Huck Finn and the First Amendment

The novel Huckleberry Finn by the American author Mark Twain (1835-1910) has caused a great controversy in the United States whether to ban the book or not. One of the main reasons of the censorship concerning the book is the frequent use of the term nigger . Critics of the book consider this a deep depreciation of blacks. With this term the individual freedom would not be taken into account and the Blacks would be not esteemed equally.

Even shortly after the publishing of the book in 1885 the first censors climbed the barricades like in Concord. In this American city the book was excluded from the readers by taking it from the shelves of the public library. The arguments for this action were not only the pretended racist attitude of Twains+ but also the bad language and grammar in the characters+ speech or the reputingly irreligious and sexist views throughout the book. Also at present there are discussions if this book were suitable to be taught in school, as young pupils were not mature enough to prevent a misunderstanding of the book. Furthermore, Huckleberry Finn might encourage stereotypes and an attitude of superiority, the critics mark.

On the other hand the defendants of the book complain the disregard of the 1st Amendment when censoring Twain+s novel. This part of the American Constitution shall grant the freedom of speech and the freedom of press. In addition to that the advocates for the book carry on that Twain merely meant his book to be deeply pessimistic and ironical about Americans white society. By using offending terms like nigger the author wants to criticise the falsity and hypocrisy of the society described in the book.

More than one-hundred years after its writing we have a split public opinion about this issue and it is apparently not accordable.