As one of America's greatest authors, Mark Twain's work is known universally. It is only obvious that his work should be reviewed in school. In many school districts however, his books are banned for containing the 'N' word, or teachers are uncomfortable teaching the American classics because of the racial slur. A university English professor, Alan Gribben, is producing a new version of the books, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He is replacing the word nigger in 219 spots in Huckleberry Finn and 4 times in Tom Sawyer with the word 'slave'. This has raised a controversy around the literature world. Some believe the word belongs in the book since it is specifically about racism others think it's a great idea to remove that barrier and have teachers be comfortable teaching the American classics.
What do you think?
Hmm... while I'm not racist, I don't think removing the offensive words is a good idea. It alters the manuscript from its original format, and since those words add to the themes and main ideas of the books, we end up losing that significance.
ReplyDeleteAlthough if it's going to get more people to read them, I guess it's not all bad.
I agree with you. I think the word belongs in the books since they were written in hard times and I'm sure the word was even more offensive back then, so It must have taken a lot for Mark Twain to decide on adding the words.
ReplyDelete