As time progresses, students in high school utilize different methods to gain insight into past events and the culture that surrounds a particular time period. Uncovering the truth regarding a sensitive time in history can be accomplished through reading novels often deemed controversial, in this case, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. If students are not exposed to these types of novels, they remain oblivious to the history and lose an opportunity to shape their own moral beliefs and opinions. The sensitive topics of racism and the culture that surrounded this time period are extensively discussed in Twain's novel, benefiting students as it adds to their knowledge regarding African American treatment. When assessing a novel to see whether it qualifies for high school curriculum, one of the criterion follows that the piece of literature must offer a new perspective and truthful sense of the time period and its cultural elements that cannot be found in less controversial material, such as textbooks. Huck Finn renders this requirement complete because it highlights the racist society that was ubiquitous throughout pre-Civil War South, while bringing out the raw emotional aspect to the novel, and adding another dimension to the objective history lessons taught in a classroom. Another criterion requires that the novel successfully displays a character's individual moral growth. Huckleberry Finn fits this criterion by demonstrating Huck's moral journey of breaking away from society's morality towards discovering his own. Based on the criteria that the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn meets, this novel should be allowed as a part of the high school curriculum in Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) for students to extract knowledge from. .
Despite the highly controversial elements tied to racism present in Huck Finn, the book gives high school students an unadulterated sense and different perspective on African-American perception and treatment in the mid-1800s.
