Sample Persuasive Literary Essay

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Offensive

Language in Literature
In Mark Twains classic 1884 novel
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, regional and
time-specific language is used in a way that
offends some 21st century readers. Particular
words are so disturbing that individuals across
the country are still, to this day, attempting to
have the book banned in schools and libraries.
The idea that any book should be tucked away in
a vault, let alone an example of a beloved
American classic such as this, is ludacris and
against what America stands for. Works of art,
like this book, should be used to learn and to
open up dialogue and analysis on both the piece
itself and the society from which it came. With
this particular Twain novel, we should be having
a discussion about why the offending words are
so offensive, and why its important that a record
of these words and attitudes exist.
Words carry weight, and the weight of the N
word in Huckleberry Finn is heavy and dripping
with sordid history. It is a term that holds an
impassable amount of cultural appropriation and
painful association. The word, used in a classic
literary context, is then a perfect way to open up
a dialogue about issues that are difficult to talk
about. Political correctness, racial slurs,
Americas dark pastthese are all topics that
can be used to teach young people how to have a
gentle conversation about a torrid subject matter.
Instead of banning the book and ignoring the
past, we should be embracing the story and
teaching people how to deal with the words in a
tactful and progressive way.

Moving forward from Americas shameful

history of racism is difficult and taxing. But the
only way we make steps to a new and more
comfortable future is to learn from our past
mistakes. Twain was a product of his time,
putting words into the mouths of his characters
that would easily have come from the mouths of
real people. Its also important to remember that
the character of Huck Finn himself is anti-racist,
so teaching the book to young people is not
teaching racism, but acceptance. It is imperative
to connect with the period of history that
Huckleberry Finn comes from because shoving
it to the side will only render us blind.
Banning books is an effective way to censor, and
censorship goes against a lot of what Americans
believe to be a very important personal right.
The right to free speech is sacred, and it is
mostly untouched even in circumstances where
highly polarizing or hateful words are being
used. A work of fiction that integrates dialogue
containing the N word may seem hateful to
some, but it is certainly the intention of the
author to use it in a context of satire. Censorship
will just close the book when what we really
need is to open it up in a different light.
At a time when it is nearly impossible to find an
adult engaged in a healthy debate or discussion,
teaching our children how to think and speak
analytically and fairly is a dire need. Using
fictional novels such as Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn as a jumping-off point of what
used to be, and what has become, is the perfect
opportunity for creating the ability to do this. By
keeping books deemed controversial in rotation
and out of the vault, we can begin to understand
the preciousness of our own rights to speak our
mind, as well as being able to speak to others
with respect and with knowledge of the past.

Sample Persuasive Historical Essay

A New Constitution and a History of

Democracy
A glance at the late 18th century U.S. political
system reveals that the new Constitution was the
law of a highly undemocratic land. The early
United States was a society in which entire
sections of the population were denied basic
human rights, where the institutions of the new
government were not derived from egalitarian
principles, and where millions of people did not
receive adequate political representation. As the
overarching political instrument of the era, the
Constitution bears responsibility for a society in
which the many toiled without representation for
the benefit of a powerful few.
Perhaps the most egregious example of the
Constitutions anti-democratic features was its
sanction of the widespread practice of slavery.
Rather than ending slavery, the Constitution
allowed planters and others to hold their fellow
human beings as chattel. Not only did the
Constitution permit the existing system of
slavery to continue, it permitted the Atlantic
slave trade to keep importing slaves for 20
more years. It counted a slave as three-fifths of a
human being; moreover, this provision was
inserted not to protect the rights of the enslaved
but to boost the electoral power of the slave
states. Such a provision was not the only
institutional failure of the Constitution.

The arrangement of the new federal government

in the Constitution was highly unrepresentative.
The president was elected indirectly through the
Electoral College, while the Supreme Court was
completely appointed. In the remaining branch
of government, the upper house, the Senate,
provided for each state to have equal
representation without regard for how many
people lived in the state. By diluting the power
of the franchise, the Constitution made a system
that was destined to be unrepresentative even
more undemocratic. Only the House of
Representatives nominally derived its power
from the people, and its character was deeply
affected by who could and could not vote.

Every year, thousands of new high school

graduates pack their bags, move to new cities,
and sign papers accepting loans they might not
be able to pay back. Without proper education
on personal finance, especially as it relates to
paying for college, young adults are ushered into
faulty loan plans that result in years of debt post
college. In order to set students up to succeed
financially, it is important to educate students
and parents on their financial options before
school in the fall. The best way to support
families headed to college is to require that
every high school student take a personal
finance class before graduation. This will help
smooth the transition into adulthood.

A personal finance courses would teach students

how to manage their income and expenditures,
while helping to significantly reduce the amount
of debt students carry into adulthood. By
teaching students how to save money and live
within their means, this course will provide the
next generation with a foundation to progress
financially. Students choosing to get a job
straight out of high school would also benefit
from finance education for these very reasons.
With education on how to manage their finances,
all young people will have the knowledge to
make healthy decisions, leading them to accrue
good credit and purchase needed items likes cars
and homes with skill and confidence.

The Constitution allowed states to set norms for

who could vote in elections and who could not.
In the early United States, that meant that people
who did not own sufficient property, enslaved
people, and women were denied the vote. A
government allegedly founded on the idea of
no taxation without representation violated
this rallying cry of the American Revolution. As
a result of the Constitution, a majority of people
in the early United States could not vote for their
representatives.

The average student takes out at least one loan to

cover the costs of their education each year. In
2014 the average student graduating from
college carried a negative balance of about
$20,000 in debt, often spread over multiple
lenders (Washington 23). Upon graduation,
students rarely know exactly how much money
they owe, and because even bankruptcy cannot
wipe out student loans, these students spend
much of their adult lives paying off the balance
and interest accrued.

While not every young person makes financial

mistakes, those who do can face years of
difficulty trying to get their finances back under
control. Rather than help them through these
hard times when they happen, we should try to
prevent them from happening at all. Making the
completion of personal finance coursework a
requirement for graduation would ensure that
young people are at least aware of the basics of
maintaining a financial stability.

Rather than promoting a government of the

people, by the people, and for the people, the
Constitution sanctioned practices and structured
institutions that were unrepresentative. Ordinary
people, whether because they were enslaved,
because they were women, or because they were
working-class people, lived and worked without
any real power. Instead, a small minority of
wealthy and powerful men ruled over the
majority of the population; the source of their
power was the undemocratic Constitution of the
United States.
Other essay

Why Students Should Travel During a Gap

Year
For many students in the U.S., studying in high
school today is easier than, say, a hundred years
ago. Indeed, due to advanced technologies
which can be used for studying, being a student
today is hardly a dilemma. In addition, high
school students do not have to rush into
choosing their future fields of expertise and
entering a university; instead, they can take a
so-called gap year, to relax, earn some money,
and see what they would like to be doing

before studying further. And in my opinion,

one of the best ways to spend a gap year (at
least half of it) is to travel around different
countries.
Travelling is not about simply having fun; in
fact, it is a serious survival school, especially for
a young person who got used to being taken care
of by his or her parents. It does not mean that a
teen must cook food on n open fire or sleep in
dire woods; actually, in the 21st century, Master
Card allows a person to comfortably live almost
in any country of the world. By survival, I mean
the necessity to make independent decisions and
take responsibility for them by facing the
consequences. Where to eat or what to cook;
which transport is cheaper; how to buy
something you need when the retailer does not
speak any language you know; where to stay for
the night; how to get from point A to point B
these, as well as many other questions a traveler
solves every day, and there is no one around to
tell them whether their decision is true or false.
For a young person, the ability to make lifeaffecting decisions can be invaluable
(TravelStudentsF).
Travelling not only makes a teen more decisive,
but also more communicative. When you go to a

foreign country, you know almost nothing about

it. Even if you have searched some information
about it, 90% of it is useless when you arrive to
the new place. Therefore, you need help, and the
only assistance you can get in a foreign country
is from locals; in case if you travel to a non
English-speaking country, you should also be
prepared for the fact that people will not
understand you. This can easily become an
emergency case, because even basic
communication phrases like I need a doctor or
I need help suddenly become a challenge;
therefore, a traveller has either to learn phrases
of the local language, or try to explain what they
need with gestures. Both ways are fun, and
contribute to making a person more easygoing
and able to communicate with almost anyone.
For a person who has lived for half a year in, for
example, Nepal, communicating with Englishspeaking people after returning back home is
easier (IFR).
Also, travelling makes people more openminded. When living in an homogenous
environment, a young person rarely has an
opportunity to see beyond conformed norms of
behavior, etiquette, or morals. Homogenous
environments usually make people more
conservative. Instead, imagine that you suddenly

arrive in a completely new surrounding, with a

totally different culture, traditions, attitude,
outlook, and way of life. You will either have to
adapt to it, or return back home, because
frustration from the fact that foreign people do
many things in a way different from what you
got used to at home can be intense. Fortunately,
the majority of travellers not only adapt to new
rules, but enjoys embracing them, which makes
them more open-minded, ready to experiment,
and spontaneous (StudentsAroundF). No need to
say that all this can be useful for a person
regardless of where he or she lives, or what he
or she does.
Modern students can enjoy the possibility to
travel around the world before entering a
university and thus choosing their future life
path. Travelling during a gap year (or at least
several months) can make a travelling student
more responsible and decisive, communicative,
and open-minded. These skills and qualities can
be invaluable for a person throughout their
entire lifetime.