Why Is Race A Big Issue

Katherine Linzy Hawsey

Literature

Monday - Thursday, 8am

05-23-05

My response to: Born To Trouble

Why is Race A Big Issue?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an incredible novel. It is hard to believe that people would protest against it, but they do. Mark Twain set his story twenty years before the Civil War, during the slave era. It is written just as everyone spoke at that time, using the word "nigger." This book uses the word a lot, which has upset many African-Americans. I believe that the word can be obscene, but in this book it is not. It only shows the reality of that time.

I consider this book to be one of the greatest books I have read. It is actually inspired by Twain's own experiences living on the Mississippi River. Many people consider Twain to have been a racist. Although he uses the word "nigger," it does not mean that he was racist. If people would look past the word and actually see the story, they would realize that he is writing of a white boy and a black man who run away and start a journey together. If Twain was such a racist, then why does the story have the white boy and black man together? People think that he is racist just because he uses the word, but in that time, that is how people spoke. In present time, we will not see a black slave working in a white person's home; but we will hear the word in almost every rap song there is. Many people use the word, but they probably don't know where or why the word became what it is now. The word started out as Negro in the north, during that time; but in the south, people put the southern dialect on the end and said "nigger."

I wish that people would look at this book as what it actually is, impressive. People cannot take into mind that "nigger" was a word used every day at that time. I do not think that Twain was trying to hurt anyone, instead, I think he