huck finn

so, for my essay i am planning on stating that huckleberry finn is a racist novel, hovever it should be tought in school. huck finn teaches students about the severity of racial intolerance, or if it does not teach them about it, huck finn definetely engrains intolerance more solidly into a students mind. i do think that the teaching of huck finn should be partenered with a us history class (like this year), this way the book can more easily be put into context. also during the time that this bok was set, racial slurs were the common way to refer to people of a race other than your own.

Huck Finn-Zero Draft

I plan to take a slightly different approach for my essay.... Huckleberry Finn is one of the most controversial books in history. It seems there will always be an attack against it whether it's the supposed racism or even the alleged remarks that there are homosexual occurences between Jim and Huck. Besides these points I still feel Huckleberry Finn should be a part of high school and college curriculum.

My main argument will be how I see Huckleberry Finn as mirroring America' s problems and obstacles (both past and present). This covers a large spectrum of the books controversy...
In terms of racism, I view the book as sort of having both, similarly our nation has both. The character in the novel are very diverse but somehow Huck manages to find a way to accept them all the way they are. Everyone from Tom (represents sort of a close minded, by the book aspect of society) to the King and the Duke (represent outcasts who have issues fitting in and resort to crime) I may do more character analysis or less..... Through this I can ultimately see that diversity can lead to tolerance....on occasion this is apparent in America as well. As well as the fact that though the ending is messy America is similarly confusing and disorganized at times.
*for this section i want to use quotes from the novel examplifying these points....

Another section will probably use quotes from critics to both agree and disagree with my main points .....Trilling maybe.....who else?

Its super rough....and i'll probably have to narrow down my argument but i am definitely open to suggestions :)

Huckleberry Finn- Zero Draft

I plan to take a slightly different approach for my essay.... Huckleberry Finn is one of the most controversial books in history. It seems there will always be an attack against it whether it's the supposed racism or even the alleged remarks that there are homosexual occurences between Jim and Huck. Besides these points I still feel Huckleberry Finn should be a part of high school and college curriculum.

My main argument will be how I see Huckleberry Finn as mirroring America' s problems and obstacles (both past and present). This covers a large spectrum of the books controversy...
In terms of racism, I view the book as sort of having both, similarly our nation has both. The character in the novel are very diverse but somehow Huck manages to find a way to accept them all the way they are. Everyone from Tom (represents sort of a close minded, by the book aspect of society) to the King and the Duke (represent outcasts who have issues fitting in and resort to crime) I may do more character analysis or less..... Through this I can ultimately see that diversity can lead to tolerance....on occasion this is apparent in America as well. As well as the fact that though the ending is messy America is similarly confusing and disorganized at times.
*for this section i want to use quotes from the novel examplifying these points....

Another section will probably use quotes from critics to both agree and disagree with my main points .....Trilling maybe.....who else?

Its super rough....and i'll probably have to narrow down my argument but i am definitely open to suggestions :)

Zero Draft

I am going to write this essay on how I think that the book Huckleberry Finn is not racist and that it should be taught in schools. I think that this book has many issues that people in today's society to not agree with. I do not think it is racist because it was how people acted back then and how people talked. I think that it should be taught because reading the book to others or reading it alone or someone reading it to you will help teach how the ways of life are totally different then how they are today. I remember how my mom taught me about slavery when I was younger and how I asked why most of them had colored skin and why people called them mean names. She explained it to me, and told me that it was how thing were back then and if we did not have books like this to teach us about history then we would not know anything about the olden days. I think that it is important to realize that the references that we have are important and influence how we live our lives today.

I think that these topics I have chose to write my essay on will be easy to create a strong argument. I also have gathered a lot of notes from the documentary we have watched so I hope this is a good start. If anyone has any feed back I would love it :) thanks!

Zero draft

Ok, so for my essay I'm going to write that the book is racist, that it is an extraordinarily flawed book but that, beside these points, it should be taught in school.

For proving that the book is racist I might talk a bit about the word n****r being used throughout the book but show how how this was typical for the time period and not racist, just accurate. BUT, the real reason the book was racist was the way Jim's character is abandoned in the end. The way he becomes "just another dumb n****r" at the end compared to being a true character shows how Twaine didn't want to spend the time to care about his main black character. In this uncaring the book becomes racist.

With very carefully thought out lesson plans, the book can be very helpful to be taught in school. The book can show a fairly accurate depiction of the time period and introduce the subject of racial relations in the 1800s. The real value in the book however, is learning by observing Mark Twain's use of writing. Even if the kids take no more out of the book than, "if you start writing a book you should have some sort of ending in mind," that is an important point. Looking at the way Twain's writing varies (the beginning of the novel, the amazingly fluid river scenes, and then the LOOOONNNNGGGG drawn out terrible ending) can give students good ideas on how to be an effective writer.

For points from the book I'll use sections from each of the three sections to illustrate their racism as well as how that can be useful to teach students. I'll probably quote a lot of Lionel Trilling as well as T.S. Elliot to show what they praise(or at least excuse) in the end of the book should really be criticized and taught as a racist failure. I would also like to expand on Smiley's idea that being an anti-slavery book takes more than simply having the main character acknowledge that blacks are people too. This can be an important point in proving that even when Twain was trying to make Jim a full character on the river, he still failed to prove an anti-slavery point.

Zero Draft

To me personally this book is racist because that is how black people were treated in that time. Throughout the whole novel Mark Twain kept up with this setting of this time period. In my essay i want to focus on how this book is not racist and should not be taught in school. I do not think it should be taught in school because if offends many blacks from the derogatory word choice. Also it offends blacks because Huckleberry and other characters suggest that black people are stupid. For some points in my essay i want to point out the history of this book and how it reflects the past. For example from a scene from the book is when Mrs. Phelps asked if anyone died on the steam boat. Huckleberry replied by saying "No only a nigger." Mrs. Phelps hearing that felt relieved because no "human" died. This is implying that blacks then were not real people.

Free Software For PC's (Aka Dells)

Anyone looking to speed up their 8 year-old computer should check out this FREE software from Piriform.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
www.defraggler.com

Download, install, Run, Restart, Run again (if you feel special restart a second time.)

on CCleaner, run both the cleaner and the registry scan
The defraggler works like a people friendly defrag, and restart is reccomended after every defrag.