Reasons Why Huckleberry Finn Should Be Banned

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was thought to be very controversial, which has led to many schools banning the book for numerous reasons. One reason being the dialogue between the characters, and how the characters treated on another. In the novel, the main protagonist was Huckleberry Finn. He was a young, white southern boy who lived in a town near the Mississippi River in the nineteenth century. He was a troublemaker who would do what felt right. In the novel, Huck runs away, where he runs into Jim(a runaway slave). Both Huck and Jim run away to gain freedom, and end up running away together. Through their journey, they come across many problems, one being racism. Throughout the book, we see that dialogue and dialect was

used for slavery, illiteracy, etc. It is important to help differentiate the different characters. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the use of dialogue and dialect are crucial to explain how the characters communicated differently from one another. Therefore, it should not be censored because it accurately portrays the time period of the novel.
Firstly, dialogue and dialect were shown first with Huckleberry Finn. In the beginning of the book, Huck Finn’s dialogue was ungrammatical and at times was confusing. Twain wrote like this because Huck lived in the South, so he had an accent. The first time that dialogue and dialect are shown in the story is with Huckleberry Finn when he says “ You don’t know me without you
have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”(Twain 1).

This indicates that Huckleberry Finn had a southern accent in the beginning because of him improper sentences. Another time where we see Huck’s dialogue is when he says “ It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger;but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither.” (Twain 86). Huck and Jim had arrived at Ohio River, which was where they wanted to go. One night it was very foggy, and Huck got separated from Jim. Once they find each other again, Jim is happy to see Huck. Huck tried to play a trick on Jim and says he dreamed it all. At first Jim believes it, but realizes that Huck is lying. This hurt Jim, because he thought he could trust Huck. Huck took fifteen minutes to finally apologize to Jim because he did not want to apologize to a slave. The use of the N-word was common in the novel because of the setting. The town was pro-slavery, so racial slurs were accepted and commonly used. Since Twain wanted to be precise with the language of the time of Huckleberry Finn, he had to use words that were harmful to some of the readers with the offensive dialect of the South in the time before the civil

war.
Racism throughout the book can be seen with Jim. Jim, as said before, was a runaway slave. He ran away because he heard his owner planning to sell him, which would separate him from his family. Jim was an important character, especially since his dialogue and dialect were different from other characters. Twain made Jim’s dialogue very confusing because Jim was illiterate, since he was a slave. In one situation, “Well it’s a blame rediklous way, en doan’ want to hear no mo’ bout it. Dey ain’ no sense in it” (Twain 79). Huck was explaining to Jim about how people speak different languages in different parts of the world. Jim did not understand this because he thought everyone was the same(referring to color). Since Jim could not believe him, this shows how Jim was uneducated. We can see this from his spelling and grammar. Racism is not only seen through Jim being uneducated but also the use of the N-Word. In an online exhibit by Library of Congress, it explains how the racism used in the book is what shaped America. “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn’...All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before.”(Hemingway). This quote explains that there was no book before that was important. Hemingway continues to explain how Huck and Jim racism in the American society, which is crucial to understand from the time period.
Many schools believe that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be censored because of racial slurs and poor grammar.

“ the main criticism is Twain's treatment of the theme of race and his use of racial slurs in reference to African Americans, Native Americans, and poor white Americans. Although the novel is written in the vernacular of its historical setting and the time period in which it was written, people today find this language offensive” Schools ban the novel because it is offensive for readers. However, without learning about the past and the mistakes that were made, nothing would be learn. It is believed that history repeats itself, which is why by not learning from the past we cannot improve the

future.
In conclusion, the use of dialogue and dialect throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential in order to portray the time period. It gives an insight of how different the time period is compared to today. It also shows Southern dialect, which makes the story more legitimate. Although the use of the N-word is offensive and racist, it can be justified with the motivation of historical accuracy. Without Twain’s want for a realistic book, the novel would not be as important as it is today.