Floating down a lazy river, asleep atop a makeshift raft, Huckleberry Finn appeared to have finally achieved seemingly unattainable freedom. However, after nearly 130 years, it seems that society may be catching up to the carefree protagonist.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a classic novel that is commonly read at Langley, has come under scrutiny by teachers and administrators for its overuse of the “n word,” which appears a total of 219 times in the novel. New South Books will begin publishing a new, censored edition of Huck Finn this month, which will be shipped to schools throughout the nation.
While the “n word” is undoubtedly a bad term, removing it completely from the book does more harm than it does help. Although Huck Finn is a fictional tale, by writing in the colloquial Twain preserved the language and the diction of the period as well as any nonfiction source could. The “n word,” while offensive, is one of the most characteristic and defining terms of the largest social problem of the era: slavery and inequality. By removing the words of the time, we are removing parts of history.
Furthermore, by censoring Huck Finn, the publishers are contradicting the core message of Twain’s novel. Huck Finn chronicles the adventures of a young boy in his pursuit of complete freedom from social standards and restrictions. How are students supposed to recognize this message when the book is limited by the same societal boundaries that Huck Finn tried to escape?