Huckleberry Should Not Be In Our Library

In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a depressed and controversial writer from a controversial period of American history, presents his ideas about sensitive topics with vulgar language and diction. The book is a minefield of dissension for teachers to cross and can leave students with the task of either deciphering the book for what it is or ignoring the unit all together and losing precious time to learn other pieces of literature. Louisa May Alcott called the book “trash” and what the book represents may very well be. With Huckleberry Finn’s shortlist of problems including religion, race, and the criticism of Mark Twain himself the book is immensely difficult to teach which is why the American school systems should remove the book from the standard curriculum.

“Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes, and wishes he was certain.” The Notebook, Mark Twain. Twain is one of the most anti-religious individuals of his time and his opinions are pushed through into the personalities of Huck. Huckleberry Finn’s commentary on religion is a satirical attack on the institutions by Twain. Huck does not understand religion and perhaps the same can be said for Twain, nevertheless Huck is used by Twain to attack the institution of prayers, “Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so and I couldn’t make it out no way.” (23). Twenty three pages into “The Great American Novel” and Mark Twain has openly and purposefully disregarded an entire institution by attacking prayer. Twain is relentless in his proselytization of his readers and one hundred pages later his next assau...

... middle of paper ...

...gful manner. By doing so, they have destroyed the very purpose Huckleberry Finn is read and its only unarguable positive that it is the first true first person adventure novel. Teachers simply can not get to the positives because the book is a minefield of distractions and disturbances that the classroom must navigate. It is too much trouble to go through for the average teacher who could be spending their time much more effectively on the hundreds of other famous titles available.

To read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a public classroom, is an unfair and morally shortsighted decision that schools across the United States must reconsider. The book’s blatant slandering of religion, more than obvious racism, and pure difficulty to teach outweigh any true positive or benefit the book offers to a classroom. The book needs to be banned across America and now.