Well, we've been discussing this question a lot in my AP English Language class lately. Almost everyone is familiar with the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (HF). Well.. many people belive that HF is racist, because it uses the word n!gger a lot in the text (abt 215X). It's also considered racist for its dialogue as well.. Example: Huck's Aunt Sally asks him why he is so late arriving at her house. "We blowed a cylinder head." "Good gracious! Anybody hurt?" "No'm. Killed a n!gger." "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt." This dialogue shows that slaves weren't really considered to be people..... but does it really make HF racist? IS HF AND TWAIN RACIST?? What makes/doesn't make both HF and Twain racist??? why??? I really dont think that they are racist... the story takes place in the ante-bellum south... most of what twain wrote in HF was satire... and the dialogue... well it would be considered as "casual dialogue" from the south.
It does sound racist today but give to think that back in those times it was common to hear the word spoken among everyone. But white people said it most. Now a days, only black people can say the word without getting a weird look. But that is a different subject, yes back then it was common. But by todays standards, it is very racist at that. So if the book was published today then it would be pulled of the shelves, and then sued for all of these racist texts.
well the word itself is racist. that would be my rationale for thinking it's racist. tho i personally don't think the author is being racist becuz he's simply using the language from that time period.
I apologize for this in advance if this is to offend anyone, but... Back then yes, slaves weren't really citizens. And racism was really considered to be an OK thing. In those times that word was considered appropriate to describe an African-American. God I hate being PC...It's so congesting!! I'm not racist anyway, I don't need to be a crazy ***** like my mom is.
I don't think its supposed to be raciest. It was supposed to be just like the time was. It'd be a lie to tell us that thats not how they spoak or anything, because back then they did. And yeah, it was considered okay to say those things back then, specifically the south. I know ALL this, I live in South Carolina.
The book offers an insight into the social attitude of the time. It simply depicts how people of African-American heritage were thought of in the Southern States at the time. Huck's take on the matter is simply a reflection of how Whites (rich or poor) thought of themselves and slaves-- it was the generally accepted mentality of the time. It's a little piece of history, albeit not a proud piece, but crucial nevertheless.
The word is racist and yet continues to endure, regardless of who uses it now. However, the way Mark Twain used it was in the way it was used in the times. People who were slaves were not considered at the time people but at the same time...if people paid attention to the books, it does show a great struggle in there and one of the great struggles was racism itself. After all, Huck does meet Jim who he does end up having sympathy for and befriends. I think the novels show more of a thing of seeing slavery as a wrong thing and also that slaves were people too. It opens the mind to seeing a time and era where slavery was accepted and yet moving to not being tolerated and why. Slavery did happen and as shameful as it is, slaves have existed for even longer than just what Africans went through. It is part of everyone's history and I do not think any culture can really look back and say it did not have slavery of some sort or fashion. We see it as wrong but should we deny that it happened at all and remove all books that have mention to it? I don't think so. It's denying it and trying to forget it, but part of learning is seeing the mistakes people make so we don't repeat them. So the books themselves, truly I don't see as racist as they deliver a strong message showing later that it's not such a grand thing to do and show the changes in Huck as well from accepting what is around him to doing something that was against the norm of his area. I do not agree the books should be removed because it shows moral fiber and growth and they are a fictional part of history. There are other books out there I had to read in school that I found more disturbing than that, such as all the Puritan works in American Literature which don't show any change or growth at all.
Well, it depends on the time in which the story takes place. I can see what they mean, but if it took place in our time, then it'd be considered racist, because now african americans have free will. Racisim is The belief that ones race is better than ones self. So take for instance when I was in school John in my class is black and plays the race card. He thinks because of books like that we should feel mercy for him and treat him like a king of some sort.So, to some extent it is racist but its a book. And it takes place before African Americans had freedom, back then slaves weren't treated like regular people, so its giving a rough idea of what it was like then.
Back then, it wasn't considered racist, because people back then, honestly didn't believe slaves were actually considered human beings. They were put with the animals basically. But now a days, saying that can be taken very badly, but it's no different, in todays time, then if a black person went around calling a white person things like 'fish belly, white boy, ect.' Personally, racism in my opinion, is very over-rated. If you watch the news, too many Whites and too many Blacks are screaming racists and people try to constantly sue each other of things about race. But what people need to do, is one shut up about color and using every poor excuse they have, and think back in history, true Blacks had it hard in slavery, but so did Mexicans when they first came to America, like in the book 'Esperanza Rising', that sums it up pretty good right there. But people forget the one group, that has been cheated the most in history, the Indians, yet they didn't complain, they just went with it, because they had to, but you don't see them going around and being completely stupid and shouting things about race. Also people need to remember as well, that slavery happened back then, today people have it quite good. One thing I don't like, that may make me seem a bit racist, is how someone can have kids and get free money off of it, or Mexicans come to American and don't become legal citizens, yet they get rights, us hard working people don't get, then they go back to their country and take our money, from our tax. But, I won't go into anymore detail, since I don't need an arguement breaking out. But those are my views.
