the Rye a lot more than others back in high school did because I read it in college and, therefore, understood it better.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-20044663.html
This article talks about the use of "nigger" in Huckleberry Finn. While some teachers in the article believe that the word is necessary to create the proper effect, others believe it's unnecessary and used too often. The book has been banned from some schools specifically because of the use of "nigger". One publisher in Alabama changed the word to "slave" so that schools that banned Huck Finn can have enroll it in their school curriculum again without having to worry about offending students or parents.

However, censoring Mark Twain has stirred up controversy of its own. Some scholars believe that Mark Twain used "nigger" with the intention of shocking readers and making them think about the meaning and consequence of the word. Others believe that the word is used to replicate the speech of the time period. Those who believe that the word is used simply to replicate speech seem not to mind the edited version of Huck Finn.

Myself, I'd prefer to read the book the way it was intended. Whatever the author's intention was, I want to experience it that way. I disagree with censoring Huck Finn. I don't believe any author's language should be changed just to fit in society's standards. Books can be controversial. This makes them more interesting and causes readers to think about the content.