The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. John Wallace again expresses this view in his essay "The Case Against Huckleberry Finn" in Satire or Evasion? Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. 2. Peaches Henry cites the 1983 Perm State incident in which a committee examined the effects of reading this novel on ninth-grade students ("The Struggle for Tolerance: Race and Censorship in Huckleberry Finn"). The finding of the committee was that the novel should remain in the curriculum but should be moved from the ninth grade to the eleventh or twelfth. 3. For a detailed chronicle of attacks on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn see Leslie A. Fiedler, u Huck Finn: The Book We Love to Hate." 4. Ms. Monterio protested the teaching of Twain's novel, contending that her daughter fell prey to racial harassment and taunting when she and her classmates had to read Huckleberry Finn (quoted inValley). Ms. Monterio later had to be ejected from a discussion I wasleading due to her disruptive behavior. The incident caused me to begin considering: At what point does one parent have the right to hobble not only her own child but the minds and the imaginations of other children as well before those who have custodial care of education assert their voices and concern? Chapter 1 1. Morrison calls this form of academic sabotage "silence and evasion." According to Morrison this practice has routinely and historically permeated literary criticism: "[I]n matters of race, silence and evasion have historically 138 Notes ruled literary discourse. Evasion has fostered another, substitute language in which the issues are encoded, foreclosing open debate. The situation is aggravated by the tremor that breaks into discourse on race. It is further complicated by the fact that the habit of ignoring race is understood to be a graceful, even generous, liberal gesture. To notice is to recognize an already discredited difference. . . . According to this logic, every well-bred instinct argues against noticing and forecloses adult discourse" (Playing in the Dark 9-10). 2. While debate alwaysrages asto what definesgreat literature aswell aswhat should be included in a definitive list ofworks the well-informed reader should know, I personally define great literature in the Aristotelian sense that, first, all discourse is persuasive and, second, effective persuasive discourse moves people to act. 3. Kenneth Burke, in A Rhetoric of Motives, explores the relationship between writer and reading audiencewith the text functioning asumbilical cord andexplains that a reader's identification with the narrative and recognition of his changed feelings denotes successful communication. The writer must equip the message with sufficient "identifiable tags" (20-21) so that readers will be able to mark the concepts and ideas being communicated. The ultimate goal, then, is to create an atmosphere conducive to constructive discussion, not the removal of all possible objections. 4.1once taught at ahigh school where one of the fundraisers was"Slave Day." Several days prior to the actual day, students with forms would solicit each classroom and offer a "slave for a day" at a specificprice. At that time I was the only African American teacher, and while no one sawthis sale as anything but a fundraiser andinnocent fun, I must admitthat I viewedit with awe—not because I wasinsulted or because I thought that they were positing a theory on slavery but because no one seemed to think about the whole premise of slavery , whether the southern kind or that of ancient cultures. 5. To move students into the literal meaning, I have found that placing them hi a Middle Passage scenario works extremely well. In this role playing and role reversal, I assume the voices of the colonizers and slave traders, thereby transforming students into slaves from a variety of ethnic groups who were to be first generation New World slaves: Moor, Berber, Ibo, Seke, Yoruba, Asante, Fon, Ewe, Fante, Susu,Mandingo, Fulni, Ga, Gabon. I place them in slave ships like that ofJohn Hawkins's shipJesus, which traveled to Africa in 1562. I verbally recreate for them, with the help of multimedia aids, the cramped conditions, the stench, the lackof privacy, communications, and san- Notes 139 itaiy accommodations. On our disembarkation, I "orientate" them to thenew roles in this new place. Forcing them to engage their alreadyvivid and threedimensional imaginations, I explain that whatever they physically own is now mine. I then take away the two unique features that distinguish human kind—their own names and their language. Without a...