Reality Bites

A 16-year-old young man watches Jerry Springer as the hostile Ku Klux Klan shout racial slurs at African-Americans in the audience. His mother walks in the room, snatches the remote control all tells him he is not to watch such shows; then, she changes the channel to CNN and watches a black farmer beat a white landowner over a land dispute in Africa. However, as much as the mother tries to cover her sons’ eyes and ears, she cannot shelter her son from reality forever because no matter what channel—on television or in life—reality will blow the roof of the shelter that she continues to construct. Similarly, the board of education in California tries to shelter their students as they continue to ban the controversial novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. In his satire, Twain provides students with American History when he exposes the way his society treats African-Americans prior to the Civil War. Cosmopolitan California fears this exposure as the readers!

learn about the brutal real world. Comparatively, students learn from Huck’s trials and tribulations about their own true morals. Thus, Huck Finn should not be banned from a high

. . .
Also, through the trials and tribulations of each unique character and his or her actions, the reader’s own morals develop to help them become individuals. ”(Page 191) In total disgust, Huck understands that humans can be cruel to one another. The fact that Jim will be not only separate from his family but also sad and depressed does not cross her mind for the only thing she thinks about is the amount of money that !

she will receive. The readers learn that not everyone is trustworthy as Twain uses the “rapscallions” to show how, in the real world, people will take advantage of others for personal gains. The controversial novel also exposes the brutal real world, but provides lessons of life that every person should know about mankind before entering the real world. ” (Page 4) Huck innocently mocks the widow as he experiences a taste of hypocrisy. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race. The impecunious “white trash”, feels threatened by the successful black man; Pap defensively remarks that this “nigger” should be sold, thereafter his status insecurities turn into social satisfaction. ” (Page 249-250) As he listens to his conscience, Huck decides to reject society. Huck sadly learns that his best friend, Jim, has been sold back into slavery by the dauphin, “ ‘Sold him?’ I says, and begun to cry; ‘why, he was my nigger, and that was my money. The reader learns that not matter how affluent, blacks could not s!

hed their label as property. Huck and his adventurous friend, Tom Sawyer, help rescue Jim from slavery, as they are doing so Tom gets shot. Tom’s family treats Jim awful as they find out that he tried to run away, the doctor says to be nice to Jim because he saved Tom’s life, “I got to have help, somehow; and the minute I says it, out crawls this nigger from somewheres, and says he’ll help, and he done it, too, and done it very well. Traveling down the river, Huck and Jim become close friends as they keep each other company. If school is the place for one to learn, let thi!

s novel educate the students culturally, realistically and morally in their minds, hearts, and spirits.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1782
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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