I am, at this Minute, Writing an Essay on Huck Finn

[Ginkasa]

Here's my introductory paragraph. Comment it on anything that seems wrong if you want. Don't if you don't. Mostly I'm just stalling because I have to find quotes to back my opinion up (I can understand that my teacher is required to give us a paper that covers parenthetical citation and quotes and such, but couldn't she pick a better topic to give to us that isn't just us giving our opinion [thus sort of negating the use of quotes since an opinion is an opinion no matter who gives it]), and I don't want to. So....

(erm... Ignore any formatting problems since this is a copy and paste from Word)

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Throughout the country, parents are crying out against the supposed racism present throughout Mark Twain’s famous novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (henceforth referred to as Huck Finn for convenience), and demanding the book be removed from the current school curriculum. These concerned citizens declare that the historically accurate depiction of African Americans and slavery damage the minds of our youth; the novel allegedly teaches students to discriminate against black people and revert back to the times of slavery and segregation. This is, however, an absurd idea spurred by the current American fixation that everything must be done in a way that could, in no way, insult or look down upon any social group, except for those deemed damaging by the omnipotent soccer moms of America. The protest against Huck Finn is made even more absurd by the fact that Mark Twain uses satire and irony to speak against the image of white superiority and slavery.


/me shrugs and walks away

[GameMaster]

Everything looks good except for the soccer mom reference. While that would be perfectly fine here or in any other informal writing, I don't it would be accepted for a school paper since it's a slang term and not every reader will understand the meaning of it.

[dropCGCF]

Everything looks good except for the soccer mom reference. While that would be perfectly fine here or in any other informal writing, I don't it would be accepted for a school paper since it's a slang term and not every reader will understand the meaning of it.

Agreed. It's also criticizing people for being close-minded when you're using stereotypes.

[Ginkasa]

Yeah, looking back at it, I agree. It doesn't really add anything, either... Erased! Here's the second paragraph:

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Marissa Maseda writes an article in which a “lone African American student [is] sitting in a classroom filled with mostly white students, reading [Huck Finn].” She then asks what those white students could be “thinking and feeling about [the African American Student]” after reading about how “his race was treated by the ancestors of those in the room with him.” Decriers against Huck Finn constantly use the defense that the discrimination of the white characters against the black characters in the novel causes mental segregation between classmates. This notion is nonsensical. The strife between white people and black people in history is not only common knowledge, but taught in American classrooms everyday. US History textbooks around the nation chronicle the treatment of African Americans by Caucasians throughout the country’s history. The relatively recent turnaround of events delegates only the last few chapters to record the events of a comparatively racism free nation. If that African American student goes through so much turmoil during only a few weeks of reading Huck Finn, it is hard to consider the torture of nearly a full year of being told the horrible treatment blacks had to suffer through during much of American history. If this is so, then why hasn’t American History been banned from schools or the section about slavery been edited out? It is partially, perhaps, because slavery and discrimination do not cause widespread strife through the races. Mostly, though, it is because the treatment of blacks should not simply be forgotten; little black children should not be rushed out of a room anytime their ancestor’s tribulations are brought into attention. If anything, that period of time should be used to celebrate how far America has come in terms of equality. Slavery should be treated much as one would treat tripping and falling: embarrassing while it occurs, but something to look back at and laugh at the absurdity afterwards.


/me shrugs and walks away

[Blackmane]

I like that paragraph, except for the closing line. It may just be me, but I feel relating slavery to something we look back and laugh it may not be appropriate...

[dropCGCF]

Slavery should be treated much as one would treat tripping and falling: embarrassing while it occurs, but something to look back at and laugh at the absurdity afterwards.



Not the best choice of words.

I would say "Slavery should be treated as an experience to be learned from. The only way for us to not be doomed to repeat the past is to make ourselves aware of it."

[KillerGremlin]

Leave a Message in the Anonymous White Man Complaint Box (http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2646)

You know, the fact that slavery and racism was in our society, and that white people called black people niggers in the old day should not be erased from out history. Banning a book because it says "nigger" is using all the wrong reasons anyway. One word might be degrading, but pulling a book out for one word and ignoring the way white people treated Black American's is just ingorant in itself. Oh well. Good bad times.