Essay #4

Zsofia Illes


The Use of the N word

In the book that we are reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the author uses the word nigger a lot. This is very hard for some people to read because of their culture and the way they grew up things they learned and also because of their race.
In my opinion the author uses the word in the text so the readers can better understand the time period the story was written and the way people felt about racism. Even though it is offensive to some people the word makes the story more realistic than if he would have used something else just to make us more comfortable reading it. This way the book makes a bigger impact on us and we can really feel for black people at that time.
Using the word in today’s society is completely different. In the old times it was a symbol of slavery and it also showed that black people had no power in the society so they had to take everything that other races would call them or make them do. Today if you call someone that name it is probably the most disrespectful thing you can do. It reminds them of the past and also today the word has changed. The meaning is a lot different than it was before. There are also other words that offend other races. This one applies to the black community I can imagine that it is like a trigger word for them. There are trigger words for many people it doesn’t even have to be for a specific race it can be just for individuals that just by hearing it can bring out certain emotions. The word nigger brings bad memories, disrespect and strong emotions for black people that’s one of the reasons why they are so sensitive about the word.
In my life when people call me names I normally try to blow it off and not care because people who call others names they intentionally try and insult you and most of the time it doesn’t really mean much but it’s really hurt full. In one of my other classes we were talking about trigger words, the words that bring up emotions, either good or bad. One of the really common things people say now days is gay, faggot etc. referring that something is bad. Many people don’t realize that when they use these words everyday just out on the street many people around them may belong the gay community and it may be hurtful for them to hear this, relating to the word nigger the same. A trigger word for black people, brings up negative emotions.