Huckleberry Finn Should Be Banned Essay

Contemporary society has adapted much to the stringent guidelines which focus on being morally correct and inoffensive. . The need to be righteous has provoked citizens to “fine-tune” or completely ban offensive literature and other outlets of media. Such distasteful works include Mark Twain's fictional bildungsroman, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which—due to its racist and inappropriate use of language—has struck much debate on whether it should be taught in high school curricula. Some chastise the novel for the improper behavior that sets a bad example for the readers, believing it deserves to be banned. In contrast, others argue that the literary work’s original and realistic point of view that accurately depicts American life in the South educates us on the history behind this antebellum era, allowing
Mr. Gribben edited The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to exclude the N-word and replacing it with the word “slave” so that it would be approved of and allow teachers to include it in their curriculum without offending anyone with the term. He disregards that the N-word is used today in social media and that labeling Jim as a slave implies that he is property, making the term derogatory, therefore defeating the original purpose of what he was trying to do (Kakutani). The removal of the N-word and the replacement with “slave” occurs due to its demeaning definition; however, the term “slave,” in a sense, has the same as the original N-word. It still serves as an insulting label and it makes the degree of racial discrimination during the antebellum era appear smaller than it was. Yet the word “slave” is still considered as an improvement from the term “nigger” simply because it is not as vulgar. The censorship of the novel serves as a denial to the harsh historical realities and represses them from being remembered