Nigger is used over 200 times in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. I believe that the usage is not to harm the reader nor exploit the character but to add emphasis for generations to come to be able to read this book and still understand first hand how life was back in the times of slavery. Using nigger allows the reader to hold more power over the word, if the reader is not afraid to say it then they triumph the horrible definition the word holds. Saying nigger outloud can be uncomfortable. However, realizing that it is uncomfortable also reminds us how terrible slavery was and to never let it happen again. Nigger is a subhuman word, non blacks do not like to say it because they know it is demeaning, but what makes them so hesitatn to say it outloud is guilt. Non blacks know that it was their ancestors who created the derrogatory term. "Nigger means shame, nigger is what made slavery possible." By holding power of this word protects America from never allowing slavery to happen again.
Nigger has the definition it does today because its definition defines "a history that no one wants to relive". At the sound of nigger people cringe because of the verbal, mental, and physical pain the word caused for generations. This is why people want to change the overused word nigger in Huckleberry Finn to slave. However "slave is a condition, anyone can be a slave, nigger has to do with shame and making slavery possible." No word, especially not slave, will be able to hold the emotion and strength that nigger holds in this classic novel. I believe that by changing the word Americans are trying to hide from it. Hiding is not a form of prevention but cowardice. This book helps American "learn to think differently". Progression is not over from the time of slavery, there is always room for improvement. Segregation, prejudice, and discrimination is not gone. Teaching Huckleberry Finn with its original words is a vital part of growing up into understanding and comfortable in our own skin human beings.
