Huck Finn and the N Word

To Kill a Mockingbird has been taught for years in BC high schools. I had never counted, but apparently nigger is used over 300 times, outscoring Huckleberry Finn. I remember one time helping in another teacher’s class. i was given a small group and we were to read the novel aloud. I could tell one boy was uncomfortable when I read “nigger”. So we stopped and talked about it. I told him I didn’t like reading it anymore than he liked hearing it. We discussed the time period and why the author used that particular word. Would we truly understand how Bob Ewell felt if we didn’t hear the hatred in the use of that word? Would our feelings of disgust at prejudice and discrimination be stronger or weaker if another word had been used?

And what more powerful use of the word than in this scene. (This is taken from the movie but the scene is definitely in the book.) Scout is the young daughter of Atticus who is defending an African-American wrongfully accused of raping a white girl.

Scout: Atticus, do you defend niggers?
Atticus Finch: [startled] Don’t say ‘nigger,’ Scout.
Scout: I didn’t say it… Cecil Jacobs did; that’s why I had to fight him.
Atticus Finch: [sternly] Scout, I don’t want you fightin’!
Scout: I had to, Atticus, he…
Atticus Finch: I don’t care what the reasons are: I forbid you to fight.

The word is used over 300 times and right there we are told by one of the most admirable men in literature not to use it. Perfect lesson.

Of course I am as white as my name would indicate so maybe I can’t relate to the use of the word for other ethnic groups. But I think it is extremely important that we confront the language rather than hiding from it.

While I cringe at the idea of censorship, I also empathize with the teachers who feel that having to read the N-word make them and their students very uncomfortable. Here is what a Washington state teacher had to say about this:

[quote]Explaining that Twain wasn’t a racist – or at least didn’t hate African-Americans (he had a well-documented prejudice against Native Americans) – is a daunting challenge. I explain that Jim, a black man, is the hero of the book. I tell them Huck eventually sees the error of his ways, apologizes to Jim and commits himself to helping him escape slavery. Yes, I tell them, he does all this while continuing to refer to Jim by the demeaning word, but Twain was merely being realistic.

Many students just hear the N-word. This is particularly true, of course, of African-American students. I have not taught Huck Finn in a predominantly black classroom, and I think it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do so effectively. With few exceptions, all the black students in my classes over the years have appeared very uncomfortable when I’ve discussed these matters at the beginning of the unit. And I never want to rationalize Huck Finn to an angry African-American mom again as long as I breathe.[/quote]

from http://www.seattlepi.com/opinion/394832_nword06.html

It is with this in mind that I expressed my view. For me, the importance of selecting this work for schools outweighs the stick-to-the-original view. School is better when it is thought-provoking. But the difficulties in setting the right climate while using this vile word (that not too many here have been able to write) probably overwhelm the chances of getting to that higher thinking level.
If it was me, I would select a different novel. If you think that this is bad teaching, then there isn’t much more I can say.

Using Huck Finn in a predominantly African-American class would be a problem. Maybe it is easier for us to discuss this when race relations in our country take on a different characteristic. I had a much harder time teaching stories that referred to first nations people in uncomplimentary terms than I ever did teaching To Kill a Mockingbird.

To those who would bowdlerize - Go write your own bloody book. Then you can leave out all the words you bloody-well please, but leave other people’s work the Hell alone.

I am not sure that anyone has ever improved a book by taking out the edgy bits. I do know that Thomas Bowdler’s name has been mentioned with ridicule for 200 years for doing the same.

To those who would read such tripe - Don’t be so bloody cowardly and squeamish. Trying to take out ambient racism, racist attitudes, and language from Huckleberry Finn is as ridiculous as rewriting Fight Club with the violence taken out. Or how about Rocky Horror without the sweet transvestite? Or the New Testament with that violent bit - just skipping right from the Last Supper straight to the Resurrection. The subjects are dealt with in the texts.

If you are too stupid and lazy to think and feel your way through a book as you read, then shame on you. Read. Think. Feel. Try to learn a little something more about the human experience from a perspective not your own. If you cannot be receptive to what the author is trying to communicate on his or her terms, then put the book down and walk away. It is selfish and shortsighted to twist someone else’s book to fit your narrow sensibilities. Too bad it’s in the public domain.

P.S. I wonder what these fools at New South would make out of Merrie Melodies Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs? Probably take out the jazz…

Leave the book alone.

Bowing to censorship should never be an option to those who desire a free democratic society.

If we teach our children to be afraid of words we also fail to teach them to defend themselves against those that use words such as nigger and all other perjoratives to harm and marginalize segments of our society. We also fail to teach them the skills necessary to confront and analyse differing points of view.

Ray Bradbury, the author of the 1951 novel Fahrenheit 451, features a central character, Guy Montag who is a futuristic (1990) “fireman” in a hedonistic anti-intellectual America. Anyone caught reading or possessing illegal books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned by the firemen. Illegal books mainly include famous works of literature, such as Walt Whitman and William Faulkner, as well as the Bible and all historical texts.

In a 1979 interview, Bradbury commented, “only six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with the censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony. Judy-Lynn del Rey, one of the new Ballantine editors, is having the entire book reset and republished this summer with all the damns and hells back in place”.

Yet, here we are once again, but this time it’s Mark Twain’s work that is the target of some ‘house-cleaning’ for the sake of the youth, if this is indeed the real reason.

You nailed it there! While many people here seem to fall towards the slippery slope fallacy where there is no middle position, you understand the reason why someone would want to do this. Remember, this is in Alabama. The impact of the N-word is probably stronger there than here. I can imagine how difficult it would be for a teacher to use that novel with the vile word in a school in the southern states where a student’s great-grandfather’s might have been the target of the supremacists which might include another student’s ancestor.

I understand all the arguments against the language change. And I agree we most of them. You seem to be the only one who understands why I still think that the change isn’t the degrading of the art that others think it is. This change will make it easier for educators who may have been avoiding the book because of that word.

Just in Alabama you say? Do a search of slavery in Canada and you will find that the most recent (1830) and active use was primarily by northwest aboriginals. Turns out to be a big part of tradition and history. Is it time to scrutinize the pre-colonization oral history of the northwest?

Rex Murphy for the prosecution

fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 … ark-twain/

Remember the comment made in a satirical predictions article, the one about HTMF that upset a few people. We have now had a serious discussion on an important topic and I have yet to feel the urge to run into the street and talk to real people. Doin’ just fine here.

Huck Finn has been banned often. And the banning of the book has upset scores of people. Here’s a couple.

Margaret Norris, an African American teacher from San Francisco, believes it is because Twain’s attitude reaffirms that, “This is how you are, like it or not and that’s why the book is so painful and important, because he is still telling us today.”

Another teacher, David Bradley, feels “if we’d eradicated the problem of racism in our society Huckleberry Finn would be the easiest book in the world to teach."

However, in the current discussion we are talking about how to get around an issue that would allow this important book to actually be taught. School boards won’t approve it because of the controversy. If it has been approved teachers are afraid to teach it because of the controversy. And again, we are talking about the United States. This wouldn’t be an issue in Canada. We have entirely different race issues that make it easy for us to discuss slavery and attitudes to African-Americans without upsetting people. In fact, is Huck Finn that important a novel to Canadians that it should be taught in Canadian high schools? Not sure if has ever been on the BC curriculum. But it is certainly relevant to Americans.

So, Big Thumb, I am starting to lean. Not all the way there but I can see a school edition with the changes made being of some value if the book gets taught in places where it had not been taught before, especially in areas where the book needs to be taught. Couple of provisos. If the book in its original form has been used in the past then continue to use the original. And, most important, teachers should take at least one lesson to discuss the edition and why those changes have been made. The sanitized edition shouldn’t allow people to hide from the word.

This isn’t a case of Huck Finn being banned. It’s a case of a publisher deciding to put out another edition of the book in the hopes of increasing sales. A version without the N-word. This would be no different than a publisher translating the book, or putting a different cover on it, or maybe including Coles notes – all things that publishers do to try and drum up sales.

The fact that people are throwing around the words ‘censorship’ and ‘ban’ help the publisher out for sure.

The book is in the public domain. You can grab it yourself online and do what you’d like with it. (see what I’ve done with it here for an example)

Personally, I think the N-word is a central part of the story. The word reflects the feeling of the time – that slaves weren’t human. How the characters overcome this sentiment is the whole point of the book.

I think your conditions are totally acceptable to me. Those who use the integral version would probably stick to it. Those who avoided the controversy can now work with this novel and I agree that the discussion about the change in words needs to happen with the students. To me, that is an acceptable solution, not censorship.

Here is an anecdote that may interest you:

This summer, on a patio outside of a pub in Moncton, an older gentleman was enjoying a meal with his wife and two younger women (presumably one of them was he daughter). My three friends and I were sitting nearby and speaking French to each other. After he payed, he stopped by our table and told us he was from Edmonton. We could tell that he had a few drinks in him but he seemed happy. He commented on our French discussion but he seemed to say that he liked that. Then he told us that hearing French was much better than hearing the immigrant languages that he “had to put up with” (sic) in Edmonton. Then he dropped the N word by saying “that there were too many sand-N in Edmonton”. I was so stunned that I couldn’t even come up with a reply. His wife said goodbye to us and hauled him away.
Right after that, all four of us looked at each other with the same stunned look. One of my friends made the following comment (my translation) " So I guess speaking French is not the lesser evil" to which we all laugh.

This was the first time ever that I heard the N-word uttered with that connotation. I’m still stunned. And this is Canada.

Really? I’ve had it thrown at me since I can remember. It’s one of my earliest memories of Canada. Since then, I’ve been called it by cops, students, and rednecks alike.

Similiar thing happened at North Pacific Museum some years ago, members of the Fisherman’s Union had restored some old cannery equipment ,
one was the Smiths Butchering Machine, otherwise known by the brass manufacturers plate on the machine at eye level that read"Iron Chink", so called because of the many chinese fish workers it displaced. (“Iron Chink” was even a wage classification in the Cannery Wokers Union contract at one time)
The politically correct and the revisionists wanted the brass plate taken off the machine, there was a substantial exchange of Letters to the Editor from both sides of the topic. I am not sure of the final outcome, but personally, I’ve never subscribed to the Disney version of history.

Like MiG said, this is a publishing company’s prerogative. They’ve done it before with other older stories. And it’s one publisher. I am guessing it won’t be long before another publisher puts out an unedited book with a big publicity campaign as it being “the real thing”!

[quote=“MiG”]

Personally, I think the N-word is a central part of the story. The word reflects the feeling of the time – that slaves weren’t human. How the characters overcome this sentiment is the whole point of the book.[/quote]

I totally agree with you. But that doesn’t prevent me from thinking that changing the word for slave to make it more palatable as a prescribed curriculum book is a good idea, especially since, as I read often while looking at this issue, the novel either created very difficult classroom situations or was avoided altogether.

Canada is certainly different. The canadian novel “The Book of Negroes” had to change titles in order to be sold in the States. Publishers wanted to avoid controversies. I think the new title is “Someone Knows My Name”.

[quote=“MiG”]This isn’t a case of Huck Finn being banned. It’s a case of a publisher deciding to put out another edition of the book in the hopes of increasing sales. A version without the N-word. This would be no different than a publisher translating the book, or putting a different cover on it, or maybe including Coles notes – all things that publishers do to try and drum up sales.

The fact that people are throwing around the words ‘censorship’ and ‘ban’ help the publisher out for sure.

The book is in the public domain. You can grab it yourself online and do what you’d like with it. (see what I’ve done with it here for an example)

Personally, I think the N-word is a central part of the story. The word reflects the feeling of the time – that slaves weren’t human. How the characters overcome this sentiment is the whole point of the book.[/quote]

I am shocked at your use of the other “N” word when describing the good people of the island of Newfoundland.
Surely this must not continue.

What will the teachers do when teaching the youth? Will Newfoundland become extinct if not taught in school?