Politically Incorrect Books - Use of the word NIGGER in literature

One thing I ran across, again and again, while reading so-called "classic" literature is the use of the word nigger in the text.

Before I started my tour of the classics I had no idea that the word would pop up as often as it does. Most of my life had been spent in SciFi - where race is simply not an issue, or in Science books of various types where race is only discussed in relation to genetics. I had just not run into it in these texts.

So I was a shocked to find how often it was used in the greatest books ever written. Of course, I expected to encounter the word in some books - Mark Twain used it as it was commonly used at the time; before it developed it's current pejorative connotations. To his characters it was just the word that was used and nothing more. But in other books, the word is meant to have all the pejorative connotations it carries and the author uses it for the purpose of indicating the racist nature of the characters. Since racism is a common driving element in many novels (and in human history), I guess I should not have been so surprised.

I've decided to keep track of who used it and in what context. This page is the result....

It makes you wonder what the people who would ban all books using this term would do with some of these. It seems unrealistic to admit to a racist past (and present) and try and hide the hate that used to exist. Pretending something never happened doesn't keep it from happening in the future.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The word nigger is used throughout Hick Finn. It has no negative connotation - well - not in and of itself. It was the common word for the black race at the time. Any negative connotation comes from the attachement of stereotypes to the race and not just to the word. The following is typical...

"As soon as Tom was back we cut along the path, around the garden fence, and by and by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other side of the house. Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off of his head and hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't wake. Afterwards Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and, after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers. Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, "Hm! What you know 'bout witches?" and that nigger was corked up and had to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to just by saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said to it. Niggers would come from all around there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that fivecenter piece; but they wouldn't touch it, because the devil had had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches. "

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This book is about racism. The word HAS to be used in this book by the characters who are the racists. Take away the word, and you may as well burn the book. Still, it's hard to hear in some of the places it's used. These people, the racists, are barely human, and as proved by the end of the book, don't deserve any consideration commonly given to civilized people.

Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming

This book is constantly talking about the character of the Negro. Not always unflatteringly, but not with much warmth either. I'd have to conclude that Ian Fleming was something of a racist. All the black dialog is as bad as you would find in Mark Twain. The only black character with any education is Mr. Big - the villian.

In all fairness, this line in this book seems to be refering to a show of some sorts as it is in quotes in the book.

'One can try,' said Leiter. 'But I know what you mean - better the fryig-pan you know than the fire you don't. It isn't a bad life when it consists of sitting in a comfortable bar drinking good whisky. How do you like this corner of the jungle?' He leant forward. 'Just listen to the couple behind you. From wiaht I've hear they're straight out of "Nigger Heaven".'

But later in the book... When Bond has rescued Solitair from Mr. Big, her comment is...

"She smiled. 'I thought I'd get my chance one day.' She gestured toward the windows. 'You've given me a new life. I've been shut up with him and his nigger gangsters for nearly a year. This is heaven."

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The word is used throughout the novel. In some case it is definately derogatory - as when some pilgrims on a boat want to make sport shooting the natives and Marlowe blows his whistle to scare them off. You get the impression that Marlowe is not a racist, but even he too uses the word now and then.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Used a few times here and there, but not in reference to people... more in reference to it's deragatory meaning. "treat us like niggers"... meaning poorly. Or that a place was a "nigger joint"... meaning a low-life place. Just a tad here and there, but not much.

The word "cunt" is a staple. All women are cunts one way or the other. Most are simply cunts ... no name.. no character, just a cunt for a quick fuck. It's no wonder they wanted to ban this book when it first came out. It's no wonder it was set in Paris as well, where that might work better than say, oh.. Boston.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Keasey

Actually the word of choice in this novel is coon. The word nigger doesn't appear until a fight scene in the showers, and then only once, and as a provocation.

Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky

This is a translation from the russian, so naturally one has to blame the translator rather then the author, but still, one has to imagine that the translator chose the word for it's negative connotations.

Chapter 4

"It's a bitter pillto spend one's life a governess in the provinces for two hundred roubles, bit I know she would rather be a nigger on a plantation or a Lett with a German master than degrade her soul, and her moral dignity, by binding herself forever to a man whom she does not respect, and with whom she has nothing in common -- for her own advantage."

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Chapter 8

"'These things happen only once to a man and... Ah! well! When I got on the bridge at last the beggars were getting one of the boats off the chocks. A boat! I was running up the ladder when a heavy blow fell on my shoulder, just missing my head. It didn't stop me, and the chief engineer- they had got him out of his bunk by then- raised the boat-stretcher again. Somehow I had no mind to be surprised at anything. All this seemed natural- and awful- and awful. I dodged that miserable maniac, lifted him off the deck as though he had been a little child, and he started whispering in my arms: "Don't! don't! I thought you were one of them niggers." I flung him away, he skidded along the bridge and knocked the legs from under the little chap- the second. The skipper, busy about the boat, looked round and came at me head down, growling like a wild beast. I flinched no more than a stone. I was as solid standing there as this,' he tapped lightly with his knuckles the wall beside his chair. 'It was as though I had heard it all, seen it all, gone through it all twenty times already. I wasn't afraid of them. I drew back my fist and he stopped short, muttering-

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

This book is about a black man, raised in the south who moves to New York. It is commanly acknowleged to be one of the greatest books written in the 20th century. The word nigger comes up frequently and is used by characters both white and black. Without it, this book would not be what it is.

South Sea Tales - Jack London

"I've seen a few who claimed they understood niggers," Captain Woodward retorted, "and I always took notice that they were the first to be kai-kai'd (eaten). Look at the missionaries in New Guinea and the New Hebrides--the martyr isle of Erromanga and all the rest. Look at the Austrian expedition that was cut to pieces in the Solomons, in the bush of Guadalcanar. And look at the traders themselves, with a score of years' experience, making their brag that no nigger would ever get them, and whose heads to this day are ornamenting the rafters of the canoe houses. There was old Johnny Simons--twenty-six years on the raw edges of Melanesia, swore he knew the niggers like a book and that they'd never do for him, and he passed out at Marovo Lagoon, New Georgia, had his head sawed off by a black Mary (woman) and an old nigger with only one leg, having left the other leg in the mouth of a shark while diving for dynamited fish. There was Billy Watts, horrible reputation as a nigger killer, a man to scare the devil. I remember lying at Cape Little, New Ireland you know, when the niggers stole half a case of trade-tobacco--cost him about three dollars and a half. In retaliation he turned out, shot six niggers, smashed up their war canoes and burned two villages. And it was at Cape Little, four years afterward, that he was jumped along with fifty Buku boys he had with him fishing bˆche-de-mer. In five minutes they were all dead, with the exception of three boys who got away in a canoe. Don't talk to me about understanding the nigger. The white man's mission is to farm the world, and it's a big enough job cut out for him. What time has he got left to understand niggers anyway?"

Ulysses by James Joyce

Episode 8

Sardines on the shelves. Almost taste them by looking. Sandwich? Ham and his descendants mustered and bred there. Potted meats. What is home without Plumtree's potted meat? Incomplete. What a stupid ad! Under the obituary notices they stuck it. All up a plumtree Dignam's potted meat. Cannibals would with lemon and rice. White missionary too salty. Like pickled pork. Expect the chief consumes the parts of honour. Ought to be tough from exercise. His wives in a row to watch the effect. There was a right royal old nigger. Who ate or something the somethings of the reverend Mr MacTrigger. With it an abode of bliss. Lord knows what concoction. Cauls mouldy tripes windpipes faked and minced up. Puzzle find the meat. Kosher. No meat and milk together. Hygiene that was what they call now. Yom Kippur fast spring cleaning of inside. Peace and war depend on some fellow's digestion. Religions. Christmas turkeys and geese. Slaughter of innocents. Eat, drink and be merry. Then casual wards full after. Heads bandaged. Cheese digests all but itself. Mighty cheese.

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

Usage appears once in the novel.

Then, by George! she says Ambersons bought their dog, and you can't get one without paying for it: they cost from fifty to a hundred dollars up! Old Aleck wanted to know if I ever heard of anybody buyin' a dog before, because, of course, even a Newfoundland or a setter you can usually get somebody to give you one. He says he saw some sense in payin' a nigger a dime, or even a quarter, to drown a dog for you, but to pay out fifty dollars and maybe more--well, sir, he like to choked himself to death, right there in my office! Of course everybody realizes that Major Amberson is a fine business man, but what with throwin' money around for dogs, and every which and what, some think all this style's bound to break him up, if his family don't quit!"

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

This book was written by an African American author, so I guess she's allowed to use the word in a way white people are not. However, it's used in the same pejorative manner when one group of lighter skin negros want to refer to the darker skinned people they hate. One character in particular suffers from this prejudice and has no trouble letting is show.

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

The word appears in this book once or twice in the parts I read... but the rest of the book is so bad.. so purposely offensive that you hardly notice the "N" word...

Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell

This book is about a family of white share croppers. They are ignorant, poor, selfish, sinful; about as low as you can get on the humanity scale, but they are still better than niggers. At one point one of the characters, Dude, kills a nigger by running into his wagon with a car. He just leaves the body to the side of the road and thinks nothing of it. Here is Dude's description of the aftermath of the accident.

"It was that nigger," Dude said. "If he hadn't been asleep on the wagon it wouldn't have happened at all. He was plumb asleep til it woke him up and threw him out in the ditch."

"He didn't get hurt much, did he?" Jeeter asked.

"I don't know about that," Dude said. "When we drove off again, he was still lying in the ditch. The wagon turned over on him and mashed him. His eyes was wide open all the time, but I couldn't make him say nothing. He looked like he was dead."

"Niggers will get killed. Looks lik there ain't no way to stop it."

--- and that's the sum total of their concern.