This guest blogger preferred to remain anonymous but I'd like to shout out a big THANK YOU to her for helping me out this week!! :)
Book Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain
Type: humorously satirical boy-coming-of-age story set in the 1830s
Published: First published in England and Canada in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885
Summary: Huck’s father is the town drunk and the Widow Douglas, who becomes Huck’s unofficial guardian, tries to show him a good home-life and provide the care, nurturing, guidance and advice a young boy should have. Huck has never experienced that and has a difficult time adjusting. He decides to run away. He soon joins up with another runaway—Jim, an escaped slave. The book follows the travels and adventures of Huck, Jim, and the people they meet along the Mississippi River.
Although there are parts I find humorous and other parts that make me uncomfortable, I have always enjoyed the story—mostly because it is an escape. I would love to just live on the river and not have any expectations or responsibilities—for a while, anyway. Jim and Huck do become friends and I like that. Huck’s ideas or values he has grown up with and never questioned, undergo changes and Huck no longer sees Jim as property, but as a person and a friend.
Even when the book was first published, some libraries refused to carry it because of its “crudeness,” or “poor word choice,” or because Huck “not only itched but scratched,” which was considered obscene. Today, it is often criticized because of the depiction of Jim, a slave, and because of raciest terms used to describe African Americans and, to a lesser degree, Native American Indians. The words are there. They were in common use during both the setting of the book and the time in which the book was written. Huck doesn't know the words are wrong--that's all he knows. Jim’s character is true to his time and setting. He is a slave and he is depicted as such. He is not depicted, however, as ignorant or slow, but as a sensitive, caring person who is very capable of thinking for himself.
2 comments:
Great review. I haven't read this book in a long time. It makes me want to pick it up again.
I always thought it was stupid that this was banned because of the terms! I thought the message of the book (and the development of friendship) was far more significant! Yes, the terms are offensive, but even Huck felt that way at the end! How better to display that fact than to show him in the most ignorant light at the beginning?
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