Miriam Shillingsburg writes: "HUCK FINN is so much more than a comment
on racism . . . ."

        I couldn't agree more and would certainly keep it on our
high school reading lists for any number of valid artistic reasons.
But as we've already seen, the temptation to exclude it because of
its realistic depiction of attitudes toward blacks is very strong
in many minds and localities. I think if you're going to teach it,
you've got to make up your mind that you will confront openly and
directly whatever latent "politically correct and incorrect" responses
it evokes. You can't ignore the fact that the turning point in Huck's
own moral journey is his decision to go to hell (i.e. do what his society
regards as morally reprehensible) rather than turn Jim in to the slave
hunters. It is this choice - between doing what is right and doing what
society says is right - that keeps the book from being "too remote" for
students, and especially high school students, who confront this same
choice every day in their homes and schools. I feel that I would be
betraying Twain and the novel if I ignored its moral dimension and focuses
only on its formal qualities, intriguing and worthy of appreciation though
they are. And furthermore, I would fear that my artistically and socially
acute students would regard me as an intellectual "wuss" if I did, and
they would be right.

Gus Sponberg
Valparaiso University