The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of my favourite books. It’s a great story, written by Mark Twain, one of the finest story tellers America, or any other nation, has ever produced. It’s filled with wonderful characters: Huck, the Widow Douglas, Aunt Polly, Injun Joe (actually from Tom Sawyer) and, of course, Huck’s travelling companion, Jim. But Jim is, and always has been, a bit problematic. You see, he’s the other main character in the story, and a runaway “nigger”, so that word just keeps popping up. According to one commentator it appears 219 times. That’s almost once a page, which is more than I recall, but perhaps not noticing after a while is one of the concerns.
Now, according to Dr. Alan Gribben, a professor of English at Auburn University in Alabama, the problem is not really the word itself, but the fact that it’s keeping the book out of most classrooms in America. So he is in the process of publishing an expurgated version of this great classic, replacing “nigger” with “slave”. Needless to say, this has stirred up a firestorm of controversy.
On the one hand:
- It’s understandable that a teacher, particularly a Caucasian teacher, might be reluctant to risk teaching this book in it’s present form.
- And it’s a terrible loss for kids, particularly American kids, to miss out on studying this great American classic simply because this word appears so often.
- And it’s quite understandable that a professor who loves the novel, and desires to expose young people to its profoundly anti-racist subtext, might wish to remove the offending word in order to do so.
But, on the other hand:
- This word is integral to the story. (Jim’s life is at risk, not merely because he’s a slave, or even a runaway slave, but because he’s a runaway “nigger” slave.)
- And the constant repetition of the word underscores the great lesson in the book. (That the social stratification of the South, so deeply oppressive and hurtful to everyone, was rooted in a profound and pervasive racism, kept in place by a system of oppression ranging from extreme violence and the constant threat of violence, to the continuous employment of countless, casual, verbal indignities.)
- And Jim’s trust in Huck, and Huck’s love for Jim, are colossal human triumphs precisely because of the racist context of their lives. (I doubt that that context could really be understood apart from the constant repetition of this word. At least Mark Twain, who knew far more about it than I do, didn’t seem to think so.)
In the end, I suppose, something might be accomplished by introducing young people to even a bowdlerized version of Huck Finn. Indeed, if the book is clearly presented as such, it may afford students a great opportunity to learn who Thomas Bowdler was, and of his attempts to tidy up Shakespeare, and other classics of his day. We all do it. The term “N-word”, which some of you may prefer to the word I've been using, is itself a modern day bowdlerism.
But then again, wouldn’t it be nice if we could just help students become literate: learn to read with empathy, understanding, grace and maturity, the words on the page; learn to comprehend the context, meaning and purpose of literature, not just the words; learn to talk openly with one another about the power of words to hurt and heal. Then they would be able to read the “N-word” in Huckleberry Finn, the “F-word” in Catcher in the Rye, and even hear that other “F-word” in the Dire Straits hit Money for Nothin’ without taking offence.
To paraphrase a famous statesman whose birthday will be celebrated in America in a few days: I have a dream that one day literature will be judged by the content of its characters, not the colour of its words. But, until then, 
perhaps Dr. Alan (Bowdler) Gribben is the best we can do.
Note: Mark Twain defined a “Classic” as a book that everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read. In using the word in reference to Huckleberry Finn I mean no disrespect. Words are such loaded entities.
1 comment:
I ran across this great post while searching for an illustration from Huck Finn for a speech I am making on the "Two Sides of Sam Clemens and Mark Twain." Huck Finn is also one of my favorite books.
Yet as a retired teacher, I can see that it can be problematic. When I started to teach, the big complaint was lack of parental involvement. By the time I retired "helicopter parents" wanted to dictate everything that went on almost every minute of every class. In many schools if anyone had attempted to teach Huck Finn, there would have been an uproar.
In a way Huck Finn is part of the problem of racism, but can also be part of the solution because it provokes discussions on a subject many want to avoid.
In my middle school, a team of teachers joined together to create a unit centered around Huck Finn. In Social Studies, students learned about slavery in detail along with discussions of the N-word and its implications ---before students opened Huck Finn. In Math mileage was calculated along the Mississippi. In Science, students learned about the flora and fauna along the raft's route. In Reading class, they read the book. In English & Music classes, they wrote and presented a play based on the story, using pre-Civil War music.
In my Art classes, I took one day to do a presentation on Mark Twain, since his life and work have been an abiding interest of mine since I read Tom Sawyer as a pre-teen.
Of course, teachers had to send letters home informing parents of what students would be studying. Parents with concerns were invited to a meeting, but surprisingly no one showed up. Teachers received a few phone calls, but in the end, no parents protested or chose to have their child opt out. Perhaps that was because I taught in a suburban school system with relatively few black students. Teachers and counselors made a point to speak to each black student to give fair warning that the N-word would be coming up hundreds of times in the reading and possibly in class discussions.
That was the last year I taught, so I'm not sure if that team of teachers continued teaching the unit in the following years, but I hope so.
I recommend the book "Searching for Jim: Slavery in Sam Clemens's World" by Terrell Dempsey. Terrell is a lawyer who lives in Hannibal. While helping his daughter with a school project on Mark Twain, he found newspaper accounts of slave auctions at the library which sparked his interest about slavery in Hannibal. It eventually turned into this great book. I had met Terrell while he was working on the manuscript and was lucky enough to receive several emailed chapters while Terrell was writing it.
The Twain museum in Hannibal, for many years as part of its summer events calendar, presented a play based on Huck Finn. Amazingly, Jim ---one of the two central characters of the book ---was not a character in the play.
With the prompting of Twain scholars, including Shelley Fisher Fishkin, the role that slaves played in Sam Clemens's youth and in the town became part of the boyhood home tour and the museum's exhibits. I believe Terrell Dempsey played a part in raising awareness of this issue, as well.
Please visit my blog post about the most recent (2009) Mark Twain conference in Elmira, NY ---with links to other Twain posts on my blog and to other websites of interest to Twain aficionados:
http://proartz.blogspot.com/2009/08/meeting-mark-twain-elmira-ny.html
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