Should Huckleberry Finn Be Taught In Schools

As our society continues to evolve, the characteristics that were once acceptable in our society may not be anymore due to the changes in our standards. The usage of particular words, for example, may be connotated in a negative manner that makes them unacceptable to use anymore. Teaching a novel that involves historical events may lead to controversy as some of the words may offend readers. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an example of a book that makes many readers and educators teaching the novel uncomfortable due to the usage of the word “nigger”. Due to the large controversy of the novel, it has led multiple school districts across America to ban the book from being taught in their classrooms. In order for the book to be back in schools, Dr. Alan Gribben’s new redaction of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn replaces the word …show more content…
Albeit, using the word in our vernacular today is contemptuous, using the word to preserve the historical dialect of the book set in the 1840s should not be considered offensive as the word “nigger” was part of people’s lexicon at the time. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be the only version that is taught in classrooms or should not be taught at all because Alan Gribben’s New South Edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn allows readers to not do any heavy lifting while reading the novel, it will distort the historical accuracy of the 1840s, and it will allow readers to circumvent around the harsh meaning of the word “nigger”.

The edited version of Huckleberry Finn will stymie readers from doing any heavy lifting of trying to comprehend the book in a way Twain wanted his readers to. The novel presents aspects of life that once existed in the