I can't speak for Huckleberry Fin, but Tom Sawyer at one point was considered pro-Communist and has an interesting ban history. It was banned as early as 1876 in both New York and Colorado.
Bruce Toews (mastodon.stickbear.me)Bruce Toews (mastodon.stickbear.me)
@acarson I haven’t read anything about that reason (which doesn’t mean it isn’t true), but by far the most common reasons for wanting the book banned are racial slurs, stereotypes, and violence.
@Bruce_Toews OK but you appear to be attempting to make a case that it’s not just conservatives who ban books, and I’m telling you that actually Tom Sawyer is the perfect case study for everybody bans books because it gets banned for all sorts of reasons including wildly varying ones. So I was hoping we could agree that banning books is bad no matter who does it.
@acarson I was also trying to learn, so you helped me too. There are a lot of books I’d have to hold my nose over allowing in schools, but, age-appropriate, I wouldn’t ban them.
@Bruce_Toews I kind of want to research Huckleberry Fin bans now but it’s late. But I suspect those are just as wild.
@acarson I think the biggest issue in that book is the character of Jim.
@Bruce_Toews I’ll be honest I haven’t read it since fifth grade I think so I’d have to reread it. Wasn’t Jim the slaveboy?
@acarson @Bruce_Toews The basic plot of Huckleberry Finn is Huck helping a runaway slave get away, so it’s hardly surprising it riled up people who thought that maybe that would be a bad thing.