Why Huck Finn Should Be Banned

Huck Finn: Should the Racist Standards of the Past be Censored?

As history has progressed in America, man has shed its preconceived notions towards slavery and treatment of those of African descent. Although racism is still a constant threat in the world today, there are always attempts to quell the rage and expand equality for all minorities. An example of this would be the censoring and banning of “racist” literature, and no book has seen it worse than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the span of the last century, Huck Finn, as it is often abbreviated, has been argued to support prejudice towards those of African descent, promotes broken English and incorrect grammar, and portrays the African character Jim along with use of the “N-word”

as stereotypical racist blatancy. Thus, Huck Finn is one of the most notorious banned books out there, but should not be banned as it’s considered to be one of America’s classic novels, a coming of age story of a boy living in a prejudicial world.
Huck Finn’s most controversial topic has to be Twain’s use of the “N-word.” According to The Christian Science monitor, the “N-word” is used in Huck Finn a total of 219 times. With 276 pages in the Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classics unabridged version of the book, there is almost an 80% chance of the “N-word” to appear on any given page. With this, it is very easy to see as to why people today would find Huck Finn racist. With all the current “police brutality” and otherwise “racist acts” towards African Americans shown on the news, and the protests that are sparked because of it, it is easy to see as to why the “N-word” in Huck Finn is a touchy subject. But to be fair, we must remember when Huck Finn was written, and who it was written by. In a time when the “N-word” was as common in the south as grits, a southern author not using the “N-word” to refer to anyone of African descent would be odd for the time. Mark Twain used this language in order to capture the spirit of the south during the antebellum era. But even with the controversy surrounding the “N-word,” it isn’t Twain’s only writing choice that people find insensitive.
Twain’s use of broken grammar is another highly debated topic, which has even driven an argument to re-write the entire book to “fix.” With a great majority of Huck Finn’s characters being under or not even educated at all, poor grammar is often used by Twain to emphasize this. In fact, Huck Finn’s most notable quote is a pun on poor grammar: “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me” (Twain 13), the obvious joke being the misspell of civilize. Even if a subtle grammatical joke is considered to be the most famous line in the entire book, it’s not meant to convey a message of broken English, but a simple pun on English. In fact, you could even go as far as to prove that Twain’s diction was not in fact broken. Studies have proven that Twain actually used different dialects true to the geographical area and time period. With that, I guess you could argue that Twain didn’t promote broken English, but he used proper English for his time.
To prove this even further, Huck’s dialect is called the Pike County dialect, which is known to contain many colloquialisms along with altered words. With Jim, he speaks in what is known as the Slave Speak dialect. Since slaves were undereducated, their drawl contains many conjunctions. For example: “Say, who is you? War is you? Dog my cats ef I didn’ hear sumfin. Well I know what I’s gwyne to do: I’s gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin” (17). This proves that Twain wasn’t just writing in broken English, but wrote in order to preserve what I believe to be the spirit of the Antebellum.
With an understanding of Twain’s writing style, people often think that one of Huck Finn’s messages is the support of African prejudice. Again, this is proved wrong by my aforementioned dialect theory. But illustrations of Jim tend to prove otherwise, as he is given the stereotypical tall lankiness and big lips that resemble racist figures known as “Blackface,” or caucasian people dressed up as Africans, normally with comically large, pale lips. This portrayal of Africans was quite common for the time. For example, a book titled The Story of Little Black S---- was published during the turn of the century and featured an Indian protagonist who looks eerily similar to the “Blackface” stereotype. Thus proving that this depiction of colored individuals was actually quite common for the time.
Twain’s writing also deals with superstition, although it seems to have more of an effect on the African American characters which some people could perceive as stereotypical prejudice.

For example, we believe that Jim came up witches taking and riding him all over the world. And to prove it, he has a buffalo nickel that he believes was given to him by the Devil himself. “Jim was very proud of his story, and would tell it to any man who would inquire or listen” (18). But that isn’t the only convoluted superstition Jim believes in. He also uses a hairball from the stomach of an ox to predict the future. “When Huck was worried about what his father might do, he consulted Jim and his hair-ball to receive an ill-fortune” (28-29). Jim also performs odd rituals in order to to cure a snake bite that Huck inflicts upon him, believes that hairy chests bring good fortune, and many other mental concoctions that people today would scoff at. In spite of this, the first thing that comes to my mind is the African religion of Voodoo. We all know the trope: fortune telling, black and dark magic, the dolls; yet Voodoo was a common religion practiced by African tribes. It would be sensible that as slavers brought Africans to the Americas that they would bring their religion along with them. So again, Twain isn’t using superstition to belittle the African people, but to give the reader a sense of their

culture.
To finish, I believe I should tie up some loose ends and prove my point.

The Adventures of Huck Finn contains a lot of racism, I won’t deny that. But it’s not racism towards Africans today, but it was to imprint on the reader what it was like during the Antebellum. There were slaves, there were slavers, there was racism. Nothing’s going to change that; but without racism, there would be no driving force in the book. The climax of the book is driven by racism. Should Huck save Jim and go against society’s rules, or should he conform to a world that treats it’s fellow man differently because some have more Melanin than the others. “All right, then, I’ll go to Hell” (205). Huck would rather go to Hell for something that he believes in rather than allow Jim to be sold back into slavery. It takes 204 pages to give Jim a life, a family, motivation. With Jim taken into custody, Huck isn’t going to stand by and prove society right. But if society wasn’t racist, there’d be no story. The whole point of the book is to show you how racist people were, and without that, you don’t have Huck

Finn.
In conclusion, I believe that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be censored, because there’s nothing wrong with it. What’s wrong is that people are taking the text at face value, and are not delving into the story enough to understand what is happening. There’s a reason why we have the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” Huck Finn has racism, the “N-word,” poor grammar, and stereotypes, but that’s Huck Finn for you. It needs these elements to convey it’s message; these are the problems that make the story. A story needs an antagonist, and Huck Finn’s antagonist is a hateful, racist society full of undereducated men and women who are only living by the standards that they grew up with. So no, Huck Finn should not be censored or altered or abridged. If you change even one “problem” with Huck Finn, you’re losing the entire story.