It seems as though people are either entirely for teaching Huckleberry Finn in high school classes, or completely against it for the usage of the word nigger over 200 times and other derogatory things directed towards the black characters in the book. While I completely understand why the word offends people, as it stems from the days when African Americans were treated as less than human in comparison to white people, I do not agree that the book should be banned from being read by the youth of today. As offensive as the word is to people, it's a part of not only the english language, but a part of the history of this country. There are many things that have happened in the past that still bother people today, but you can't just erase a part of the past because it offends you.
All of the bad names and things in this book, while shocking today if we hear them being said in a malicious manner, were commonplace in life back in those days. I think that what people need to understand is that this book wasn't meant to put down African Americans so much as to accurately depict how white people acted towards blacks. Once again, it is a real part of the past in our country, and like it or not you cannot simply erase it so that no one else can learn about it.
I fully support the teaching of Huckleberry Finn in schools. It does a good job of showing what life was like for African Americans back in those days, and how those who were looked down upon because of their race dealt with the daily descrimination against them. No one has the right to tell someone what book they can or cannot read. After all, what one person finds offensive might not be too big of a deal to someone else who wants to read the book.
Dear captain jack sparrow...jk jk
ReplyDeletehey kaitlyn i really liked how you put out the fact that the way white people talked and how they looked at things are different and that this book holds not only history people want to look over but the fact that the n word is still used today.
I agree with what you said about how what is offensive to one person might not be as much to another person. i also agree with what you said about there is no middle ground about if people think the book should or not be read in school. I like what you said about how you can't really tell people what they can and can't read.
ReplyDeleteKaitlyn i agree with you completely. The part that you said about the "n" word being commonplace back then is totally true. If you took that out of the story it would be historically inaccurate!
ReplyDeleteKaitlny i think you did a great job at getting your point acrossed and i totally agree with you especially the part where you said it is a part of history and we can't just erase it. I believe it is a huge part of our history and if we just stop telling people about what happened just because the truth offends a few people that kind of stuff could easily start to happen again.
ReplyDeletewhat you said in your second paragraph is something that i think the article left out.It wasn't meant to put anyone down it was just a common word that was used back then.Even though today that word is considered horrible to some people, they just have to remember the time that was back then.anyone using it now as an insult should really think twice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we shouldn't try to erase part of our history, sense we teach all of the other countries history, and even though it is offensive to one race I think we should still stand up for what we did and see that it is wrong. But you also have to realize that the language in this book does greatly offend people even though it doesn't to other people.
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