The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain - 1542 Words

Over the last 130 years â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† has been called everything from a piece of trash to a national treasure. Mark Twain, whose real name is Samuel Clemens wrote â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.† Only one month after it was published, librarians in Concord, Massachusetts had it banned. â€Å"He has had his problems with librarians from the start when, in 1885, â€Å"those moral-ice-bergs,† the Library Committee of Concord−symbolic seat of freedom−pronounced the book rough, coarse, inelegant, and expelled it from library shelves. â€Å"Trash and suitable only for the slums,† they said (Stanek). â€Å"Nearly 130 years since then, this novel has been challenged, defended, banned, expurgated and bowdlerized numerous times by†¦show more content†¦Mark Twain was born in 1835 and was the same age in the 1840 s as his main character named Huckleberry Finn (aka Huck) was when the story takes place. Certai nly his inspiration for this story could only be based on his own life experiences. During his lifetime slavery was still a part of the American way of life. This novel is not promoting racism or hate, it is simply an unofficial record of our country s history mingled into the storyline of an adventure. In fact the first time that this novel was labeled racist was not until 1957 when the NAACP charged that it contained racial slurs and belittling racial designations in a portrayal of blacks that some people considered stereotypical and demeaning (pbs.org.) Ernest Hemingway declared that â€Å"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.† How could such a monumental book also be labeled by many as racist trash that has no place on bookshelves? There are several interpretations that come of this book and its author. The main modern day offense appears to be the use of the word â€Å"nigger.† During the 1840’s this word was commonly used. Its definition of course meant a black person. This book exposes readers to the word â€Å"nigger† in its original diction, not how it is viewed today. Some readers may find that by reading the word repeatedly that the power of the word is