The adventures of a book called Huck Finn

PLEASE, don't get rid of our history, no matter how ugly it was or wrong. We learn from history and it is our past and who we were.
It was not all ugly. Even, the ones that did have slaves loved them like family and they loved them back. I am definitly not saying slavery was good. But even whites was slaves during Biblical times. What I don't understand is african americans complain about race, but they are the ones who has there own Black Colleges, Black Beauty Pagents, If the white race had only a white beauty pagent there would be hell to pay. I have black friends and they agree. The past was the past we are making a better future, but don't wipe out our history and the FACT that our country was and is based on God. Don't take away our God either. PLEASE LET AMERICA BE AMERICA ONE NATION UNDER GOD. If people want to believe in Example Buddha let them believe in it. But our country isn't based on buddahism, there is already a country based on that. Let AMERICA BE AMERICA, IF people from other countries don't like it, let them go back to there country. I am not saying not to be nice. but you can be nice , but keep our Country Too. Love people but don't let them change our AMERICA. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What? Teachers have to take classes to learn how to teach? Somehow this doesn't restore my faith in our education system. As for the "n" word in Huck Finn, have you listened to any rap lately????

Do we as a culture no longer have the ability to look at history as it was? During Twain's time people of color were n–gers. We cannot change history to make more comfortable for today's PC twitchy world. What a poor education our children will have if we have to alter the classics so people other than rappers used to use racial slurs can be understood.
Literature needs not be neutered. Teachers need to work a little harder to explain that history started before Oprah and MTV.

Hey it's history plus handle correctly it can be an eyeopener to people that needs understanding of what Blacks have had to deal with in this country.Blacks were totally dehumanized but they manage to survive. It was cruel and for this nation to really heal it has to be dealt with in honesty.

I have a problem every time I attend a meeting and they talk about race and God. I was not the one who brought slaves into America. It was our founding fathers. It also was a way of life back then. It no longer is practiced any more than burning witches at the stake. Get over it Black folks and just look at it as history and learn from our misstakes.
As far as God is concerned. Did you listen to the President of Iran as he gave his speach before the U.N. He was not heard by many as our country walked out of the speech and alot of my friends turned it off. Every word that I heard was God and his people. He lives in a country run by God and we could take some lessons from his speach.

YEP LETS BURN THAT SUCKER.WHO NEEDS THE FIRST AMENDMENT ANYWAY.LET'S ALL PRETEND THAT IT NEVER HAPPENED THOSE WHO DON'T LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.WHEN DOES IN END WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH .THIS IS STILL AMERICA RIGHT?

As a true Southern Gentleman, who grew up in Mississippi, finding out that this book was pulled from school curriculum makes me very upset. I am not a racist and have very little patience for people who are. However, I feel that the USA is taking "political correctness" to a level bordering on racism itself. If we look at school's and the corporate world in today's society we see that due to programs enacted in our past, we have reversed the white against black racism into black against white racism. My high school alumnus and other high schools in the area taught classes on African-American history and of course had a big program during February. The administration banned shirts showing parts of my heritage, the Flag of Confederate States of America, while allowing clothing showing the Malcolm X sign and other great activists in the Civil Rights movement. Where is the equality?

Huck Finn is a book set in a very real part of the history of the United States of America. The time that slavery was legal and the time that racism was a predominant part of the society was real. Our students, teachers, and parents need to remember this part. This was not made up as a dramatic bit of fiction. All of my teachers always told me that the way to keep from repeating history is to learn about it. Well I say teach away. Teaching this book is a touchy situation, but if someone is offended by any book that deals with these time periods can return to where their heritage brought them from in my book. The only people who have a right to complain are the only original Americans, the Native Americans.

When we stop giving advantages to any person in this world due to heritage or skin color, then and only then can we be equal. stop putting any race down.

Thank you for bringing this plight of historical fiction into the sight of the public. If we teach one side, aka. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, other Civil Rights Activists, then we should teach the heritage of the oppressors as well. This is not to teach how to be entrenched into furthering racism, but teach the historical side and allow students to make up their own mind about what they believe.

Russell W.

If I recall, Mark Twain simply told a great story AND he tried to show the positive relationship between the white characters and the principal black character. The use of the N word (used by some rappers today) was part of the language at THAT time. Remember when this was written. Mark Twain was one of the greatest American authors EVER. Keep the book in the library!

ATTENTION ROBIN MEADE:
I am a third generation Jeep employee. I think the bailout terms should be the same for the bank companies like our credit card terms. High interest rates, variable rates, predatory cash advances, and stiff penalities for being late one day. Also lower the ceo and executives wages and bonuses to a cap, like other executives in the same position , in other countries that they want to out source our jobs to, across seas .No Golden paracutes with our tax money we work our whole lifes for. Let the executives who ran their companies into the ground and knew it, foot the bill for their mistakes. Nobody bails out the hard working americans, when we make mistakes. Stop sending our good paying jobs over seas and stop making our country a service industry. If its not built here, it shoudn't be sold here! Take a look at the trade deficit. Thanks for your time.

Schools that have banned Huck Finn from their curriculum have also taken out part of American history from the classroom. We live in a free country, so everyone should be able to learn about the past, slavery, racism and even the n-word with the guidance of an educated teacher. If school administrators are worried that the students won’t understand the language involved in the book; well, let me disappoint you, but I have been hearing the language in Huck Finn since 6th grade. Also, this book is absolutely teachable in high school. I’m currently a senior, and we read Huck Finn last year in my English III class. I sometimes wonder what Mark Twain would think. Maybe he would say that “a successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.”

Daniel Laprea
A&M Consolidated High School
Class of 2009

Listen, if these kids are ready to go out in the world and carry jobs, have sex, and live like the adults they claim to be; than they should be ready to accept that that was the language used in those days. And to be quite truthful, it is still used in some youth and young adults language today. Have you evr heard certain rappers use the "n" word?

this is f up... Manchester, that answers a lot of questions...

15 min's away is mark twain's house in Hartford...and about 20 min's south is a restaurante where an artist painted scenes from the book on the walls as part of the decoure...

one of the great American literary works banned in a state where he lived...i wonder what he would say???

capt jeff
Meriden, Ct...

High school kids are nearing their adulthood. The book itself is testimony to our history. It gives them a look into the past. Mark Twain even mentioned he took it from his childhood how things were. So, even though it's fictional, it still paints the picture of how life was when he was growing up. That is part of our history, too.

And for the teachers, they should have already taken history classes in order to become teachers, but, if this is what they need to help cope with the 'n' word issues and racisim then so be it.

So, we're worried about Huck Finn, but we allow pornographic materials to be sold, smut television shows to air nightly, and music that curls one's toenails? Walk through the DVD/CD isles in any department store and count up the number of "Warning – Explicit Lyrics!" stickers you see on movies and CD's.

Huck Finn is a classic. So, the "N" word is in there. Remember, slavery was very much alive and well when Huck Finn was written. Just because we are embarrassed by it now, are we supposed to remove that part of history from our schools?

Seems to me our priorities are in the wrong places, again.

Let the kids read the book. We want to shut kids out to certain things yet allow them to do other. this is what is wrong with the world now, too many people want to force theri beliefs on others. Its a book and there are worst books out there and worst on television. What are we going to do blind ourselves to the fact that racism existed then and now.

This is Gods country not the American people. This entire world belongs to God and to say let them go back to their country is totally crazy. This country belongs to God and only God. God loves everyone bad, good, ypung, old, black, white or whatever. Too many people want to say that black people want this or that or to have their own colleges. Well face reality that so many times blacks have been left out and had to form things that they could call their own. If there had never been racism in the first place then there would have never been a problem. The fact of the matter is, there has been racism and still is racism. There are American today that refuse to vote for a great man in an election because of the color of his skin. Please remember that you have to walk in someone shoes before you can judge the actions or feelings of that person. If you are so against balcks wanting to not be called certain things or treated differently, then what are you doing to help stop racism? Everyone has a hand in putting a stop to racism. Even certain news station like Fox appear to be against anyone that is different or look different. Banning a book but allowing certain media to act racist, what have you accomplised as an American in doing that.

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system of republican politico. Just to get a feared response from the unconsious Americans.
It is what it is. We have evolved since this book was written. Most consious people know that using this word NOW envokes negitive feelings and makes most egoless people uncomfortable.
Allow the book, teach the evolution of most of humanity since the "word". Let the rest of the Troglidites and their over expansive egos remain on the endangered species list.

Whats the point of reading about history in fiction or non-fiction books if we never learn from them? I mean has society really even changed other than the fact of becoming more liberal?

I think the Adventures of Huck Finn are appropriate for any age. It covers a period of our history which we may not be proud of but if kids don't learn what happened in the past they won't understand why it is so important that we don't allow this type of thing to happen again.

The language is something that can be dealt with by parents and teachers to educate the child why it is no longer appropriate to use such language. I think we have gone too far with what is politically correct that we are starting to mess up what actually hapened in the past. We need to teach history as it was and not worry about who might be offended.

Like I said above, if we don't understand where we came from, we can't know where we are going and why. America, wake up! We might have our own ghosts in the closet as a country but even at our worst point we are better than any country in the world today. Be proud of our history and that we have been able to evolve out of the wrongs we committed in the past.

Are high schoolers redy to discuss sthe language?! The words in Huck Finn are at the bottom of the list of their expletives! Yes, they can handle it.

I dont have a place to live, I am staying with a friend because I am trying to buy a house in southwest Georgia. The loan paperwoek has been with the underwriters since Sept. 12, but is stuck there. My lease has run out and I cannot afford to get an apartment because I must maintain my bank account at a certain level until the loan finished. The owner who has bought another houe will not move until the loan goes through. So I will have stay in a flop house, which is all I can afford, until the papeerworks comes back. So everyone whho reads this please call your congresspreson and tell them

We are a moving society........that is, one type of society moves on as the participants' customs, education, work ethics, national origin, and other factors change with the times. I loved Mark Twain's books and read all of thme, as well as a lot of other authors who created stories of thier era and I could tell you stories that would curdle your blood about how poor white people were mistreated by some of the work forces and landlords from eras that people today know nothing about.

I was born 1931 to a sharecropper's family and never mistreated a black in my life. In fact, in those times, needy people shared what they had with others in order to exist.

By-the-way, I scored top grade in my graduating class, but was forced to share second place with another student in order that the local well to do merchant father of the girl who was chosen as validictorian wold not be offended.

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn come c;lose to portraying non predudicial local interaction with neighbors of that era.

Sounds like the book burnings in the early established colonies of America!!!!!

I think that meaning of the "n" word was very different during the time when Huck Finn was set then than it is now. When read in context with the rest of the book the "n" word becomes just a lable. It was not used in a racist contex in any way. I think that this book has a huge influence that counters racisim. This book is really important for highschool kids like me to read.

Good comments here, but does no one remember that Mark Twain wrote Huck Finn to expose the ridiculous cruelty and hypocrisy of racism? The people who treat Jim most like a human are the ones portrayed most positively, while the people who treat Jim like property and nothing else are shown as stupid, ignorant, and hypocritical. I don't see how anybody could read the last 100 pages and still think Huck Finn supports racism. Jim is the one with sense (although lacking self-confidence to stand up for himself) while Tom appears completely foolish.
Yes, there are racist people in Huck Finn, but Mark Twain was criticizing that kind of attitude.