The Most Controversial Book in America

1. The Most Controversial Book in America Our Love/Hate Relationship with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Ms. MitchellSophomore CPAmerican Literature

2. Background • Written by Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Clemens). • Published in 1885, 20 years AFTER The Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery. • It is set in the pre-Civil War South where slavery was still in existence. • Follows the story of Huckleberry Finn, the 14 year old son of the town drunk, as he travels down the Mississippi River with Jim, an escaped slave seeking freedom.

3. A Vulgar, Racist Text • The text was first banned in the Concord, MA libraries shortly after the book was published. • Historically it has been called, among other things, “vulgar, inelegant, ungrammatical, coarse, irreverent, semi-obscene, trashy and vicious.” These were the original arguments against the text. • In 1957 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called the text “racially offensive” and since then this has been the major argument against the text.

4. The Great American Novel • Defenders of the text often cite the text as decidedly anti-racistand a satirical commentary on the antebellum South in which Twain was raised. • The text manages to give a humorous yet brutally honest depiction of a dark period in US history through the eyes of a 14 year old protagonist who ultimately comes to understand the inherent immorality in society. • Twain referred to the novel as “a book of mine in which a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision, and conscience suffers defeat.” The sound heart refers to the goodness of human nature, and the deformed conscience refers the prevailing racist ideas of right and wrong.

5. “Twain admitted to once having embraced all the most cherished beliefs about racial difference and black inferiority that gave moral justification to the slavocracy of the antebellum South. He used his story of the boy Huckleberry Finn to illustrated his own epiphany about American racism and to offer a cautionary tale at a time when American society was receding back into the same depravity that had earlier torn the nation apart in the Civil War.” --Craig Hotchkiss Education Program Manager at the Mark Twain House and Museum

6. So Is the text racist? Anti-Racist Racist Uses the N-word over 200 times. Jim is given stereotypical, racially offensive characteristics (passive, child-like, extreme deference to Huck, superstitious, naïve, etc.) Huck’s views about Jim and black people in general are racist, narrow-minded, and ignorant. As he is the narrator, the reader is forced to see the book through his eyes. • Huck’s physical journey down the Mississippi River becomes a moral one as he comes to understand the immorality and inhumanity of society. • Jim is shown to be sympathetic, loving, protective man with survival skills. Despite his lower place in society he often acts his age and maintains the role of adult in his travels with Huck. • Huck ends the text loyal to Jim, despite having been raised to believe in white superiority. • Twain wrote the novel to illustrate his own epiphany about race relations.

7. “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bugs.” --Mark Twain

8. Recent Controversy • In January 2011 it was announced that Alan Gribben, a literary scholar, was editing and releasing a new edition of Huckleberry Finn which would replace every instance of the word “nigger” with “slave.” • Some feel that this will make the text less offensive to many readers as well as less objectionable as a text in public schools. • Those opposed to the change feel it detracts from the message Twain was trying to get across. • “Slave” and “Nigger” are NOT the same word, nor do they carry the same historical weight or connotation. • “Slave” was an occupation or a societal role which meant one person was owned by another. The word itself is not a slur or meant to dehumanize the person to whom it is referring. • “Nigger” was (and is) a term meant to demean persons of color and reinforce black inferiority to white superiority.

9. The “N” Word • The N-word appears in the text somewhere between 219 and 236 times. • The prolific use of the word has been one of the reasons the novel has incurred outrage and condemnation amongst scholars, activists, parents, and communities. • The word is historically accurate within the context of the novel. Growing up as Huck did, he would not have referred to Jim or any black person as anything other than “nigger.”

10. Tim Wise • Tim Wise is a scholar on race and race relations. Author of numerous texts including, White Like Me and Between Barack and a Hard Place. • The following clip is an excerpt from a lecture he gave at Boston College. I think it is worth us watching.

11. How Will We handle it? My Ground Rules: • You may write it when writing about the novel, writing about the controversy, journaling, free-writing, quoting the text, etc. • When reading out loud we are going to simply not speak the word. I will model how we will pause to acknowledge there is a word we are skipping before moving on. • You may not insert another word in its place. There is no other word in the English language that carries exactly the same connotation and weight as this word. We will not discredit or cheapen the historical context by inserting a replacement word. • You will notuse the word casually, in jest, or towards another member of our community in or outside my classroom. If I hear it used as such you will be asked to leave and you will earn a trip to Mr. Dorey’s office.

12. One Last Thing… • If at any point you feel uncomfortable or upset regarding something we read in the text, images or articles we use as supplemental materials, or from class discussion/lectures, I respectfully ask that you tell me. There are many teachable moments in this text, and I truly feel a lot of good can come of reading and discussing it, but no one deserves to feel uncomfortable during that process. • Additionally, it is okay to disagree with one another as we discuss the text. It is also okay to voice opinion, questions, or concerns that may be controversial or uncomfortable. We don’t learn anything by playing it safe. However, you will make a serious effort to be respectful and polite to your classmates, and be ready to hear and discuss differences of opinion.