On Friday, December, 12th, of 2014 a group of second graders protested the death of Michael Brown and Eric Garner outside of their school in New Bedford, Massachusetts. One parent who is a police officer complained to the school by accusing them of being “anti-police”. One of the issues the man has with this protest is seen in his statement, “I don 't think 7-year-olds can come up with the idea to go out and protest on the street” (McCormack). The issue of race in America has come back and it divides the country once more. However, there are timeless literary classics that can be applied to issues such as race. One of these is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain was described by F. Scott Fitzgerald as “the first great
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In the tale, when Jim finds out the Huck didn 't die in the battle between Shepherdsons and Grangerfords he exclaims, “Laws [sic] bless you, chile [sic], I 'uz [sic] right down sho’ [sic] you 's dead agin [sic]“ (Twain, 128). The language used by Jim is hard to understand unless you read it out loud however it looks like incoherent broken English. This sort of dialogue alongside the superstitions Jim believes in portray African American’s as stupid in the book. Likewise, today we see discrimination based on the speech of African Americans who speak in African American Vernacular English. As John R. Rickford a Stanford Linguistic Professor tells us that "research shows that non-native or vernacular speakers are less believed even when uttering innocuous statements” (Rigoglioso). African Americans today have equal rights and are citizens of the United States but due to the way they speak they are discriminated. True equality has yet to come in speech since the time of Huck Finn to today as it is African American’s who are still …show more content…
Twain’s book is classic that continues to remain applicable in the modern world. When problems relating race are solved the book will still remain applicable as the story of two friends making their way down the river no matter what other around them
In the tale, when Jim finds out the Huck didn 't die in the battle between Shepherdsons and Grangerfords he exclaims, “Laws [sic] bless you, chile [sic], I 'uz [sic] right down sho’ [sic] you 's dead agin [sic]“ (Twain, 128). The language used by Jim is hard to understand unless you read it out loud however it looks like incoherent broken English. This sort of dialogue alongside the superstitions Jim believes in portray African American’s as stupid in the book. Likewise, today we see discrimination based on the speech of African Americans who speak in African American Vernacular English. As John R. Rickford a Stanford Linguistic Professor tells us that "research shows that non-native or vernacular speakers are less believed even when uttering innocuous statements” (Rigoglioso). African Americans today have equal rights and are citizens of the United States but due to the way they speak they are discriminated. True equality has yet to come in speech since the time of Huck Finn to today as it is African American’s who are still …show more content…
Twain’s book is classic that continues to remain applicable in the modern world. When problems relating race are solved the book will still remain applicable as the story of two friends making their way down the river no matter what other around them