"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book that I personally found really boring but that I consider very interesting from a cultural and historical point of view.
What I plan to do in this essay is writing a comment about the book that will make the readers understand what I think about the story and how it developes throughout the pages.
The friendship that grows between the two main characters along the river represents Huck's realization that blacks are not a property but people with feelings and a dignity that needs to be preserved.
The period in which the story takes place was "dominated" by slavery and racism towards black people. It's a strong, real story that everybody, even today, needs to know and remember because it's important to know where we come from and what happened before us.
I think there is a slight difference between being racist and telling about a racist period of our history which is what the book does. "The adventures of Huckeberry Finn" shouldn't be treated like a novel but rather it should be treated a historical document.
Aside from this, I understand that this book can still hurt, offend and insult black people who see themselves in Jim and in all the blacks who suffered and died under the supremacy of the white race. This is the reason why I don't think the reading of this "novel" shouldn't be imposed.
The essays by Trilling, Marx and Smiley will help me write about the development of the book, the growth of Huck and his relationship with Jim.
Mavy,
ReplyDeleteI like the approach you're taking--one that neatly sidesteps controversy surrounding the novel's literary merits (or lack there of) by arguing that it should be taught not as a work of fiction so much as an historical document. And I think you begin to make a useful distinction between something being racist out of intent, versus something that is racist as a matter of fact (i.e. the slave holding south in which this book is set and which, according to your argument, it provides useful insight into. (In this regard, you might find it useful to quote from Smiley's dismissal of the novel as something to argue against).
Again, a good approach! I'll be interested to see how your analysis develops.