I agree with everything you say. Thanks for saying it. Another point: since the book is written in the first person, Twain himself never uses the racial epithet at all. That's Huck speaking or quoting other people using it.

Al,

Just want to mention something really important;

There's a relatively new edition of Huck published by Univ. of Cal. Press; it's the definitive version and includes a couple of chapters left out of the original MS. (they were found in an attic in LA in 1990!)

This book contains ton of notes, maps, and additional ref. materials. It's the 'bible' version of Huck Finn, and should be added to your books above as a service to the public.

ISBN: 0520228065

Man, I can't rave enough about this book; if you haven't read it, you haven't read Huck.



re: Twain's usage of "nigger"

Sad to say, this is the most banned book in America. If anyone thinks it's 'racist', they just don't friggin' get it. Jim is the most honorable character in the book.

re: Moral clarity/integrity/ambiguity - There's a great Twain short story called "Was it Heaven or Hell?" that illustrates the same dilemma: Do you "lie" ie sin, in order to save someone from incredible pain, or do you tell the truth and cause hurt?

I don't think that the book should be banned. However, I do want to point out a contradiction in our society. In many school districts, books that contain excessive vulgar language are banned (or unofficially banned because they are never ordered). The Livonia School District in Michigan banned a young-adult fiction book, Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers. It had the word, "fuck," in it too many times. The same district teaches The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has the word, "nigger," in it over 200 times. What is worse, the word, "fuck," or the word, "nigger?" It depends on whom you ask.

We shouldn't ban books because of their language. Sticks and stones. . . Rather, we should determine which books we teach based on their quality and on their value in addressing some aspect of the human condition. As for age-appropriateness, I don't really care. I learned the word, "fuck," when I was in first grade. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew the word and probably used it on a few occasions. I don't think this knowledge harmed me at all.

good gawd, i just realized i've never read Huck Finn.

Yo Shark- thanks for the tip. Note that it is now included. Perhaps I will see if our library has the library edition. I haven't read it in a long while myself.

Thanks, Al.

NOTE: There's a softcover version for about $15.

Shark wrote: "There's a relatively new edition of Huck published by Univ. of Cal. Press; it's the definitive version and includes a couple of chapters left out of the original MS. (they were found in an attic in LA in 1990!)"

In my town are two churches: one with iron bells and one with digital bells. The way to tell the difference is to wait for the end, because the digital bells click off without decay. It's jarring. Makes you feel foolish.

That's how I feel about new chapters found in attics. Especially in LA. That cheesy town? Find me an "attic" in L.A.

They don't exist. Cue sax.

I get bad email from people claiming the attached was written by George Carlin, stuff you read and say, wow, so true. But not funny! That's a clue.

If Twain took it out and somebody else put it back in, that's a sad state of affairs. If it's a forgery it would be easy to tell since he left a fabulous paper trail of almost everything he ever wrote. It wouldn't surprise me if he excised a chapter. It wouldn't surprise me if Bernard De Voto already excerpted it.

What would surprise me is an attic in L.A.

Thanks, Al for bringing me back. I've been to Hannibal many times doing research. There's a nice central place for BC to meet someday.

CW,

That's how I feel about towns with two churches that ring bells.

I'm from Missouri; show me.

Just to clarify:

the 'attic' find was an original manuscript for the first half of the story. (now labeled M1)

Scholars had the hand-written, second half of the story (M2). The LA find reunited the entire original MS.

It's interesting only to scholars and Twain fanatics like myself because one can see the changes made--- especially as Huck's 'voice' evolved over the six odd years Clemens took to write it. The M1/M2 were revised again before being typeset, so a comparison between the finished product and the original MS is fascinating.

Yeah, I know: I have a lot of time on my hands, but somebodie's gotta do it.

In the novel written by Mark Twain, 'The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn' , I believe that Mark Twain's use of the word "Nigger" is truly and completely degrading and destructive. There is no doubt that Twain created a controversial issue in our society today. School boards and libraries are looking to ban 'Huckleberry Finn' for its racist content, and I as a reader agree with their decision to ban the novel. Twain's novel creates stereotypes and is offensive to black readers. Wanting to ban the book began when it was first published in 1885, 119 years ago. Much has changes since then and the way our society treats racism.

Our society today treats racism more intense than in 1885, when it was normal to say "Nigger" and have black slaves. Now that our society doesn't have slaves, to read something like
"Good gracious! Anybody hurt?" (Aunt Sally)
"No'm. Killed a nigger"(Huck Finn)
"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt." (Page 249),
its very shocking. My point is that in 1885 Twains racist comments were the norm, but not today in our society, where it is not healthy to be stereotyped and ridiculed because of your skin color. I think it is time for the novel to go into "retirement".

Miss Danielle, thank you for visiting and contributing to Blogcritics discussion.

However, you could not possibly be more utterly, totally wrong about Huck Finn in every possible way. For starters, why would you presume that someone choosing to be officially offended by the book would be a reason for others not to read it? By what right? You personally, of course, are welcome not to read it. That's strictly your business.

However, Huck Finn is probably by far THE most cited candidate for greatest American novel EVER, for more than a century. That so completely trumps petty concerns about the word "nigger."

Indeed, the word NIGGER is absolutely an artistic necessity here. Twain was confronting US artistically, slapping us up side the head with the complete stupid, wicked and simply incorrect attitudes of our society. Nicey-nice language would be whitewashing the scene. Also, to point out the obvious, the people talking about "niggers" were clearly portrayed as wrong and hateful, and Nigger Jim was absolutely the hero of the damned book.

Perhaps instead, you could better devote your energies to stamping out gangster rap records, which use the word far more liberally than Twain- but also UNlike Twain are using it to belittle and dehumanize black folk.

Plus, I assume you'll be burning all the Richard Pryor records, of course.

Mark Twain, who wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has definitely given me a ride with emotions toward the book. In the very beginning I noticed that everyone refers to African-American people as the "n-word". I was immediately turned off and didn't really want to continue. However, I later realized that during that time period, that's how African-Americans were referred to as. I had to accept it because that's how it was back then. Another thing was that all foreigners were considered colored and there isn't anything you can really do to change the past. It's a done deal, but the only thing you can do is learn from it. Although I never got over it even in the later chapters, it is something that you just have to look over, for that sake of the significance of the novel.

Another thing that I noticed throughout the novel was the stereotypes that were used. Twain targeted mostly black men and women who were slaves or free, and made them sound very dumb, uneducated, and inferior. That was something that bothered me for I am a foreigner. It was something that I couldn't get over because stereotypes are wrong, unethical and don't prove anything. Some people are educated, some are not. It doesn't pertain to just a single race. There can be good and bad people of every race, of every religion, and of every nationality. So in essence, I really think there were many controversial topics. I liked the book and it has really helped me to be more open-mined, something more people need to become.

I think that the contents in Twain's novel are okay. Sure the use of language that is conidered racist nowadays is used in it,but I think that's what makes the book what it is and why it is such a great piece of literature. I think Twain did a great job with pushing our ammendment of freedom of speech to its limits. If this book is banned then what good is our freedom of speech.
The use of the word nigger and the moral issues of freeing slaves defined Huck's character. This was needed in order make the last chapters as powerful as they were. I admire twain for writing this piece because it's in your face. I think that's how we should nowadays and stop sugar-coating things. I know that the language may seem disrespectful but that's how it was back then and I think that we should respect that and not throw a fit over an author's opinionated work that's over a century old.

I think that the use of the word nigger is used to lightly in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". It's use is littered throughout the story and it overshadows the lessons trying to be taught through Huck's journeys with Jim. The same lessons could be taught in other, less degrading and demoralizing works of literture.
Also I believe that through this book it might give the impression to young white readers that they have racial superiority over black people. I say this in reference to the comment Huck makes "I knowed he was white inside" when Jim selflessly sacrficed his own personal safety to protect Tom. These noble acts were only associated with white people in those times and white readers might think it is the same now.

I think that the contents in Twain's novel are okay. Sure the use of language that is conidered racist nowadays is used in it,but I think that's what makes the book what it is and why it is such a great piece of literature. I think Twain did a great job with pushing our ammendment of freedom of speech to its limits. If this book is banned then what good is our freedom of speech.



The use of the word nigger and the moral issues of freeing slaves defined Huck's character. This was needed in order make the last chapters as powerful as they were. I admire twain for writing this piece because it's in your face. I think that's how we should nowadays and stop sugar-coating things. I know that the language may seem disrespectful but that's how it was back then and I think that we should respect that and not throw a fit over an author's opinionated work that's over a century old.

It's good for people to see how harmful the racist taint in America's history can be. It's good for people to see this up close and personal, the way only a good storyteller like Twain can make it, now that slavery is no more.

Of course there are other books trying to teach the same moral lessons in ways that are not controversial, with no offensive words. But can you name any, or even one anywhere near as effective as Huckleberry Finn, without having to research carefully first?

Not only is nobody trying to ban those books, nobody bothers to talk about them at all. Nobody ever specifically mentions any of those books. They are only mentioned as a general category of "books we think should be studied instead of Mark Twain's book." That fact in itself should tell you we still need to read and discuss Huckleberry Finn.

Victor, that last paragraph really says it. Exactly that it's getting up under people's skin after 100+ years is a good sign that it's important.

There simply is no other book like Huck Finn, nothing to replace it. You could find some cheap little tract that says "Slavery is bad" but that means little. Much more important, it's not just about slavery, but freedom, and particularly the freedom of conscience that moves Huck to defy God.

Marlon, the way the word nigger is used lightly is important and necessary to communicating the wicked pervasiveness of it. It's not just that one of these people might get mad and call someone a bad name in a fit of anger, but that it was used casually all the time. They mostly didn't even see how mean and degrading they were being.

Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" hit the subject of racism very well. Although I believe many people thought because it used the word "nigger" made it bad, I doubt that was the author's true meaning. First of all that was how all black people/slaves were reffered to as and people didn't think about it as degrading, or a mean thing to say, etc. Yes, the society thought of black people as dumb or not on the same level as white people as shown in this quote,"Good gracious! Anybody hurt?" (Aunt Sally)
"No'm. Killed a nigger"(Huck Finn)
"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt." (Page 249), but that doesn't exactly mean Huck Finn was racist nor does it mean Mark Twain was.

Huck Finn's opinion on black people/slaves started out as racist but thats only because of his influences(Miss Watson,Miss Douglas,his parents)but is shown many times in the novel that Huck isn't really racist or not at least conciously. This is shown with how many chances he had to turn Jim in but he didn't because he couldn't see why people thought of Jim as any lower as anyone else. The fact Huck stayed with Jim this whole time and didn't turn him in shows his bond with Jim. Finally, many people seem to take character's words as Mark Twain's and they are two completely different things. In my opinion when Huck's father says how its wrong for a black man to not be a slave, to dress better than white people, and to be free Mark Twain was just trying to show how absurd that kind of thinking is, but that's just my two cents.

I don't think the people who banned the book, believe that its message is racist or that twain himself was racist, but that younger students are not mature enough to grapple the semantics of the word nigger when delivered by a white character, or in a white novel, or read aloud by a white student etc. There are other larger concerns though...

Though a mature audience is perfectly capable of reading Huck Finn and of distinguishing the novels very relevant and noble criticism of American Society, young audiences, and particularly, young black audiences have a much more complicated issue to deal with. That is that slavery and racism is a subject loaded with very raw emotions and the humiliations suffered by the black people in America's very recent history brings about very difficult questions to a black reader. These questions strike to the core of a black person's self-awareness and ego. If they aren't prepared to deal with the emotional implications of their dark past they could react poorly to it. In fact I think they could receive an emotional message that is totally opposite of the literal message.

All this is what I imagine to be the issue, and I am reasonably certain that no one is suggesting Mark Twain wasn't promoting racism, rather than condoning it.

IF you read the book again you can pay attention to the Jim's character and see how humiliating he might be to a black reader. Though Jim has a heart of gold, his socialization leaves him at the beck and call of a small child who teases him and plays humiliating games with him. The Huck clearly likes Jim, the power structures are completely subverted to an outrageous and embarrassing effect.

Though twain wrote Jim's character as a biting satire which pointed out the destructive and sad nature of institutionalized racism and its dehumanizing effects on the blacks of the time, it is none the less hard for a young person to understand this. If they don't grasp it than it is simply humiliating to the black audience who seeks to identify with the Character of Jim -- not just empathize, but identify. We can all sympathize with Jim, but it's essential that a young black audience have an intelligent, strong model from which to juxtapose with Jim. Huck Finn doesn't offer that.

I agree that the book is too complicated and dangerous for really young audiences. However, I think it is appropriate for most audiences 17 and older. IT should be reserved for senior audiences. There are plenty of other novels which deal with the same issues but are dealt with in a more adolescent sensitive way. Mark Twain's place in literary Cannon is secure, and universities and college students will have plenty of opportunity to enjoy it.

*referred

Sydney, I appreciate your balanced and thoughtful comments, but I think you WAY underestimate young people. They deal with stuff in the popular culture every day FAR more degrading to blacks, 50 Cent for example.

Moreover, considering the rocky social and emotional terrain involved, it would be particularly good to have this in a classroom setting. That way, they can get input from teachers and other classmates to help them unscramble the meanings. That called LEARNING, and that's exactly what schools are for.

On the other hand, trying to ban the book would tend to make it sound cool and dangerous, which might get the kiddies interested in this classic piece of literature.

Ya with regards to my comments in my last post and your view that young students could handle the heavy issues, I'll admit that you may very well be right.

However, my experince as a teacher suggest that they probably wouldn't. My opinion anyway.

Your right that students are extremely media savey and are capable of accessing layered discourses within many media texts. They are none-the-less deficient in many areas of language and higher thought.

ITs funny... sometimes they understand things in a far more complex way then many adults (in particular when it comes to reading media texts), but they are way far behind in other ways. I find my students very resistant to accessing literary texts on anything but a literal level. Perhaps that is my shortcommings as an instructor...

The other thing is that I think its very difficult for me , or any other white person to understand how huck finn makes a black peroson feel. This is a question only black audiences can answer. All the comments made in my last post come from my thoughts and feelings as I read the novel, and my efforts to view the novel from a black's perspective. IT is neccesarily inadequate. Only a point for discussion....

Thanks for the response.

In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he emphasizes racism throughout the story. While reading the book, there was one point that caught my attention. When Jim, Miss Watson's slave, talks to Huck about his family, Huck worries whether or not he made the right decision to run away with Jim as said: "Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me." This shows that Huck's morals made it seem wrong to help a slave run away, but if he did not help Jim, part of him would say that it was not right to not save someone, who seems like a good person, even if Jim is a black slave.

One example of how Mark Twain represented that Huck thought of black people different from white is, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger," As Huck said this, he does not regret apologizing to Jim because of making a fool of him thinking their separation in the fog was a dream. In this quote, the author shows that Huck has some sympathy for Jim and is a person nonetheless, even if Jim is a different color and knows he is a slave. As you go deeper in the novel you can see that Huck learns more about Jim as a person rather than thinking of him as a mere slave. In short, Huck finds it difficult to decide whether helping Jim is right or to listen to what he was brought up to know that blacks are inferior to them.

Yes, and the whole book is full of these kind of moments, as Huck has to learn to make some kind of sense of the world and the races- what he's been taught versus what he sees in Jim.

Sydney, I guess I just don't mind too much if the book upsets some people, black or white. Maybe they need to be upset a little now and then. The world's full of tough topics that have to be grappled with, which is one of the useful functions of art.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens's, better known as Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn has been one of the most controversial novels ever written. This is mainly due to the fact of the racism predominantly found throughout the book. One point that strikes this note is when Huck, mistaken for Tom Sawyer, talks to Aunt Sally about his made-up trip on a steamboat. He said there was a blowout on the cylinder head, the chamber in a steamboat in which steam acts upon the piston, and when his 'aunt' asked if anybody was hurt, he replied, "No'm. Killed a nigger." This shows that African Americans were thought of as second class. This reflects a lot of opinions in the South then; the racial inferiority of the black people to the whites.

While all of this is quite apparent to readers throughout the book, one must step back a moment and look at the time when the book was written, and the situation at the time. This book was written in the 1800's, when there was still racial prejudice, and the Civil War had not ended too long ago. Changes to society, even through war, are not wrought in days or even years. So Mark Twain was still used to slavery and rewound time a bit in his book. So basically, in his time it was not racism, or not truly it yet, it was simply a fact and part of everyday life.

I don't know if you folks are all real young or what? When I grew up in St Louis in the 50's, we still used the "n" word and were only beginning to get the idea that it was offensive.

Negro's were still considered second class citizens, and it was rare that a white middle class person came in contact with anyone of color unless they were hired help.

How amazingly far we've come in 50 years . . and yet . . my neighbor, who is a junior college counselor and black says he truly believes there are people here in polyglot LA who would rather kiss their dog on the lips than shake his hand.

Thanks MTwain for the beginnings of civilizing this nation on that issue.

Slavery, although still present today, was a major part of life during the early 1880's, the set time for Mark Twain's novel. All throughout Twain's novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," the issue of slavery is always present. Characters like the "Duke" and the "King" see Jim as just a way to gain cash by setting up a fake "Wanted" notice and selling Jim for whiskey money. And before I go any further, I would like to say that slaves are people too, though it didn't occur to most people back then. Slaves were just thought of as property, to be bought, sold, or replaced. Huckleberry Finn was like that in the beginning, too.

However, as they embarked on their journey together, Huck and Jim grew closer and closer as friends. During chapter nine, Jim protects Huck from seeing his father's dead body saying that it was "too gashley" (though it remained unknown to Huck that it was is his father). Huck, then, turns around in chapter sixteen and defends Jim from being sold when he told some ferry boat men that Jim was his father and that he had the smallpox. Huck also helps Jim escape slavery once again at the end of the book when he and Tom Sawyer broke Jim out of the Phelp's small prison shack.

So as slavery goes, Huck learned that slaves are people with families and lives to live. That is why slavery is one of the major themes of Mark Twain's novel.

I can easily understand how some people are offended by the topic of the novel and especially the repeated use of the word "nigger." People of African American descent probably don't want to be reminded of all the atrocious treatment their ancestors had to endure and considering how much things have changed in the past two hundred years, whites also probably don't want to be reminded of the horrible crimes against humanity their ancestors committed. But, the fact is, no matter how horrible these things were, they're in the past and the best we can hope for is to learn from the mistakes and never make them again. Regardless of how it might easily offend some people, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a relevant piece of literature that gives a very accurate description of what life was like in that time period.

This book is also vastly different because, while the racial issues and differences are still present, the story is mostly told from the point of view of an outsider. Huck never fit in with the upper class or was forced to be a slave, he ended up somewhere in the middle. Due to what was thought of as proper in society, he did treat blacks differently but never thought of them as property. The closest example I can think of to the relationship between Huck and Jim is that of a boy and his dog. I don't mean this to be at all degrading to blacks, but the circumstances are similar. While a dog is considered property, most people still care about their needs and feelings to the point where the pet is accepted and loved as a member of the family, even if it is not given the same treatment as a human. Jim is considered property, but is thought of by Huck as more of a companion and friend than property. Both are loyal to each other and if it weren't for one, the other wouldn't have gotten out of some pretty bad scrapes. For example, when the two finally manage to ditch the duke and king and Huck finds out Jim was sold, he goes after him instead of just leaving him to his captors. Jim also proves to be an exceptional friend by shielding Huck from his father's dead body and providing very good companionship. A boy and his dog can be very close without being equals. This is Jim and Huck's relationship not because Jim is inferior but because he is ignorant and has never been given a chance to learn and be an equal. I believe Twain's novel is necessary because it provides a narrative of the way things were and how regardless of society and institutionalism, people should rise above it and show compassion for their fellow man no matter what their religion, color, or nationality.

why didn't Mark Twain give his own comments about his own book "The Adventures of Huck Finn"?

I am a Junior in High school and I am now reading "Huckleberry Finn" for my end of the year book, we have to do a research paper on the era of the book or something connected to Mississippi, 1800's, Mark Twain, or "Huck Finn". I am doing my paper on why is "Huckelberry Finn" the most contreversial(sp?) and Banned book in most public schools and i have came to a shocking result my school computer only found FIVE results...either they banned most results or thats all that is located on the net(I highly doubt this for its the internet i searched on and not on the bookshelves lacated behind me lol) going on I was wondering if you have any other web links or sites I can use as well as this one for my research paper I would really appreciate it. Also if you don't mind I hope I can use this article (cited and all) for my research I think people would appreciate your thoughts as well as mine. Thank You for reading my comment.


~*<3*~
Kitty

Like it or not, it's history. Those who would ban or "retire" it would also like to revise history - which itself is seldom pretty or nice or clean. Furthermore, the book & the abusive societal picture it paints of how people were perceived & treated 150+ years ago (or even just 50 years ago) because of the color of their skin, and the ruses & hoops they had to jump through just to survive, are valuable just BECAUSE they serve as a warning & a reminder of how bad things were, and a guideline to where we do want to go. Banning the book isn't going to wipe out the bad old days; by that standard you're also going to have to ban a slew of other works as well, including Fred Douglass' autobio, William Wells Brown's autobio, Lydia Child's novel, Harriet Stowe's novel, all the archived old newspapers & magazines still dating from old days, and on and on, because they all contain the same "offensive" historical context & terms.

Rendering all this even more hypocritical & ridiculous is that, as pointed out by an earlier poster, current rap artists use the N-word prolifically & constantly, no one raises hell about it, they just shrug & say it's part of the gangsta/ghetto/black culture - and the worst part is, that kind of abuse is going on here & now. If black people continue to call each other trash names like that, then how can they credibly insist that historical records ought to be expunged?

Other than that, my additional comment is surprise that people are not getting to Huckleberry Finn until high school. High school? I read it in grade school. Is this part of the dumbing down of current US education, or does it have to do with the 'offensive' nature of the book which was not as hot an issue back in the stone ages when I was in school (sex was the touchy topic back then more than anything else).

Angel, I do not know if this has the information you want but if you look in the Second Edition a case study in Critical Cotroversey 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain edited by Gerald Graff and James Phelan, there is alot of information that you and anyone else may find itresting. I hope you look for it I learened alot from it and i hope everyone else does to. :)

<3
Kitty

I feel like such a goofball I mispelled "Controversay" and "learned" so sleepy can't tink must go finish the essay almost done! :D

~*<3*~
Kitty

How can u have a novel set in the south during the time of slavery without using the word nigger. Jim is not even depicted in a bad way, its the white characters that are portrayed as thieves and selfih unintelligent beings

The thing is with Twain's 'Huck Finn' is that for the time he was writing about, the racial method of thinking is somewhat irrelevant, becuase this is something everybody knew back then, it was common knowledge. So the consistent use of the word "nigger" shouldn't be surprising. An example: During the part where Jim is trapped at the Phelps' and Tom and Huck are trying to help Jim escape 'the right way', Jim agrees to invlove himself in the mess that Huck and Tom have started for him, becuase "he allowed we [Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn] was white folks and knowed better than him; so he was satisfied."

Towards the end of the novel, the differences in race didn't seem to matter to Huck Finn as much as before, at least this started out in what great characteristics he had seen in Jim. It might be a stretch, but this is Huck's thought process towards African-Americans and equality of race: "I knowed he [Jim] was white inside..." and later on, "because I thought he had a good heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him." What these thoughts allow is the possibility that other African-Americans can 'be like Jim' or be intelligent - just as supposedly the "whites" were, if one gave them the chance; which, for back then, would be controversial thought.

Mark Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn' is first and foremost a satire. The word 'nigger' seems harsh and degradeing now but, was used in everyday vocabulary a hundred years ago. Those who want to ban 'Huck Finn' saying it is too controversal have missed the entire point of the book. Sure some examples are extreme and are degrading in today's culture. For example, when Huck is explaining to Aunt Sally about the Steamboat accident:
Aunt Sally: Good gracious, was anybody hurt?
Huck: No'm. Killed a nigger.
Aunt Sally: Well, its Lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.
AS if black slaves were not people at all. Then, when Aunt Sally learns what the 'runaway nigger' did for Tom and that he was really free she "made a heap of fuss over him," and even put him up in the sick room. Though Jim is the character with the most hardships in life, due to his color of skin, he is also the character with the most joy in life through the little things.

Thoughout the book Huck struggles with the conflict of slavery. His upbring through Miss Watson and the Widow teaches him that black people are under him in social standings but, his friendship with Jim a runaway slave teaches him the values of friendship. Each time Huck and Jim are seprated Jim is overjoyed with seeing Huck agian and praises him. When it comes time to make the choice to turn Jim in or to continue to help him excape Huck chose to be condemed to Hell and Help Jim. Just as Huck had to decide we all Have to. Twain's 'Huck Finn' has taught me to make the choice and to watch what I say for our words are very powerful to others not just the word "nigger."

Miss Lisa- Thank you for your thoughtful comments on Huck Finn. I do get a bit frustrated with idiots seing the word "nigger" and losing their little minds with no regard for the context and meaning.

On top of which, I suspect that a lot of the people so objecting make no objection to the often truly hateful and derogatory use of the word in rap. Huck Finn volunteering to go to hell for his nigger friend is wrong, but Eazy E wanting to smoke a couple of niggers with his gat is just authentic street reporting, or some such nonsense.

The usage of the word nigger in the book does not in no shape or form bother me although I am an african american.In the olden days they referred to africans as niggers, so I don't think people should actually have deep depth about that. Although it use the "N" word a lot in our society and communities we hear that work more frequently now then back then. Like during the part when Huck and Jim were arguing over the way a person talk Huck says to himself as I may quote "I see it warn't no use wasting words - you can't learn a nigger to argue".

So this shows the controversal aspects of the book. I don't believe Mark Twain intended for people to think that he was races by using the "N" word.As I said before if society today would not focus on the usage of the word, and not get on the offensive side such as africans now a days would be pleasant.I understand what Twain is expressing in the book and I don't feel the readers should take offense.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments Cedric.

In the first few chapters, and as I would soon figure out, there was alot of use of the "N"- word. Mainly when reffering to the Character Jim. But I guess this has to do with the time the story was written. Overall I am not offended by the "N" word in the novel, nor how it was used. I can say though it did make me think of how Black people (I am African American) were treated back then. And compared to how blacks use it today. I can say though at some points in the novel when the word was used, I somewhat did not want to here blacks use it anymore. But I got over that. All in all I enjoyed the book from the begining, with the so called gang of robbers and killers that did nothing to no one. To the interesting twists at the end.

The overuse of the word 'nigger' is only a small part of the racist comments made in this novel. The way Huckleberry Finn always refers to african-americans as niggers is a way of showing how often it's used in this time and how disrespected they were back then. It's not right how people were treated as objects just because they weren't white. I'm extremely disgusted with the way african-americans were treated. The idea of slavery just terrible.

I agree with the author of this article, though. The language used in this novel MAY be degrading and wrong, but its the way people spoke in that time and Mark Twain was just writing as things were in that specific time period. This book shouldn't be banned from schools because of the fact that it educates about the past. It's a real depiction of what things were like. It's like people are hiding education from students who deserve to learn about our nation's history, even if it's not exactly the best thing to remember.

I read through this whole page, and i could not believe the audacity of some of these people. as an african american student, reading Huckleberry Finn was bad enough, and then hearing my classmates say the N- word like it was nothing... insult to injury. I know this is history and all of that, but i didn't appreciate the book or the comments. Because many of you aren't black, and have never been black,and will never BE black you will never understand how much this word hurts. the history behind it is so deep, and many flip it around like it is nothing, and it has even become "a term of endearment" in some dictionaries. i thank the many people who stood up for african americans, because it is hard to have our viewpoint understood from someone who has never gone through this and cannot say that this has ever really hurt them personally.
i also wish that people would stop throwing this word around as though it is nothing.

and i dont like mark twain or any of his works.
sorry.

#42- I am also african american, you need to understand that the "n" word you say is so hurtful was at this point in time, socially acceptable. Today hip hop and rap, african americans flagrently used the "n" word as a filler and they just shout it at random-- maybe we should focus on this and put it to end as it is allowing caucasians backup in saying it. I LOVED Huckleyberry Finn

Student2006, I can appreciate your lack of appreciation for the common usage of the N word by rappers. I could sure do with hearing it a lot less. On the other hand, at this point, the word just doesn't really mean the same thing it used to. You could argue that it's being de-fanged.