Outraged grandmother Beatrice Clarke has been calling for a ban on Mark Twain’s American classic, "Huckleberry Finn," from her granddaughter, Calista Phair’s 11th-grade English class curriculum at Renton High School, according to today’s front page of The Seattle P-I.
Clarke and Phair ground their argument on Twain’s usage of the derogatory n-word 215 times in his novel.
Clarke and Phair’s feelings toward such a weighted word are valid and appropriate, but the call for a banning of this book is not.
We know that "Huckleberry Finn" is a well-crafted work of literature in part because it evokes such emotion in the reader. Twain paints his narrative in the context of what America really was like in the 1880s. Twain challenges the dehumanization of African-Americans in this absolutely integral and necessarily unforgettable period in American history.
Jim, the character to whom, the “n-word” is most often applied, is painted as a co-hero in the novel, a man of dignity, loyalty, and virtue. In the end, it is the white individual and the black individual who triumph together, as friends.
Yes, the “n-word” itself is culturally scarring and powerful. But shouldn’t this message of equality and working together prove more pervading?
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