Since its publication, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been embroiled in countless controversies. In earlier years, parents argued that Huck Finn's spouting of obscenities and flouting of convention provided a bad example for their children. At different times, Huck Finn was criticized for advocating atheism, being anti-Southern in attitude, and generally amoral in tone. However, it was in the latter years of the twentieth century that Mark Twain's novel was involved in its most heated controversy: that over race and racism.
Huck Finn increasingly came to be viewed as a classic just as Americans were coming to terms with the repercussions of centuries of racism. The question remains: Is Huck Finn racist? Why has it been censored so frequently? (Huck Finn was number 5 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most challenged books.) Does its history--particularly, the many critiques lobbed against it--say something important about larger national struggles around questions of race? We'll discuss all this and more in class tomorrow.
I feel that it's difficult to blame someone who grew up around the time of racism, when it was proven to be normal, and okay, to be able to easily grow out of it and compeletely detach themselves from escaping the mentality of racist thinking. I do not think that Mark Twain is racist. He uses his novel to depect how racism existed in the past. The quotes read in class today explain that he grew up around it thinking it was okay, because that is what he was taught, but he admits that the white race made a mistake, and they have to pay the price for all the injustice they caused. Racism is ugly and should never exist, but I feel like people should not be afraid of learning about our ugly past. That is the only way to learn and make sure that the mistakes and injustices do not happen again.
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