No doubt the issue of banning Mark Twains historical novel The Adventures of Huckle Berry Finn has come to your attention. Being students at north cedar we would like to state our opinion on the matter. We believe that although crude and uncensored the novel contains many life lessons and literary elements important for young adults to learn today. In 2007 Ibrahim Mohammed thought that the word "nigger" should simply be called the N-word. His teacher then proceeded to ask "Does it offend you?, It hurts doesn't it?". Now some might think that the way the teacher was out of line. We claim that the question was poorly worded, and was meant to provoke deep thought about the novel and why the word is used. In 2009 a Washington high school teacher requested that the book be replaced by a more modern novel, claiming that with the reelection of Obama into the presidency it meant that America was going through a change and that all books using the N-word should go. We think that although slavery and racism was and still is a dark time in America's past it does not need to covered up. Using the word "nigger" is simply a good way of portraying the way people talked during the time frame. A new 2011 edition of the book has been published replacing the word "nigger" with the word "slave". The author of the revision says that the word even better portrays what Twain is trying to say in his book. We beileve that changing another authors words is wrong. The author wrote what he meant to write and nobody else should mess with a published authors idea. So as you can see there is no logical reason for this wonderful novel to be banned from our school.
Dear School Board of North Cedar,
No doubt the issue of banning Mark Twains historical novel The Adventures of Huckle Berry Finn has come to your attention. Being students at north cedar we would like to state our opinion on the matter. We believe that although crude and uncensored the novel contains many life lessons and literary elements important for young adults to learn today. In 2007 Ibrahim Mohammed thought that the word "nigger" should simply be called the N-word. His teacher then proceeded to ask "Does it offend you?, It hurts doesn't it?". Now some might think that the way the teacher was out of line. We claim that the question was poorly worded, and was meant to provoke deep thought about the novel and why the word is used. In 2009 a Washington high school teacher requested that the book be replaced by a more modern novel, claiming that with the reelection of Obama into the presidency it meant that America was going through a change and that all books using the N-word should go. We think that although slavery and racism was and still is a dark time in America's past it does not need to covered up. Using the word "nigger" is simply a good way of portraying the way people talked during the time frame. A new 2011 edition of the book has been published replacing the word "nigger" with the word "slave". The author of the revision says that the word even better portrays what Twain is trying to say in his book. We beileve that changing another authors words is wrong. The author wrote what he meant to write and nobody else should mess with a published authors idea. So as you can see there is no logical reason for this wonderful novel to be banned from our school.