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Post by Mr. Vitale on Jul 7, 2015 16:44:04 GMT
Write your responses to the essay "Huck at 100" by responding to this thread.
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Post by tymartinez88 on Jul 25, 2015 2:52:36 GMT
In "Huck at 100" written by Leo Marx, he explains and thoroughly discusses both sides of the argument of whether the story "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is touching racism or teaching valuable lessons. The text directly argues whether Huckleberry Finn should be a requirement for high schoolers, or for any student for that matter. This is so because some believe the tale conveys forms of racism. For example, the use or the word "nigger." Others believe the tale; even though set in 1885 Missouri and told in a racist and segregated style, explains and points out important examples of heroism and bravery.
The starting of the text conveys Marx's interpretation of interest and somewhat anger. He uses broad forms of diction such as: vernacular, blatant, disparity, acculturated, antebellum, fawning, etc. A vital quote that clearly states Marx's position on the book requirement in schools says, "An enormous gulf separates those who consider Huckleberry Finn to be "one of the most devastating attacks on racism ever written" from those who denounce it as "racist trash"-- who claim that it actually "teaches" blatant racism. At first sight, indeed, the two parties seem to be so far apart as to make the controversy irresolvable, and perhaps it is." This quote is separating the two viewpoints and Marx's then brings them together by saying that when there is bad, inevitably good will come to stop it.
Thr place of the Huckleberry Finn in public schooling curriculum doesn't involve censorship or First Amendment Rights. Whether or not high-school students are required to read a particular novel has nothing to do with anyones freedom of speech. This statement explains that protestor's don't possess a valid reason to be upset with the story details. You could read the book a million times and you will still have the same rights as before.
Huck addresses black people in the story as "niggers" because if he referred to them any other way he wouldn't flow with the southern setting and life style. This little detail about Huck is important to the theme because it shows to prove that Huck could care less about the ways of southern life but if he had the choice he wouldn't mistreat blacks.
Marx's theme is that people who object the book need to stop centralizing the novel on racism and accept that Mark Twain's intention was to focus on Huckleberry's effort in trying to aid Jim in a time of need; not something you saw too often in the 1885 Southern United States. The quote "We destroy what we don't understand" hits the topic that when Mark Twain tried to weaken racism by writing a story that a white southern boy befriends a runaway slave. People found the wrong in the story when the goodness is clearly shown.
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Post by heavenskelly on Aug 15, 2015 3:33:15 GMT
Through the work of Leo Marx's "Huck at 100," deep thought and question errupts. Are there any true literature books that all types of people approve of? Will the list of required high school novels ever be truly accepted by everyone? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn executes a very vivid, and accurate, example of those very problems in our society today. With things like racism, and whether the right to free speech should be allowed in all circumstances, are a few elements that affect how people judge the world and see all the bad points in a piece of literature. Sad, but true. People refuse to look at books, like Mark Twain's fictional novel, as a story being taught. They would rather see how young folk use to treat African Americans, and the degrading words used to call people of that color. To most, the moral of the story was to teach a lesson based upon racism.
The sad truth being, Mark Twain wrote this novel through the view point of a young boy who was raised in a racist world. That was pretty much all he knew. Twain wrote this as a story, not to be confused with a lecture about racism. As said by Shelley Fisher Fishkin in The New York times, "Twain offered to provide financial support for a black student at Yale Law School." She then proceeded to say that he did indeed pay. That, proving Twain was not a racist, and would not write about it in hopes to spread the prejuducy. Authors write stories through the view point of Hitler, or Colombus, but somehow those are fictional and teach a proper lecture of the past, but do not at all impact the students lives now. Those novels, just like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, should produce a lesson filled with understanding and regret. These books remind all humans what should never again occur.
Mark Twain was not writing based on his own personal thoughts, but rather the thoughts of a young male character. This young character only said and did things that were normal to him, and normal for his time. As stated before, Twain was not portraying the thoughts in his head on to the many pages of his very own novel. Huckleberry Finn was just a boy who was created to show the world the way the United States citizens treated African Americans back during the Civil War. Knowing that people see it as a book used to teach racism, is just heartbreaking. Twain wrote about a white southerner who became friends with a runaway slave. Proving, yet again, that the novel was written only to persuad others into realizing that people are people no matter what color their skin is. Racism was, indeed, something Twain did not want to overshadow the true beauty of a helpless boy being saved by his friend. Leo Marx does an excelent job of showing the two different views on the book, and in the end proving that it was just a story full of knowlege and lessons.
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Post by snwhitten on Aug 31, 2015 16:44:21 GMT
Prior to the words of Leo Marx, I had not given Adventures of Huckleberry Finn much if any thought in my past sixteen years. Having not read Mark Twain's literary classic, I was shocked to learn of the ongoing controversy of the racist contents of the book. The narrator of the novel Huck speaks obscenities, yet possesses a friendship with a local black man named Jim, as well as being a child of the antebellum south yet being a black sympathizer. These as well as others all surprised me as a reader to see that things were often contradicted by Huck. Marx also continued to point out that although the content of the book is unwavering, that does not allow for assumptions about the character of Mark Twain. I appreciated this statement by Marx because I am aware many people make assumptions about a person based upon what they create, similar to the previous essay I have just read about Georgia O'Keeffe.
In addition, I was slightly befuddled as to why people were so deterred from the book as a whole after I had come to find out the book's ending. If Huck is loyal to Jim in the end displaying his allegiance to him, how does that not sway those who believe the book is racist writing? I suppose being someone who has a bigger-picture outlook upon like not everybody shares my opinion. Nevertheless, I was without a doubt entertained by this essay as a whole. With Marx's ability to entertain myself as a reader as well as adequately displaying the differing viewpoints in this argument.
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Post by tydodd on Aug 31, 2015 18:36:06 GMT
"Huck at 100" written by Leo Marx addresses the controversy surrounding the novel "The Adventures of Huck Finn" by Mark Twain. There are people who think that the book is amazing and reading it should be a requirement, andthere are people who referr to it as "racist trash". I have not read Huck Finn but I know enough about the book to know that these people are overreacting. Books do not make kids racist, racist parents make kids racist.
The controversy sorrounds the main characters consistent use of the "n-word" to describe black people, which I think is completely unreasonable. He is a fourteen year old white kid in 1876, it would not make sense if he was noy racist. If we keep trying to pretend that slavery amd racism never happened then we will never move past it. It is a part of our history, it was wrong, now let's move forward.
It is pretty amazing how long stories and books can last. There are books that are forgotten after one year, let alone one hundred. To be able to create something from nothing, and have it affect people's lives a century later is truly incredible.
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Post by lillyswan on Aug 31, 2015 22:00:20 GMT
In the essay Huck at 100 by Leo Marx, Marx addresses one of the most difficult controversial novels, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn has been a target of moral disapproval and Marx talks about it in his essay. Marx showed us both sides of if the novel should be a requirement in school.
Marx used strong and blunt word choice to highlight the novel in a negative way. "They called it vulgar, inelegant, ungrammatical, coarse, irreverent, semiobscene, trashy, and vicious." Marx was showing what the people that thought the novel was disturbing and offensive thought. Then they were people who made the novel installed with other "classic" American books in the standard high-school English curriculum. The word "classic" gave the novel a whole new mood, it went from a negative way to more a sophisticated mood.
In the end of Marx's essay he does not supply an answer to whether or not a teacher should have their students read it. He simply left it up to the teachers to decide, which I agree with because its such a controversial novel that teachers should decide for themselves because if they don't feel comfortable teaching it then they shouldn't have to. I wish I had read this novel so I could've known more about what everyone thought was so bad that it shouldn't be taught to kids.
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