The idea of teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain in classrooms across America may be shocking and forward to some; however, outdated and excessively structured to others. In a close review of the writing, context, language and overall benefits that reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has the potential to bring to a classroom, I will express how greatly the disadvantages out way the benefits.
Many individuals and teachers a like will argue that the use of the vernacular and coarse language is enough to exclude The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from student curriculum until college level. However, the use of the vernacular and dialect throughout the novel is actually the novels strongest learning tool. Individuals looking to strengthen their vocabulary and learn from their reading would find the use of local language to be a huge benefit and very stimulating. The challenge that Twain presents the reader with through the attempt to understand and comprehend the dialect is a masterful work. However, dialect and vernacular alone are not enough to encourage a school to teach a novel. If that were the case, books from regions like Mexico, Hindi and Tagalog would be enough to meet this criteria. A good novel which is taught in high school courses should include interesting strong vocabulary but also have a thorough topic, clear thesis and themes and an easy to follow plot line. After all, isn’t that what we are attempting to teach new writers?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is filled with themes, however has no clear direction or point by the end of the story. The many side tales told by the narrator and various characters are a distraction to the overall plot of the novel and encourage scattered, uncontrolled, poorly structured writing. One such example is the “Raft Passage”. The footnote to this section of the novel states “The passage that follows was part of the final autograph manuscript for Huck Finn that Twain sent…the cut was made to save space and not on literary or aesthetic grounds,” (161). This portion of the novel was removed from the original publishing to save space; however, being that it was off topic and lacked the consistency that is found within the remaining portion of the novel, the cutting of this portion is understandable. There are several other sub-stories within the novel that if cut, would not remove from the quality or complexity of the novel. The overall length and structure does not promote the style of writing frequently taught in the classroom and would be detrimental to the ideas being taught.
Although Twain warns readers that the story holds no plot, individuals within high schools and most college students read stories almost exclusively for the overall plot. In reading the novel from start to finish, there is clearly a lack of plot. The story does not hold true to the standard writings structure of protagonist, climax, and resolution. One might attempt to argue that the story does resolve itself; however, if the ending had been thorough and complete rather than cut short, there is no telling where the story would have gone. It is a poor influence to present our educated youth. Encouraging youth to end their writing pieces short and simple without a thorough, expanded and complete conclusion is a major fault; especially as thorough conclusions are often a weakness within high school writing.
Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a popular historical piece of writing, there are many other stories which would be used to teach the same things within the classroom. Such pieces include Life In The Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis and The Trail of the Goldseekers by Hamlin Garland. Both of these stories are by American realist writers who have strong writings skills, use of the vernacular and would be a great contribution to any high school curriculum.
