Sunday, January 28, 2007
Huck Finn should be taught
I can see how avoiding the N-word is a good idea, but I think Huck Finn should definitely be taught.
A. the language is authentic to the time period
B. the plot conveys a completely different message. If anything, I would call it anti-racist.
C. the language conveys accurately how Southerners thought of African-Americans--and hence it conveys the relationships between the characters. In context it is accurate and necessary in order to understand how whites viewed blacks (as only partly human). People need to understand that that is how people thought and recognize its absurdity. Huck Finn, I believe, helps to accomplish this.
A. the language is authentic to the time period
B. the plot conveys a completely different message. If anything, I would call it anti-racist.
C. the language conveys accurately how Southerners thought of African-Americans--and hence it conveys the relationships between the characters. In context it is accurate and necessary in order to understand how whites viewed blacks (as only partly human). People need to understand that that is how people thought and recognize its absurdity. Huck Finn, I believe, helps to accomplish this.
# posted by Brian Tang @ 12:13 PM 
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I agree with Brian in that Huck Finn should be taught because it shows the authenticity of Antebellum South. I think that you shouldn't try to erase the past because you learn from your mistakes and if you erase them you might make them again. If we stopped reading Huck Finn because of the way African Americans are treated in it then we wouldn't know how far we have gotten today. And people like Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts would not matter so much because we wouldn't rember how bad it was.
I also agree with Brian, yet differently. I think that Huck Finn should definitely be taught, to show our progress in American culture, but also just to show how terrible people were treated, for such things to never happen again. The N word is definitely not a word that I use in everyday language and I really do hope that someday, it will only be used in intelligent discussion of the past.
# posted by 
: 6:46 AM
: 6:46 AM
I agree with Brian's comment that it should be taught.
a. it does show the authenticity of the language during that time period. And students who has never read the book, can learn something from this experience.
b. I grew up in Philippines, and the schools that I went to never taught about racism or the different kinds of ethnicity. At first I thought it would be ok, since it was never taught, it shouldn’t be a problem in that society. But as I see it now, I see prejudice more than before. And if these kinds of books teaches the kids about racism or prejudice, then why not?
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a. it does show the authenticity of the language during that time period. And students who has never read the book, can learn something from this experience.
b. I grew up in Philippines, and the schools that I went to never taught about racism or the different kinds of ethnicity. At first I thought it would be ok, since it was never taught, it shouldn’t be a problem in that society. But as I see it now, I see prejudice more than before. And if these kinds of books teaches the kids about racism or prejudice, then why not?
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