Huckleberry Finn: Inappropriate, Unacceptable, and Racist

“Well it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt…”

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is the most racist “American Classic” ever written. Some readers of this novel have probably never viewed it as having a harsh and negative effect on young readers, when in fact, this novel not only confuses but also harms the young black readers’ perspective of their history and themselves as persons. Throughout the novel Twain uses the term “nigger” over two hundred times to refer to those persons of African descent. Twain also stereotypes the black characters in the novel, especially Jim, the main black character. Twain portrays black characters in a way that damages the self-esteem of young black readers. The novel has been banned in many places in the United States and countries abroad, which proves that it is not good reading material for young, impressionable minds.

Even colleges and entire library systems have banned the novel. At one point, the novel had been banned every year since its publication. Peaches Henry, a noted researcher and scholar, conducted an

exhaustive study on Huckleberry Finn and on the racial grounds of the novel. He found that the racial grounds of the novel fall into four categories: the use of the term “nigger”, the depiction and portrayal of blacks, the difficulty it causes young readers, and its potential to worsen race relations (Johnson 36). Because of all this, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a good selection for young readers because of its negative effects and the confusion it causes.

Many claim that Huck Finn was only proclaiming the view of the South at the time, but that does not make the book anymore acceptable in this day and age. (Fishkin 101) Black readers find the term “nigger” oppressive. They find the depiction of Jim oppressive. Therefore, this novel can only negatively effect the young black student. The self esteem of African American children is already low enough they certainly do not need the negative role models this novel sets forth. (Johnson 36) Mark Twain may have felt genuinely sorry for Jim, he still portrayed Jim as a minstrel character which can be demeaning and depressing to readers everywhere (Fishkin 107), especially those too young to understand that Twain’s racist attitudes are wrong. Ever since this novel came into existence there have always been many stipulations placed on its reading. Almost any material that requires such conditions could and should be considered racist propaganda. It is totally amazing because if The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had used a term such as “spic” it would have been banished centuries ago. This is a novel whose author had to set up his own publications house to get it printed because it was considered so racist and even after its publication it was immediately banned by the Concord Public Library System (Foerstel 150). This is a novel that has been banned in the United States, but also in other places abroad on the charge of being racist, sexist and all around degrading. (Sora 9) This is a novel that uses the term “nigger” over two hundred and six times. This is a novel which should not be read by young students. Yes, indeed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the great American classic but only because it ridicules blacks more than any other book given to American children to read, which is not much to be said about the novel. It is truly not understandable how this novel can be allowed to remain on school book lists and part of English courses. The only justice that can be brought to the young black students, who are forced to inevitably read this novel, is the banning of Huck Finn.

As do many people, Doctor John H. Wallace believes that the novel was racist, its author was racist, and it has no place in the classrooms of America (Wallace qtd. in Fishkin 107). Children certainly may be able to devour Huckleberry Finn but they are unable to digest or even fully understand it. The novel positively is not a children’s book at all (de Koster 165). Twain himself even admitted this point when he stated in an interview, “I wrote Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for adults exclusively, and it always distresses me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them.” (Twain qtd. in Foerstel 151) In an article by Russell Baker printed in the New York Times on April 14, 1982 it was clearly expressed that not even readers of a high school level are ready for Huckleberry Finn because of its antiquated use of language (Wal

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