Mark Twain Free Essay Example
Remember when you were a kid, and you had to read the mandatory book lists from school? Classics like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, the Odyssey, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were shown to you, and ultimately helped your education for life. In today’s society, people are picking off these classical books as bad for students, and banning them from school. Those life lessons you learned as a child from reading these books are now gone, and children today can’t receive the same education you had. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain in 1884.
It tells a story about a young boy who runs away with a slave from his abusive father. Along the way, he meets many different people that teach him about life. The funny part about this tale is that Mark Twain views society as the antagonist. With society being bad, the people in the story also try to influence Huck to make bad choices, like whether or not he should turn Jim, the runaway slave, into the authorities. In the end, Huck has a change of heart and decides to go against society and free Jim.
What does this summary have to do with people wanting to ban this book from schools? In the story, people refer to Jim using derogatory terms as they would have in that time period. African Americans today are offended and do not want their children subject to reading this story. Other people think that the treatment of Jim throughout the story is ridiculous, and do not wish for their children to have to read it. People are worried about today’s students and their reaction to this story. Some say that students can’t handle reading about racism, and that reading this story may lead to bullying in schools. I say “Bologna!” Reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn cannot do the damage that parents are trying to prevent by banning this book from schools.
Parents have to realize that young adults today may not be quite as immature as they seem to think. There will always be the rude student in the classroom who takes this book seriously, and uses it as an excuse to bully the other kids, but for the majority of the class, the book is only a class assignment that shows them the difference between today’s society and yesterday’s society. The life lessons taught by this book far outweigh anything that could be harmful to students, and should be regarded as so. With the education that has helped you become the person you are today behind you, use that brain you developed and think a little about the terrible decision you will make when you ban this classic from the bookshelves of schools.
