The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The argument I am going to write about is that yes this book is racist, but it should still be part of the high school curriculums. One scene that I am going to use to show that it is a racists book is when Mrs. Phelps asks Huck if there were any people hurt on the steamboat and Huck replies "no only a nigger." And Mrs. Phelps is glad because she says that sometimes people do get hurt. It shows how white people regarded black people as below human, animals. I am also going to reflect on the building of Jim's character and then it crumbles into how white people thought of black people, gullible especially. Huckleberry Finn should be taught in schools because it shows racism in a light way. It uses adventures of two boys and one man, humor, and and simplicity to show racism. It also shows how although racism was a controversy for Huck, he thinks that he is making the wrong decision by saving Jim, and then he decides that he is going to go to hell, he doesn't care. The two main critics that I am going to use are Lionel Trilling and Jane Smiley because they have strong opinions and they oppose each other.