by Megan Keefer, staff writer

Mark Twain expert Alan Gribben has decided to censor  the author’s best known novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

The new book will replace the n-word, which appears in the novel 219 times, with the word slave. Also, “injun” will be completely removed.

Critics are rightfully outraged at the new edition because they feel it ruins the book’s cultural impact.

Twain wasn’t trying to offend anyone when he wrote the novel.

He was portraying the world as it was during the mid-1800s. He knew people were going to talk about it, and if people were talking about his novel, they would read it.

Twain clearly put the words in the book on purpose.

Since it was released, “Huck Finn” has been criticized by some people as scandalous and low class.

But the very same people criticizing it were the people who bought it.

People say he was promoting racist ideals in the story. In fact, he was criticizing racism and condemning the idea of white supremacy in the South.

Twain was showing his readers the flaws in the way those people thought. The language he used in the book was used in the places he sent Huck Finn.

Those supporting censoring the novel say to make the novel more accessible, it must be altered to fit modern-day society’s definition of what’s appropriate.

But many scholars believe Twain’s classic should be untouched. Twain’s use of the n-word and “injun” was his way of illustrating the type of mind set that was common at the time and place of the book.

The message has remained the same since it was published, so people today should be able to relate to it just as much as the original readers did.

By Megan Keefer

The new edition of “Huck Finn” is outright censorship. While it is true the copyright has expired, making it public to any changes, scholars should leave such timeless classics alone.

Purists believe that great American novels should be left alone out of respect for their authors. But some people just don’t feel the same deference for our great American authors.

While it is his right to censor the novel, what gave Gribben the right to justify that censorship with the excuse of wanting to put the book back in schools where it has been banned.

Censoring “Huck Finn” with the excuse of making the novel more acceptable to sensitive students and teachers is wrong.