Anti-Huck
...houghts. Also, the term “Nigger” gets thrown around the novel too. The word “Nigger,”when used, comes mostly as an insult or in a degrading sentence. While a class in Boston reads, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the excessive use of the term “Nigger” causes many students to up and leave the classroom. “About 100 students, many of them Negroes, told their professors yesterday that the book gave a distorted image of Negroes. Two Negro girls walked out of a sophomore English class recently when the character Nigger Jim was mentioned” (Boston). Clearly this word does not play well with people of African-American heritage. This novel uses this word as though it were the only word which to address black slaves with. This word helps to bring back the memory of our painful past and shows how mistreated African-Americans really were back then and eleventh graders do not need to see something like this. Also, whenever a black person would receive credit for anything they would be looked down upon by the public. When pap says that he almost voted one time but he stopped because a person of black color was allowed to vote, he left. “It was ‘lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote ag’in.” (Twain 24). This really portrays racism because everyone has the right to vote not just white people. Just because a black person comes in to vote does not mean that one should leave. Eleventh graders should not see this today because it shows how ignorant people used to act and how just because of someone’s color they can not or should not be able to vote. Racism plays a major role in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the racism also plays a big negative role and high school students do not need to see such acts of racism from a novel. Crime, stealing, lying, and killing play prominent roles all throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Almost all of the characters in the novel either steal, lie, or commit some kinda of crime through the novel. Characters such as Huck, the Duke, the King, the Grangerfords and Shperdsons, and other minor characters throughout the novel lie, steal, and kill. On more then one occasion Huck lies to either Miss Watson, the Duke and the King, and even Jim once. Huck lies to Miss Watson in the beginning of the book when he is supposed to be in bed, but he runs outside instead. Another time in which Huck lies to Jim happens when they go down the river and a large storm comes and they veer off from each other and when they return Huck lies to Jim telling him that it was all a dream and nothing more. Although Huck lies in the novel, his lies do not even compare to the lies told by the Duke and the King. The Duke and the King always tell lies in order to get what they want. The Duke and the King “. . . are defrauding people, lying, cheating, and stealing,” so says a lecture on Huckleberry Finn (Lecture). One event which the Duke and the King really cheat some amiable people out of there money happens when the Duke and King pretend to be dead Peter Wilks’s brothers and cheat Peter Wilks’s daughters out of the money he left for them. The money is hidden in the cellar so the Duke and King go to retrieve it. “ So these two frauds said they’d go and fetch it up, and have everything square and above-board; and told me to come with a candle” (Twain 149). Eleventh graders should not have to see this kind of behavior because eleventh graders see enough of this on television and in movies, they do not need to see it in a book. Eleventh graders are very impressionable and these actions may just encourage them to steal and break the law because they may believe that if these actions are in a book then it must be alright to do them in real life. Killing also occurs frequently in this book. The Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons are two families which get into a feud over thirty years ago and still fight about it to this day. None of either family members even remember how the feud started, they just fight because of long forgotten problems. Their fighting eventually leads nowhere except to the deaths of all the family members except for Miss Sophia and Harney, who run away with each other. “‘Kill them, kill them!’ It made me so sick I most fell out of the tree. I ain’t a-going to tell all that happened- it would make me sick again if I was to do that” (Twain 103). This kind of behavior shows terrible values and even worse morals. Eleventh graders should not see this kind of conduct because eleventh graders do not want to see these kind of crimes being committed. Acts like these may remind eleventh graders what kind of world we live in today, with senseless killing and murder. When one thinks of a roll model one thinks of someone that a person can look up to and admire. In The Adventures of Huckleberry the roll models are not people to look up to or admire. The characters in this book all do dastardly deeds and should be condemned for them. Huck, the Duke, the King, Grangerfords, Sheperdsons, Boggs, and Sherburn all play negative roll models. Throughout the book Huck acts immaturely and refuses to go home and become civilized. Near the end of the novel Huck gets offered the chance to stay and become civilized with Aunt Sally, but refuses the offer and keeps running along and going on adventures. “ But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before” (Twain 263). This shows much immaturity on Huck’s behalf because all that he has gone through during his journey he has lear...