"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de ONLY fren' ole Jim's got now."
When I was in 11th grade, the first book I ever had to read for my honor's class was "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", penned by the late, great Mark Twain. I clearly remember how hard it was to get through that book due to the dialogue of the characters, with slave Jim's rambling language that I literally had to translate onto paper to understand and the young Southern drawl that Huck was fond of. But if there's one thing I remember more, it's that it was my first foray into the classics, the first book that, though the premise sounded boring and flat, ended up being one of my favorites.
Sure, students complained. (I always had a knack of being the different one in the class. I remember loving John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" too in my American History class while most of the class hated it) A friend of mine told me she didn't think it was that good. She was bored while reading it. Some people just didn't like the storyline. I felt like the sole lover of that tale while the rest of the class hoped for something different.
There was something so fun and amusing about the young boy whose touching friendship with his former slave will forever be remembered. The way he thought about the world and the ridiculous shenanigans he ended up getting himself into were literary gold. It was a reminder of the times and Mark Twain delved into the issues of slavery and racism in a way that has constantly signaled red flares throughout the country. Many organizations and schools have tried banning the novel from being read and taught.
In case you haven't heard, news sites recently have been reporting a change in NewSouth Book's upcoming release of Mark Twain's infamous novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," which will be combined with "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in a single copy.
The company plans to publish the novel replacing the N-word with "slave," which comes up a total of 219 times.
Censorship is something that this country should pride itself on avoiding. What people would be missing is the way the country was before. Rather than try to ignore the blatant racism and segregation that dominated the United States way back when, we should read and learn about it, and grow from it. Despite the fact that racism against blacks has been decreased and rights have been given to them, prejudice against sectors of society is still prevalent today. In 100 years from now, are books with the "f-word" that going to be banned from shelves? Because honestly, that words seems more offensive than the N-word, a word that is still commonly used in black communities. Are we going to attempt to ignore the past just so we forget our faults?
