The N word

The N word, "nigger" is used freely and often in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and so an N word policy has to be developed by anybody doing an adaptation of the story. Some versions leave out the word entirely. I left it in because I feel it's authentic, however repulsive it is. My own policy was to allow the unsavory characters like The Duke and The King to use the word more often than Huck or Jim. The only exception is when Huck is trying to decide whether to write a letter to Miss Watson (Jim's owner) telling her where Jim can be found. During that scene, he's trying to harden himself against Jim - using the "N" word is a good way to represent his attempt to dehumanize Jim.



After a recent reading of the play somebody suggested that the N word is no longer quite so taboo since the movie Pulp Fiction. Perhaps in some circles, but plenty of people are still scandalized by the word, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's certainly more offensive, to me at least, than the F word.