Should huck finn be banned?
...With over two hundred sightings throughout the book, ‘nigger’ was obviously a common, socially accepted term. Justin Kaplan states, “It seems unlikely that anyone…could accuse it [Huck Finn] of being racist because some of its characters use offensive racial epithets. These characters belong to their place and time…” This book was not written to filch African Americans rights or insult their character, but to represent the racial tension in the South before the Civil War. It must be accepted that, in the past, blacks were not treated like people, but like property. “Good gracious! Anybody hurt?” “No’m. Killed a nigger” “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt” (167). After analyzing Aunt Sally, it becomes clear that Twain is laying down a thick coat of irony, pointing out the vile disregard of a whole race. It is not justified to call such a satiric exchange between Huck and Aunt Sally evidence of racism. The characters in Huckleberry Finn who use the word ‘nigger’ were formed by the society they were raised in, and corrupted by others they viewed as moral characters, and the blacks had to accept that. Huckleberry Finn has been categorized as ‘ethically dangerous’, and has been censored from certain public libraries. Much of the reason to banish this book has been caused by the depiction of Jim. Opening with a negative first impression, Jim is described as ‘typical’ slave who’s very superstitious but unable to speak good English. As the only black character steadily engaged in Huck Finn, his characterization has been considered racist by several critics. But first and foremost, it is vastly important to remember that the description of Jim was probably accurate. Along with thousands of other slaves from the South, Jim was not granted the opportunity for an education, and was taken from his family. In Chapter 15, he inadvertently becomes a father figure to Huck, claiming, “…When I got all wore out with wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart was mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en fine you back agin’, all safe en soun’, de tears come en I could a got down on my knees en kiss’ yo’ foot I’s so thankful…” (65) As Jim and Huck become closer friends, both Huck and the reader are able to establish that Jim is no longer someone’s property or inferior, but an equal and compassionate being. Twain uses Jim not only to entertain, but to illustrate the bigger and broader view of a typical slave raised in the South. To condemn Huckleberry Finn racist because of Twain’s aspiration for a pr...