Jordan Kunkel
2-28-12
Eng 10 2nd hour
Letter to Mark
Dear Mark Twain,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is truly a great American novel. Readers are brought back to what many think of as simpler times, but as they dig deeper into the novel, readers discover the complex moral issues present in the old south and today. Huck Finn is definitely not a book you can judge by its cover; no one really understands the message of Huck Finn until it has been read cover to cover. The not-so-funny thing is that many people today toss Huck Finn aside right after reading the first degrading phrase toward an African-American, without bothering to follow through and see what the novel is actually getting across. Those who truly read and digest the novel tend to understand how Huck Finn is the exact opposite of a racist book. Huck Finn is a novel that should be studied in schools because it is so influential to American literature and society; dissecting the book in school prevents Huck Finn from being misinterpreted.
The first quality readers notice when reading Huck Finn is the realness of your writing. Right away, we are immersed into the old southern way of speaking (one of the first novels to do so) and way of life. You didn’t try to hide the fact that Americans enslaved other humans, but instead confronted it. You wanted to share the hypocrisy and craziness of our messed-up society by showing the ways the hypocrisy and craziness slip under our noses during everyday life. Anytime offensive words or behaviors were included in Huck Finn, it wasn’t to show your support for those words or behaviors, but to keep your novel historically accurate. The only support you did show throughout the novel was for the underdogs, as most evident in your characterization of Jim.
While at first glance Jim seems stupid and crazy, further reading reveals that Jim is in truth the smartest and most moral character in Huck Finn. Jim’s superstitious religion has even been deemed pure. Keith Neilson points out that “The main difference between Jim’s religion and that of the other characters in the book is that his works. As shown in the snakeskin episode, there is usually a solid reason behind the most outlandish of his ‘superstitions.’” (297). Clearly, only someone promoting the acceptance of all humans (no matter how different) could bring such a dynamic character to life. You even said yourself, “The reason I made the black man, Jim, the best character in this novel is because blacks have never been taken into society, and so they are the only people on earth that I can see who have not been warped, corrupted, and made weird by this society.” Anyone who would be a respectable member of society in the old south is justly portrayed by you to be a crazy hypocrite in your novel.
Among those hypocrites are the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons, whose proper, amiable personalities you taint with a nasty habit to commonly kill each other. Even sweet little Buck-- whose personality parallels Huck’s--gets caught up in the deadly drama. When asked if he was trying to kill a Sheperdson, Buck responds with, “Well, I bet I did. [...] He never done nothing to me.” (107). It’s amazing how many insensible things humans do without thinking. People get caught up so easily in the differences between one another that we can lose sight of our morals and values--just one more message you’ve included in your novel.
There is so much we can learn from reading Huck Finn, and I feel that people tend to overlook the messages the novel brings. By banning Huck Finn from schools, students are being deprived of the opportunity to learn from such influential words. Thinking about the school bannings makes me wish you were here. You could tell those who won’t give Huck Finn the time of day that the true purpose for your novel is to showcase the flaws of our society and the wrong we have done in the past by degrading other human beings. You could reach out to those critics and tell them that they are wrong in assuming The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is meant to be prejudice and rude. No one can deny the words of the author himself. But, I guess my words and the words of every other Huck Finn supporter will have to do.
Sincerely,
Jordan
2-28-12
Eng 10 2nd hour
Letter to Mark
Dear Mark Twain,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is truly a great American novel. Readers are brought back to what many think of as simpler times, but as they dig deeper into the novel, readers discover the complex moral issues present in the old south and today. Huck Finn is definitely not a book you can judge by its cover; no one really understands the message of Huck Finn until it has been read cover to cover. The not-so-funny thing is that many people today toss Huck Finn aside right after reading the first degrading phrase toward an African-American, without bothering to follow through and see what the novel is actually getting across. Those who truly read and digest the novel tend to understand how Huck Finn is the exact opposite of a racist book. Huck Finn is a novel that should be studied in schools because it is so influential to American literature and society; dissecting the book in school prevents Huck Finn from being misinterpreted.
The first quality readers notice when reading Huck Finn is the realness of your writing. Right away, we are immersed into the old southern way of speaking (one of the first novels to do so) and way of life. You didn’t try to hide the fact that Americans enslaved other humans, but instead confronted it. You wanted to share the hypocrisy and craziness of our messed-up society by showing the ways the hypocrisy and craziness slip under our noses during everyday life. Anytime offensive words or behaviors were included in Huck Finn, it wasn’t to show your support for those words or behaviors, but to keep your novel historically accurate. The only support you did show throughout the novel was for the underdogs, as most evident in your characterization of Jim.
While at first glance Jim seems stupid and crazy, further reading reveals that Jim is in truth the smartest and most moral character in Huck Finn. Jim’s superstitious religion has even been deemed pure. Keith Neilson points out that “The main difference between Jim’s religion and that of the other characters in the book is that his works. As shown in the snakeskin episode, there is usually a solid reason behind the most outlandish of his ‘superstitions.’” (297). Clearly, only someone promoting the acceptance of all humans (no matter how different) could bring such a dynamic character to life. You even said yourself, “The reason I made the black man, Jim, the best character in this novel is because blacks have never been taken into society, and so they are the only people on earth that I can see who have not been warped, corrupted, and made weird by this society.” Anyone who would be a respectable member of society in the old south is justly portrayed by you to be a crazy hypocrite in your novel.
Among those hypocrites are the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons, whose proper, amiable personalities you taint with a nasty habit to commonly kill each other. Even sweet little Buck-- whose personality parallels Huck’s--gets caught up in the deadly drama. When asked if he was trying to kill a Sheperdson, Buck responds with, “Well, I bet I did. [...] He never done nothing to me.” (107). It’s amazing how many insensible things humans do without thinking. People get caught up so easily in the differences between one another that we can lose sight of our morals and values--just one more message you’ve included in your novel.
There is so much we can learn from reading Huck Finn, and I feel that people tend to overlook the messages the novel brings. By banning Huck Finn from schools, students are being deprived of the opportunity to learn from such influential words. Thinking about the school bannings makes me wish you were here. You could tell those who won’t give Huck Finn the time of day that the true purpose for your novel is to showcase the flaws of our society and the wrong we have done in the past by degrading other human beings. You could reach out to those critics and tell them that they are wrong in assuming The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is meant to be prejudice and rude. No one can deny the words of the author himself. But, I guess my words and the words of every other Huck Finn supporter will have to do.
Sincerely,
Jordan