Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Huck Finn
The Adventures of Huck Finn is a terrible book. It is boring, none of the humor appeals to me at all, the plot goes where ever it wants, and in the last few chapters everything that Huck learns vanishes like it wasn't there to begin with. But then there are the questions, "Is it racist?" and Should it be taught?". There are so many people that call the book racist and so many that say it is anti-racist. I think there are both right. The book was written in 1884 and set in the 1830's. There is racism in both of these times so the book is bound to have some racist elements. But we also see Huck grow to see Jim as a person.
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Dylan,
ReplyDeleteI think you may have a good approach to this essay in arguing first of all that racism isn't really the issue (you can discuss the controversy surrounding Twin's racial portrayals in the earlier part of your essay), but that the real issue that precludes its inclusion in the English curriculum is that is simply has no literary merit. The balance of your essay, then, could turn to the issues of what makes it a bad novel.