Huck%20Finn%20Debated

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Huck Finn Debated

• The Controversy Surrounding the Novel, The
  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Huck Finn Debated

• Why is the teaching and reading of Huck Finn so
  controversial?
• How have the criticisms about the book changed
  over the years?

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Huck Finn Debated

• Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn 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
  Toms Cabin challenged in similar ways.

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Huck Finn Controversy

• Racist content
• Use of the n-word
• Jims 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

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Huck Finn Controversy

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

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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

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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, didnt 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/atelierinterne
  t/usessays/html/controversy_overview.html

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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Censorship is telling a man he cant have a
steak just because a baby cant chew it.

• Mark Twain