[Rex E.]

Originally Posted by icenine

Not having students reading a certain book in a high school classroom is maybe controversial but a legitmate issue for schools and parents to decide.
I am not saying they should burn the book. If one wants to read Huckleberry Finn just buy it at the store or get it at the library. Or go on Google books for heaven's sake.

I am pretty sure most high schools do not touch Huckleberry Finn with a ten foot pole. I myself did not read it until I took a great books course at Kent State back in the early 80s.


Huck Finn is the first American modern novel....written by an American using our vernacular rather than the stilted English prose others used (like Hawthorne)....when Huck says he will help Jim even if it means he will go to hell for doing so ...that is a great moment in American literature. It is like Thelma and Louise driving their car off the Grand Canyon in that movie.

I was reading Vonnegut during my high school years....I took a high school English class (Science Fiction!) and we read Sirens Of Titan....perhaps today the baggers would not like that one either.

As I remember we read both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in JR high or middle school depending on where you are from.