Essay #4 Rough

Huckleberry Finn, an American novel the likes of which have seen contested opinions for several decades, should it’s teaching be continued in English classrooms? Truly if we remove such a novel from being taught, it would affect the students, whether it just so happens to be in a positive or negative way we can only guess. On one hand the book uses very harsh and direct dialogue to describe characters, and can invoke a sense of guilt in the reader. On the other, it may have a detrimental effect on another student, who cringes at the use of the ‘n-word’ or the sound of his or her classmates snickering at the word. Huck Finn has not only reached “iconic status level to critics that they will defend it’s use” (437), to the point critics will dismiss any opposing arguments. With societies maturity at a pretty level point currently, Huckleberry Finn should be taught in select high school English classrooms where the maturity level is at a point where no one is discriminated against and everyone is in mutual understanding about the books intent.
The evolution of Mark Twain’s novel from the point of a decent novel, to the point that “to question Huckleberry Finn is to be unAmerican” (437). Where authors and critics much like Schlesinger claim that Huck Finn is “combating the ‘disuniting of America,” or “glorifying in the ‘hybridity’ and how Huck Finn gives us a core of an authoritative ‘we’ takes to be the meaning of America” (437). It’s here that critics emphasize on the idolatry theme that goes along with such arguments, which begin to paint a giant target on the book. Giving way to a great argument over the book, the author, and what the characters deeper meaning might be. These critics hardly listen if at all to other critics or authors objections to Huck Finn being anything less than their “quintessential American novel” and to question it, a person “must be unAmerican”. While these critics are arguing these points to keep the novel being taught, they aren’t listening to the arguments of the children who are reading such a novel. These children are stuck reading a novel that is not purely racist but contains tones of racism from the very start. Is racism a value that we need to teach our children as early as 8th grade? Some may agree, while others disagree, and prefer that children draw their own conclusions without allowing such a novel to influence them at such a young age.
In a high school English class, it would be more than appropriate to provoke long standing and heated debates about the books true intention and the underlying tones, but only if the class has the combined maturity level to read and discuss such a text. It is not only the novels responsibility to provoke discussions and debates over it, but the responsibility of the students to remain mature, even when the ‘n-word’ is being used every other line or page. The key question is not whether the novel is racist or deserves to be used in high school English classrooms, but rather. Are the high school students mature and responsible enough for Huckleberry Finn?