The Controversy of Huck Finn

                                          

Republishing Controversy

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel by Mark Twain, Published in 1884, is considered to be one of America’s best example of regional literature and the Great American Novel (Twain). It has been taught in American school for generations. However, big controversy arose recently after Mark Twain scholar Dr. Allan Gibbon republished the novel. The new version has the substitution word “slave” which is the elimination of 219 occurrences of the N-word. On the one hand, Dr. Boyce Watkins, Professor at Syracuse University who has been on several television show to tell why he agrees with the idea of rewriting Mark Twain's—"Huckleberry Finn"—believes the books should be censored: On "The Joy Behar Show" Dr. Boyce Watkins said it needs to be updated because of 219 occurrences of the N-word also expresses, reading over and over same word is a trauma.  On the other hand, Marc Lamont Hill of Columbia University disagrees with the revisions and feels that we are squandering an opportunity to talk about American racial life.

Dr. Watkins said and many others want to offer a censored version of Huck Finn. He said, “The original works will still be there if one wishes to read Mark Twain's own words.  The n-word appears 219 times in “Huck Finn” and four times in “Tom Sawyer.” Twain scholar Alan Gibbon’s revised versions replaces the n-word with “slave” and “injun” with Indian. He also states that “Those who stand adamantly against any type of filtering for any art form in any context for any age group have a long fight ahead of them, since we are consistently deciding which movies, songs and video games are appropriate for our children. There is a multitude of ways to teach the atrocities of slavery to young people without using Huck Finn, the same way I can teach young people about the horrors of rape without forcing them to watch a rape in process.” He is strongly enforcing that updating version of novel is absolutely correct and is easy for every students to read without hearing the repeated race word.

He also means that censorship is wrong, but Huck Finn’s taking N-word out is not purely censored. He says new updated version makes teachers, parents, more likely to teach it. Only hearing too many times same words makes him disturbed when he was teenager. He wondered even that why African-American are the only ethnic group forced to read classic literature that uses such offensive language toward us in a disturbingly repetitive way. He did not want to hear the same words again and again.  He also stated ”the reality though is that if we were teaching a class on say hip-hop and politics and we used the famous song by NWA "F the Police" which I consider to be a classic when you talk about the link between race, hip-hop and politics and police brutality. If that is being played in the public school system, there is no way they would play that song without editing it even though the profanity in the song was critical to getting the message across." One of the reasons that issues raised is that the book is being taught for children in school which is not appropriate because they are not able to understand the fully meaning of satires and concepts of the words. Twain’s intention was to teach universal truths such as racial intolerance and struggle in society for the time, all of which would not be understood or appreciated by children. Moreover, N-word used many times in the novel which children cannot understand the real context of the word that used in the situations. That is why the controversy raised and claimed for updating because children cannot understand the N-word’s context. In reality, this book is for mature audience and conceptually advanced for them.

On the other hand, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill of Columbia University strongly disagrees with the revisions and feels that we are squandering an opportunity to talk about American racial life:

“If you give somebody the opportunity—particularly white people, the opportunity to not use the—to talk about the N word, to not talk about race and racisms and white supremacy, they`ll take it. Every school district in America will avoid getting the book with the N word in it. And we squander an important opportunity."  

He emphasized that why focusing on censorship instead why not contrive to better teaching method.  He says that the book is so much about N-word. If it is taken out, there will not be original value of the novel that Mark Twain stated. It is also about context as it was written in century before, so today’s children can suffer to understand the actual meaning and value of the word. That is why he emphasizes that teachers should come up with explaining the word’s context. Why the word had been used so many times. The situations where each word used should clearly illustrate the context. Obviously, there should be something very meaningful reasons the author used the specific word so many times. That is why the original author Twain had used them otherwise the great American writer Twain did not used them. The most common critique of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the overuse of the widely offensive n-word. However, the novel’s purpose is to illustrate the racism of the time period and to show the challenges of treating blacks as human, not to promote racism in general. Republishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to replace the n-word with “slave” is unnecessary censorship on a classic novel and would deprive the book’s readers of learning how widespread racism was in that time period. Although the n-word is used two hundred nineteen times throughout the novel, the main purpose is not to encourage racism today, but instead to convey the racial tension that existed. The fact of the matter is the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a racist novel. In addition, repeated, the use of the n-word is solely included for historical purposes; it also illustrates the struggle of society to accept the humanization of blacks. Even though it was republished, readers would not have the opportunity to learn original lessons, and ultimately censor classic literature. According to Dr. Marc “when you take out the N-word, there is no longer the book. So much about this book is N-word and so much about this is navigating the race in this historical moment. Of course this book is favorite about lost, debt, sorrow, but it also about race if that takes out its denial student anti to talk about something really important” Now the time is to understand, not to debate over the issue.

On the whole, I strongly agree with Dr. Marc Lemont Hill. A classic novel like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be republished and censored because it is not a racist novel. Moreover, this book is for mature audience so that they can appreciate its deeper truths, satire, and the concepts of Mark Twain on society and America in the 1840’s. Republishing the book meaning that would lose accuracy of the time period, which Twain wanted to convey to his readers. Although many argue that the book is inappropriate for children, the book was not intended for kids and that is why we should understand the value and not assert that the book be republished rather we should deeply think of Twain’s key concepts and take benefit from the lessons that he included behind the characters and plot. In addition, the context should be clearly meaningful to today’s readers so that they can have an opportunity to understand why the word had to use many times. As Dr. Marc said we are supposed not to squander instead we should think broadly how to improve better teaching, not changing the book. I think, We now have to rethink about it and come up with something new idea that can get started teaching in school again with the teachers’ new open minded to illustrate the real meaning so that students can have an opportunity to understand the Mark Twain’s key concepts. I also agree with stated Mark Twain’s quote “The difference between the almost right-word and right word is very large; it is the difference between a lightning bug and lightning itself. So he did not want them changed. In fact, we should honor him.”