54 pages • 1 hour read
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
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Literary Devices
Irony: George Mason High School and the Use of Offensive Language
Though Hentoff never names the state or city where the novel takes place, he does name the institution: George Mason High School. Though not as well-known as other founding fathers, Mason was a key leader for the state of Virginia and the fledgling United States as they transitioned from European colonies to states within a single nation. Mason is highly relevant to the context—and greater themes—of the book. He fought diligently for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution. Among those amendments, the right to freedom of speech comes first. It is ironic, then, that a heated debate about the preservation, use, and limitations of the freedom of speech should play out in a school named for Mason.
Second, as the child of a plantation owner, Mason inherited his family’s property in Virginia, and with it, his deceased father’s enslaved workers. Ironically, in the lengthy debate over the Constitution’s provisions, Mason also fought vigorously to outlaw slavery in the new nation. Thus, “George Mason” High School is an especially appropriate setting for a controversy over the freedom of speech involving a book about freeing a runaway slave.
Hentoff also makes use of irony through his own inclusion of the very same racial slur that sparked the Huckleberry Finn controversy in the book. In using the n-word within his own narrative, Hentoff sparks the same issue that the characters in the book debate. He raises the question: Should The Day They Came to Arrest the Book be banned for offensive language? The narrative clearly supports free speech, but it also emphasizes the freedom of choice; thus, just as the educators of George Mason High School insist that their students must form their own opinions, Hentoff asks readers to decide on their own what is acceptable.
Metaphor: Speech as Free or Captive
Hentoff purposely uses evocative metaphors when describing the efforts to ban Huckleberry Finn. Several characters, Barney and Forster in particular, call the banning or sequestering of Huckleberry Finn an “arrest.” Nora Baines accuses Matthew Griswold of “handcuffing [her] as a teacher” (117) after he suggests banning the book from classrooms but keeping it locked away on school grounds. Considering the plot of Huckleberry Finn, Hentoff thus likens the censorship of free speech to captivity. To censor any book, even one rife with offensive content, is to restrict individual freedom.
The characters debate the different degrees of censorship the school board might levy against Huckleberry Finn. It could be restricted only from use in the classroom, kept concealed in the library and availed only with a parental permission slip, or it could be banned altogether. But as Nora points out in the review committee hearing, any restriction to the use and availability of a book is a form of censorship. Any restriction placed upon the free use of said book, therefore, is tantamount to enslaving the book and, by extension, to denying the reader their right to access free speech. The controversy is not really about Huckleberry Finn—rather, Huckleberry Finn represents the overarching American ideal of freedom.
Following this, Principal Mike’s attempts to censor others’ truths are often directly intertwined with oppression and violence. Mike threatens his educators into compliance. He tears pages out of books he can’t overtly ban, like the Bible. When faced with—notably, printed—evidence of his actions, Mike attacks Karen’s character and mental stability. In the final chapter, he plots to organize an elected takeover of the school board, which would cement his control over the school’s curricula (and thus its accessible literature). He also brings war-like language back to the narrative when he joins Kate, Luke, and Barney’s conversation about the conflict: “‘Sweet reconciliation—or is it only a truce?’ ‘It sure ain’t surrender,’ Kate said brightly” (169). The use of “truce” and “surrender” paint the struggle against censorship as a battle—one that, Hentoff warns, is ongoing.
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