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Huckleberry Finn is the main character of a novel by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book is noted for its irreverent young protagonist, its expansive description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism, of the time.

The book has various been scene as a mere child's story (like Tom Sawyer) with so particular social message; "racist" because of hundreds of occurences of the word nigger); and, less frequently, a highly moral tale by a white Southerner decrying racism.

Many white characters in the story are depicted as foolish or selfish. The main black character, Jim, is mostly depicted as smart and unselfish. Huck apparently balances on the knife's edge between racism and abolitionism, although his many ambiguous comments have been taken either way by advocates.

In the United States, occasional efforts have been made to restrict the reading of the book. At various times, it has been

• banned from the library in Concord, Massachusetts, shortly after publication
• excluded from the juvenile sections of the Brooklyn Public library and other libraries
• removed from reading lists due to alleged racism (e.g., in March of 1995 it was removed from the reading list of 10th grade English classes at National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, according to the Washington Post; a New Haven correspondent to Banned Books Online reports it has been removed from a public school program there as well.)
• removed from school programs due to its use of the word "nigger", despite the overwhemingly anti-racist theme of the book

The American Library Association ranked Huckleberry Finn the fifth most frequently challenged (in the sense of attempting to ban) book in the United States during the 1990s.

References and external links:

• Banned Books Online: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html
• Hucklebery Finn Debated: http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/hf_debate.html
• The text of the novel is in the public domain and is available at Project Gutenberg