“The things I’m a-going to dig that n***** or that watermelon or that Sunday school book out with; and I don’t give a dead rat what the authorities think about it nuther.” This is just one out of the 219 times that the word “n*****” is used in the book Huck Finn. From now on, I’m going to replace it with “the ‘n’ word”, because it is not politically correct and I do not like the way it sounds. This book should still be read by high school students, because it really shows how people were treated during this time. The reason why they should replace the word with “the ‘n’ word” is because it is disrespectful to African-Americans.

The evidence I found in this book was unbelievably shocking. If we use the ‘n’ word it could be an insult or to denote a lower class of people; but if an African-American says it to another African-American it means brotherhood or friendship. “What I want is my n*****; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my Sunday-school book; and if a pick’s the handiest things that’s the thing.” They are speaking of the ‘n’ word as a possession that they can steal or take. If one African-American says “I want my n*****” to another African American it could mean “I want my woman (b----).” This is culturally acceptance to them.

According to the publisherweekly.com, Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben and New south Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn in a single volume with the adventures of Tom Sawyer that does away with the ‘n’ word and injun by replacing it with the word slave. I think this is a good choice, because it’s about time they catch up with the literature today.

Another time I saw the ‘n’ word in this book was “so he told Jim how we’d have to smuggle in the rope lader pie and other large things by Nate, the n***** that fed him, and he must be on the lookout and not be surprises, and not let Nate see him open them.” To me that quote from the book means to be on the lookout, but not let Nate see anything.

However, many people think the publishers should still keep the ‘N’ word in the book and not change it, because that is how the book was written. I disagree, back in the days when this book was written the use of the ‘n’ word, white folk felt it was their right to look down on and use the derogatory word, but today it would be politically incorrect to refer to African-Americans as n----s.

As you can see the ‘N’ word means many different things to people. I think it would be a very good thing to update this book to be less insulting to an African-American. Political correctness is important in America today and the use of this word is totally unacceptable.


Work Citied:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word
http://blog.sfgate.com/drader/2011/01/05/the-n-word-huck-finn-and-you/
http://www.enotes.com/authors/mark-twain