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A Response to Paul Butler's "Why Read That Book?"

Paul Butler is an African American man, a Harvard graduate. At one point he was a federal prosecutor, until he was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. His time on the other side of the law helped him write his book Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, which provides his reader with an insider’s view into the world of justice and also introduces the concept of jury nullification as a powerful protest to unjust laws. Currently he serves as a professor of law at George Washington University.

Butler wrote “Why Read That Book?” to discuss the controversy over the word “nigger” and how many times it shows up in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In his article, Butler writes that “it’s complicated, ‘nigger’ is” because of the way the word is treated in schools (Butler). Teachers pay special attention to the word and try to explain that it is not really the “nigger” that Twain spoke of. Instead, the teachers say that Twain “meant it ironically, or historically, or ironically” (Butler). He continues his argument, saying that this is not about censorship; it is about choice. Either choice, taking “nigger” out of the novel or leaving it in, will have unfortunate consequences. Butler’s argument is a strong one; the fact that either decision in censorship will be a choice with unfortunate consequences is very accurate. There is no happy medium between the two sides that will solve the problem.

More importantly, Butler stated that he “could live [his] whole life fine if [he] never read [Huck Finn] again” (Butler). This is a key testament to the fact that Huck Finn is not an “American Masterpiece.” Huck Finn, the protagonist of Twain’s novel, seems to grow in moral character throughout the novel. However, by the end of the novel, it is evident that Huck’s moral character has not really changed because Huck’s final assessment of Jim is, “I knowed he was white inside” (ch. 40). Huck can only compare Jim to a white man, someone who is racist throughout the whole novel. Some may argue that Huck is comparing Jim the “good white” stereotype, saying that Jim is just as good a person as a white man. However, Huck does not experience this stereotype in the novel and therefore has no way or reason to compare Jim to a white man. The stereotype of a white person that Huck sees throughout the novel is one where whites are superior, racist/discriminative, liars, and reckless people. As a result, this novel cannot be taken seriously as one in which the “hero” changes.

This novel does not show a change in society or Huck as evident by the fact that Jim, when Huck and Tom are making him be a “prisoner,” is already free. When Tom is asked why he went to so much trouble to free Jim, even though he was already free, he says, “Well that is a question I must say; and just like women! Why, I wanted the adventure of it” (ch. 42). Tom essentially admits to the fact that he, and Huck, used Jim as a doll, evoking the “Tom” stereotype from Jim. Tom and Huck refuse to let Jim free until they have had their fun with him as a “prisoner;” it is merely an adventure and game to them. Any change is society or Huck is not evident at the end of this novel.

Although this novel does not achieve it’s main purpose as a testimony against slavery, I do believe that it still should be read in schools, provided that it not be censored. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel that teaches its reader about the harshness with which the “superior whites” treated the “inferior niggers.” The novel provides the viewer with the necessary cold hard facts from America’s history. One must learn from the past in order to avoid the same problems in the future. Therefore, this novel should be read in schools so that everyone can know about the past and make a change in the future. Twain, by the end of the novel, shows that there was still much to do in order to make the situation better. His novel is a comment on the southern society at the time in which it was written. He basically states that society has so much more to do in order to truly change what has happened.

Butler, Paul. "Why Read That Book?" Nytimes.com. The New York Times Co., 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 9 Jan. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn/why-bother-reading-huckleberry-finn>.