Black, White, and "Huckleberry Finn": Re-imagining the American Dream. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)

Publication: College Literature

Publication Date: 22-JUN-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 West Chester University

Mensh, Elaine, and Harry Mensh. 2000. Black, White, and "Huckleberry Finn": Re-imagining the American Dream. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. $29.95 hc. 168 pp.

"Is Huck Finn a racist? If he is, is it right that his story is read as required reading in the classroom?" The debate about this question has persisted among scholars and educators for decades. While early scholars of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn focused on a defiant boy, Huck, and its message of freedom, the critics of the second half of twentieth century turned their concerns to the novel's status of required reading in many classrooms, especially in relation to its treatment of race. Elaine and Harry Mensh join in this debate in their Black, White, and "Huckleberry Finn": Re-imagining the American Dream.

As the Menshes indicate, critics and teachers claimed required reading of the novel in the nation's classrooms in the 1950s; they...

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