The Controversy Over the N and I words in Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain

Published in1885 in the

United States and

Canada

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Trouble with HuckSince its original publication in 1885 many people

have opposed the novel for its immorality, lack of respect for authority and religious blasphemy. However, prior to 1950 no one had ever objected to the use of the N or I words in the novel.

Recently NewSouth Book Publishers released a politically correct version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that replaces the N word with the word slave and removes the I word from the text altogether. These new editions were published in an attempt to reintegrate these important works of literature into the educational curriculums nationwide.

St. Louis Globe-DemocratMar 17, 1885 The Concord Public Library in

Massachusetts immediately banned the book because

"It deals with a series of

adventures of a very low grade of morality; it is couched in the language of a rough dialect, and all through its pages there is a systemic use of bad grammar and an employment of rough, coarse, inelegant expressions. It is also very irreverent. . . . The whole book is of a class that is more profitable for the slums than it is for respectable people."

American Heritage1902“Denver and Omaha public libraries exclude Huck for fear that the 'immoral and sacrilegious' book would 'put wrong ideas in youngsters’ heads.‘”1905Huckleberry Finn banned from Brooklyn Public Library.

Junior Version1930 to 1939Many libraries introduce a "junior version" that omitted certain sections and simplified the language.

Accused of Racism 1957 The NAACP begins their campaign against the books use of “racial slurs” and “belittling racial designations”

Teaching Huck Finn1963

"In 1963, the Philadelphia Board of Education banned Huck Finn and replaced it with an edited one that "toned down the violence, simplified the Southern dialect, and deleted all derogatory references to Negroes."

The most outspoken opponents of the novel The Adventures of Huck Finn present an argument based on the premise that the racial epithets in the book are repulsive, insensitive and unnecessarily harmful..

The introduction of Allen Gribben’s revised addition of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn states:

The n-word possessed, then as now, demeaning implications more vile than almost any insult that can be applied to other racial groups. There is no equivalent slur in the English language. As a result, with every passing decade this affront appears to gain rather than lose its impact. Even at the level of college and graduate school, students are capable of resenting textual encounters with this racial appellative. In the 1870s and 1880s, of course, Twain scarcely had to concern himself about the feelings of African American or Native American readers. These population groups were too occupied with trying, in the one case, to recover from the degradation of slavery and the institution of Jim Crow segregation policies, and, in the other case, to survive the onslaught of settlers and buffalo-hunters who had decimated their ways of life, than to bother about objectionable vocabulary choices in two popular books.

At NewSouth, the publishers saw the value in an edition that would help the novel find new readers. “If the publication sparks good debate about how language impacts learning or about the nature of censorship or the way in which racial slurs exercise their baneful influence, then our mission in publishing this new edition of Twain’s works will be more emphatically fulfilled.” -NewSouth

Joseph Podlasek, executive director of the American Indian Center in Chicago, commented Wednesday in an e-mail interview, "I think it is truly time for a great piece of work to be edited and respectful of people. Kids should read about Native Americans and other cultures without a stereotypical twist or derogatory insult toward the first people of these lands."

Why should we change Huck Finn?

Teaching Huck Finn1972

"I can still recall the anger I felt as my white classmates read aloud the word "nigger." In fact, as I write this letter I am getting angry all over again. I wanted to sink into my seat. Some of the whites snickered, others giggled. I can recall nothing of the literary merits of this work that you term "the greatest of all American novels." I only recall the sense of relief I felt when I would flip ahead a few pages and see that the word "nigger" would not be read that hour." -Allan B. Ballard

American Heritage1976Huckleberry Finn removed from the required reading list in Illinois high schools chiefly because of the n-word.

Culture Shock: About the Book1982"The reading aloud of Huck Finn in our classrooms is humiliating and insulting to black students. It contributes to their feelings of low self-esteem and to the white student's disrespect for black people. . . . For the past forty years, black families have trekked to schools in numerous districts throughout the country to say, 'This book is not good for our children' only to be turned away by insensitive and often unwittingly racist teachers and administrators who respond, 'This book is a classic.'"-John Wallace

Can we judge people from the past by what we now consider to be acceptable social norms ?

"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was written by one of the most prolific and insightful writers and observers of the 19th and 20th century American scene. Mark Twain was not afraid to highlight all of his country's strengths and foibles. He used the N-word deliberately -- and not because he was a racist. We know he wasn't if we read the book thoughtfully we discover his personal abhorrence of racism.

Was Mark Twain a Racist?

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

~Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took Twain eight years to write and between manuscript 1 and 2, he made more than 1,700 revisions with 88 percent of these revisions being: word changes, spelling, punctuation and adding emphasis. He used the words he used for a reason. Twain scholar Dr. Cindy Lovell said it best:“Twain pokes us with a sharp stick, makes us squirm, makes us highly uncomfortable. And it’s effective.” When Huck says, “—you can’t learn a n****r to argue.” (1293) Twain was angry with American Universities for their white-elitist views about the natural intelligence of white men vs. black men. Twain believed the opposite of what Huck says. Huck is blindly expressing an attitude which he has picked up from the Southern culture he grew up in.

Dr. Sarah Churchwell, senior lecturer in US literature and culture at the University of East Anglia, said the development of revised editions made her "incandescent" with anger. "The fault lies with the teaching, not the book. You can't say 'I'll change Dickens so it is compatible with my teaching method'. Twain's books are not just literary documents but historical documents, and that word is totemic because it encodes all of the violence of slavery. The point of the book is that Huckleberry Finn starts out racist in a racist society, and stops being racist and leaves that society. These changes mean the book ceases to show the moral development of his character. They have no merit and are misleading to readers. The whole point of literature is to expose us to different ideas and different eras, and they won't always be nice and benign. It's dumbing down."

Why shouldn’t we censor Huck Finn?

"The ALA really condemns this kinds of censorship, and - make no mistake about it - we believe this is censorship," Barbara Jones, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, which is headquartered in Chicago, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "Any expurgation of words is censorship and is a real disservice to the freedom to read. What this does is deny access to the entire work, and that is a real tragedy.""Twain used the 'n-word' deliberately because he hated racism and he hated slavery," Jones continued. "Children who read this book deserve the chance to read the book thoughtfully and in its entirety and to understand and to ask questions about why Twain used the word and then allow teachers, parents and librarians to answer their questions."

There are vast differences between calling a character “nigger” and calling them “slave.” They are not interchangeable. Writers choose their words thoughtfully. Our words construct, illustrate, reveal, and contextualize the stories we tell. The notion that one can change one of those carefully chosen words -- much less 219 of them -- to suit their perception of contemporary mores and eliminate the possibility of hurt sensibilities is an abdication of a teacher’s responsibility to illuminate and guide students through an unfamiliar and perhaps difficult text. What’s next? Substituting orange for red in a painter’s work because some observers find red too aggressive?

Filmmakers and funny people Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine have come up with their own clever satirical response to publish a version inserting the word “robot” instead of the offensive ----- word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzpVZoG23qE

Final Thoughts The controversy over The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn does not appear to have a solution nor will this controversy stop with just the adventures of Huck and Jim. Library media specialists will be faced with the question of what to do within their own libraries.

What will you do?