In 1884, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published and has since become one of the most controversial works ever written in American literature. While supporters of Huckleberry Finn revere the book as an authentic lens through which to view history, others dismiss Twain’s work as frivolous, unimportant, and oftentimes offensive or vulgar. Even today, in modern times, more than a century since the publication of the book, a fiery debate exists over whether or not the book is a worthwhile text to read in public schools or whether it should be universally banned. The legacy of Huckleberry Finn should be preserved and passed on to present and future generations of students because the book is valuable in allowing modern readers to delve into Southern culture, language, and customs existing during Twain’s time, as well as allowing readers to better comprehend the development of slavery and taking into consideration the valuable moral lessons found throughout the book.

Much of the controversy surrounding Huck Finn revolves around the crude language Twain selected for his characters. It is crucial to understand that the language in which Twain wrote the book in was intentionally used to add authenticity to the plot. Otherwise, readers would have a much more difficult time depicting life in the south as it actually took place back in Twain’s age. The language allows the reader to peek into the mindsets of racist Southern folks and judge how characters spoke. Meanwhile, the racial slur ‘n*****’ plays an important role in Huckleberry Finn, which is shown by the range of responses triggered when students stumble upon it in the book.The word captures the attention of the reader, as is proven by the strong psychological effect Cullen produces in his poem Incident, describing the encounter between a black child and a white child. The narrator looks back upon this short encounter as an adult because it bore such significance to him that he could recall the incident even years after it took place. In the poem, the narrator is obviously offended and hurt at the derogatory way in which the word is used. While the style in which the word is used can oftentimes be offensive, as it was in Incident, the world itself possesses an innocent nature and should not be considered offensive in the context of the book. Likewise, students who come across ‘n*****’ in Huck Finn must be wise and mature enough to distinguish the use of ‘n*****’ from a literary perspective and should not be given a book which has either eliminated the word or replaced it with an euphemism. Although there is concern about how students will feel and react to such a strong word, censoring the book is not an excuse. Opponents of Huck Finn argue that the offensive language used in the book is too much for students to handle, but students must face the fact that the word was a commonly used word used to discriminate against blacks in the racist South during Twain’s age and that Twain was merely capturing how people spoke and thought. Censoring Huckleberry Finn is shielding students from the reality of truth and does not allow the book to create as big an impact as Twain had intended for when writing the book.

Students must also continue being taught Huck Finn in schools because it contains the important lesson not to conform to society’s rules and to question commonly held beliefs. Twain’s objective in writing Huckleberry Finn was to shed light on the flaws and problems in society during the 1800’s, most pointedly racism and hypocrisy. In fact, according to the Kens Burns video documentary, Mark Twain, Twain stated that in order for the Americans to have a country, the problem with race must be resolved. An example which demonstrates the questioning of societal beliefs is how Huck contemplates the fact that all his life he has been taught that blacks are not people, but rather pieces of property and are therefore not capable of feeling strong emotions. He soon discovers this to be false according to his own observations of Jim along their journey together. Huck realizes that Jim does in fact have feelings, as is evident by his yearning for his family. “I went to sleep, and Jim didn’t call me when it was my turn. He often done that. When I waked up just as daybreak he was sitting there with his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself. I didn’t take notice nor let on. I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so.” (Twain 155) As the journey progresses, Huck is increasingly aware of Jim’s emotions as a human being. However, he is reluctant to admit this since this goes against what he all been taught all his life. Huck struggles to determine whether or not Jim has the right to be a free man, when society has clearly imposed the idea that people of colored skin do not deserve the same rights as white people.

As Hemingway once stated, ‘All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.’ It was a groundbreaking book because it was the first time an American author wrote a story with underlying themes that went against the opinion of the majority of American people at the time. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains important lessons that are just as relevant in Twain’s time as they are in modern society today, and is an essential text to incorporate into the English curriculum to allow students to fully understand why slavery was such a prevalent component of Southern society in Twain’s time.