David Graham's Final Thoughts

            For many decades, the controversy over the content and word choice in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has been never ending. The root of this controversy is over the use of the word “nigger”, and weather or not it should stick in with the book. Some have even considered changing the word to the word “slave” instead. To me, I believe that High School students should read Huck Finn in its entirety. You miss out on the full meaning of the novel if the content or word choice is changed to anything other than what was originally written.

            Throughout the first half or so of the novel, Huck still feels the pressures of society on his ideas about Jim and blacks in general. “I see it warn’t no use wasting words, you cant learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.” (pg. 72) In the French conversation, Jim had a logical argument against Huck and Huck didn’t acknowledge this at all. Society here is pressuring Huck into thinking that if he cant “[teach] a nigger to argue”, then he should just give up and “quit.” By Huck using nigger here, you can feel the sense of hopelessness Huck has for Jim. If you just remove the n-word here, you loose that deeper sense of hopelessness that was intended in the first place. 

Towards the end of the book after Huck and Jim have all their adventures, Huck’s mindset on blacks changes from what it was in the previous quote. He mentions that he “Kn[ew] he was white inside” (pg. 245). The reason why calling Jim “white inside” is so pivotal in the novel is because, He didn’t refer to Jim as a nigger. In not saying the n-word, it shows one of the ways that Huck really has changed and gives the book a real “coming of age” meaning to it. This also reinforces the fact that if you chose to switch the n-word out with slave, you wouldn’t see as drastic as a change in Hucks demeanor towards Jim and other blacks alike. Which

People have also argued that the n-word should not be said at all in the context of the book, and that it is not needed. In Paul Butlers “Why read that book?” he mentions the pain that comes with reading the n-word. “If other teachers think keeping those epithets in is worth the pain they will cause students of color, I understand that too.” In other words, he argues that white people just do not understand, and will not understand the “pain they will cause students of color”, if they choose to use the word. Even thought the word is painful for colored people, Toni Morrison argues that the word causes pain for both whites and blacks. “It struck me as a… kind of censorship designed to appease adults rather than educate children. … A serious comprehensive discussion over the term would have benefitted my class” (Morrison pg. 1). Morrison argues that a “discussion over the term would have [been] benefi[cial] to her 8^th grade class.” Forming your own opinions about topics such as this is very important while in High School and College. Discussion over a difficult topic like the n-word, teaches one to not run away from the problem, but attempt to “educate” yourself into forming your own opinions.

In David Matthews’s  “Dumbing and Numbing down Jim” article, he argues, “There is no equivalency between slave and nigger, which is an American invention. It’s a word that denies humanity and along with it justice and mercy.” Here, Matthews reinforces the idea that the two words are not interchangeable. Nigger is such more of a powerful and demeaning word than slave because it “denies humanity.” Since the word is “an American invention”, we feel pain and remorse from our past actions. Without this feeling, you fail to see the bigger picture in the novel.

So what you can do as a reader is know that the word slave and nigger are not interchangeable, because the n-word is so much more intense in meaning than slave. Also you must realize that just because you feel pain from the word, does not mean that you shouldn’t read it. It contributes to the entire novel and is used to show how pressured Huck is by society, and how drastic the change is in the end of the novel.

Butler, Paul. "Why Read That Book?" Nytimes.com. New York Times, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn/why-bother-reading-huckleberry-finn>.

Matthews, David. "Dumbing and Numbing Down Jim." Nytimes.com. New York Times, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn/dumbing-and-numbing-down-jim>.s

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Edited by Shelley Fisher Fiskin; introduction by Toni Morrison, afterword by Victor Doyno. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House, 1996. Print.