Huckleberry Finn

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

It's late 1800's in the deep south. Cotton fields are blooming on large plantations and mosquitoes are at their prime. During this period the word nigger was a commonly used word. The word had no negative connotation nor hushed when said. Two hundred years later if the word is even whispered it is shunned and can be claimed to be the strongest negative used word to not only an African American but also to many others. Over the years, the word nigger has become infamous all over the world. People have been accused of being racist for mentioning the word or even killed. Which bring up the subject that if a word so strongly disregard in this era, should it be allowed into our literature? One can clearly state the pros and cons of the usage, but the pros undoubtedly over rule the cons. For a book like Huckleberry Finn the word nigger should most certainly be allowed in the text because it is the foundation of the 1800's.

To what point should our literature be censored, if we were to censor all the words within a book that would offend any one group of people then it would defeat the purpose of the book. We can clearly understand why people would not want to have the word nigger be flaunted carelessly in books written in the twenty century unless used for a useful purpose, which even now there are none. A book like Huckleberry Finn that was written during the period where the word was commonly used should not have to be reworded. Mark Twain obviously used the word for a reason, he was not trying to be racists or insult the African American race but because it was his time period, the word makes the era what it...