Huck Finn and the N-word

  

For our first activity, we will be using the YouTube video that you can see above and in which John Green (the author of books such as The Fault in Our Stars or Paper Towns) makes some interesting comments about Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 

Since we have already talked about this novel in class, the first thing I want you to do is watch the video (I have already made sure that it starts in the minute 7:36, so you can forget about the previous part if you want. You are welcome ☺) and then, once you have finished, I would like you to reflect upon it and write a short essay (around 250 words) on the idea that John Green develops near the end of the clip (minute 9:26), so that you should be able to answer the following question: Do you consider that the use of certain offensive words (in this case the N-word) is a valid reason to ban a book, a film or a TV series?

You can also relate it with the controversy that surrounds the disclaimers that Disney+ has introduced in some of its classics (e.g: "Peter Pan", "Dumbo", "The Aristocats"...) in order to warn spectators about the stereotypes and negative depictions of people and/or cultures that may be included in it. If you click HERE you will be redirected to an article from the BBC where you can learn more about this issue.