Lavender's AP Lit Class Blog
Sunday, November 27, 2011
This One's From Sarah W.
For my essay on Huck Finn I'm arguing the point that it's not a racist book but it should not be taught in schools. I think if a teacher wants to show their kids about racism, there are better ways to do so instead of reading Huck Finn. Could I argue the point about when this book was written? And that its more looking back on how things were, almost making fun of it making it an adventure story? I'm still reading through the other articles and readings but I'll be also mentioning that it had to have some racism in the story so that Huck could make that transition to accepting Jim as a friend. Does this work? What do you think??
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Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI think you're on the right track here: parts of the book are inspiring (relative to Huck's initial rejection of society's racist views), but in the end, the book is too difficult to teach. There are, as you say, better works to introduce the history of race relation in America. Your argument is something akin to Smiley's, so she'll be helpful to you; but you need to find critics you can use as 'foils'--that is, those who disagree with you (Henry, Eliot, Trilling) whom you can use to introduce your counter-argument.
I look forward to seeing your first draft on Thursday!