The Censorship of Huckleberry Finn

The Censorship of Huckleberry Finn Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a significant book in the history of American literature that presents readers with the truth of our past American society in aspects such as speech, mannerisms, and tradition that we must embrace rather than dismiss by censorship. It is a novel that has been praised and proclaimed America’s “first indigenous literary masterpiece” (Walter Dean Howells) as well as one that has been criticized and declared obscene. It has undergone much scorn and condemnation as a novel and many feel that it should be censored. This, however, is not the way it should be. Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece and, as a matter of fact, it is one on many levels. The story itself, though undeniably creative and entertaining, imparts little of the literary impression of the novel. The factor that makes the work so potent is the assortment of ethical problems that are encountered within the story. Huck faces many moral decisions on his path to maturity and those decisions represent the ones that our nation had to make, and is still making when it comes to our struggle with acknowledging our past of slavery and racial inequality. Huckleberry Finn is a novel that presents reality and that reality is one that must not be denied by means of censorship or any other way for that matter. The fact that the novel is realistic is another reason why it is a masterpiece undeserving of censorship. It shows the readers how far society has come from those times when slavery was an everyday part of life. This nation has transformed into one based on freedom and equality and Huckleberry Finn shows the true extent of that transformation by presenting to us the major difference in circumstances people experienced in the past. It shows how African Americans were looked on as insignificant and as merely possessions to be bought or sold which, in turn, shows us how our nation has bettered. Therefore, Huckleberry Finn does not

Cited: “Federal Appeals Court Allows Huck Finn to Remain on Schools Reading List.”The Associated Press. 20 October, 1998. Thompson Gale. Holy Cross of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. 15 May 2007. Pinksker, Sanford. “Huckleberry Finn and the Problem of Freedom.”Virginia Quarterly Review 7. 2001. Literature Resource Center. Holy Cross of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. 15 May 2007. “Books on the Hook. (Debate)(Censorship).”Current Events, a Weekly Reader. 5 March 2007.Thompson Gale. Holy Cross of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. 15 May 2007. Smiley, Jane. “Say It Ain’t So, Huck: Second Thoughts on Mark Twain’s ‘Masterpiece.’”Harper’s 292. January 1996. Literature Resource Center. Holy Cross of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. 15 May 2007.