Huckleberry Finn

A story that everyone loved

Introduction

Many books have come and gone but as you grow older you tend to see the ones that have stuck around for the long run. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was published in 1884 but it is still a renown favorite by many today. This book may be labeled racist or discriminatory because of the language used in the book but the bond that the Huck and Jim have is a true meaning of Being an American is and goes against the society “normal”. Even though racial slander is used in this book the meaning of this story is how they oppose the slander in pursuit of happiness.

About the Author

Samuel Clemons commonly known as Mark Twain was born on November 30th, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. At a young age Clemons moved to a small town that goes by the name of Hannibal, Missouri which is the setting for the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and also the setting for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Twain had to start supporting at the age of 11 due to the death of his father. He did whatever he could do to support his family that he even dropped out of school and got a job a local newspaper where he was a printers apprentice; while completing his work he got to read the news heard around the world. At the age of 18 he moved to New York City and Philadelphia where he found success in writing articles for papers that he worked for. Around when he was 22 he headed back home where he wanted to be a riverboat pilot where he eventually earned the rank of pilot, though the soon upcoming civil war and new railroads ended those dreams.

We didn’t know Samuel Clemons as Mark Twain until he moved to Nevada where he wrote for newspapers and he earned the name Mark Twain as he gained a reputation from all his writings. Twain then wrote his first “big break” which was the short story “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”.

The book

This book is quite unique in how it is such a treasure. This book was published in 1884 and is still read by the many today. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story that tells how a boy who is brought into a family and is told to be proper as they try to clean him up and make him “perfect” helps a runaway slave, named Jim find liberty during a ride down the Mississippi River. This book tells you about all the many different demographics of people that visit the towns that are along the river’s edge. The major themes in this story are morality and justice and that is shown by the amount of humor and mockery.

In this book Twain brings his characters to such a real perspective that you can maybe even relate to them, because of how they talk or sound with all the uniqueness of each character.

This story is about too kids taking a shot at something everyone living in this great country strive for… FREEDOM. Huckleberry Finn is trying to escape society and its “norms” and Jim is escaping the life of a slave. You can see the development of Huck as in the beginning of the story, he is only worried about himself and himself only, he doesn’t give a you know what about how unethical and morally wrong slavery is; at the end of the ride on the river with Jim he realizes that there are situations greater than his own. He had come to the realization that helping Jim would be what a good hearted person does and no one should be looked at as a piece of property.

Receiving End

After the publication of this book it was immediately banned. It was immediately banned because “Some Americans did not view Huck as a positive role model for young readers.” (Purdy) Being that this book was published in 1885 people did not take lightly to this book as it got banned somewhere every year since its publication.

Thesis

Stories shouldn't get banned as they are a form of expression and if people don’t like it then they don’t have to read it.

Why was it banned?

This book was banned solely on the view of it being racist because of words that it used within said book. It has been banned by many places from day one of it being out on shelves. Even though it was banned in certain places, by “1960 it sold 10 million copies more than forty different editions were printed in the United States alone” due to the controversy around the book itself.- (Purdy) The language in the book was accurate to the time that it was placed in. The racist content was the biggest reason people sought out to ban it, which in all fairness the Civil Rights Movement was in 1957 which was three years before the 10 million copies sold. Critics said that “Twain used the word “nigger” 213 times within the book.” (Purdy)

In reality though the book has been banned from the start of its time and It was banned for mostly the “racist” aspect of it. The reason of it being labelled as “racist” is because it was published after the civil war and was offensive to those parties.

My opinion

A lot of people tend to not really want to read or hear my opinion because they get offended and hurt by what I say. I am not trying to hurt their feelings I am just proposing how I feel with these topics. With the banning of books and alike I think that it shouldn’t be allowed. Even though there are plenty of offensive books out there. Yes I agree that there are some racist remarks within The adventures of Huckleberry Finn that I personally would say but I don’t think we should resort to banning someone’s work. I think that people get offended by these things because they live in the past; the past was a terrible place but if we live in it we won’t be able to move forward as a country.

I think that the banning of these stories are a violation of our freedom of speech. It is a violation because banning someone from trying to tell a harmless story is not right. I don’t think that they should go banning stories left and right just because of words that are used or topics amongst the stories.

Conclusion

The adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in 1884 which was post civil war but pre civil rights movement and pre world war. This time period was very fragile in the way that ‘the topic of race was at an all time high. African Americans were just freed after the Civil War but they weren’t treated fairly and have always been fighting for equality. I don’t think that this book or any book should be banned as they are part of a legacy left behind by the author so to ban their work is dishonoring and betrayal of our constitutional rights.

“Biography.” Mark Twain House, 26 Oct. 2017, https://marktwainhouse.org/about/mark-twain/biography/.

Purdy, Elizabeth R. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/789/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn#:~:text=Some%20Americans%20did%20not%20view,obsolete%2C%20inaccurate%2C%20and%20mindless.