In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a depressed and controversial writer from a controversial period in American history presents his ideas on sensitive topics with vulgar language and diction . The book is a minefield of dissent for teachers to navigate and can leave students to either decipher the book for what it is or ignore the unit altogether and waste precious time learning other pieces of literature. Louisa May Alcott called the book “rubbish” and what the book represents may well be. With Huckleberry Finn's list of issues including religion, race, and criticism of Mark Twain himself, the book is immensely difficult to teach, which is why American school systems should remove the book from the standard curriculum. “Religion consists of a set of things that the average man thinks he believes and would like to be sure of.” The Notebook, Mark Twain. Twain is one of the most anti-religious individuals of his time, and his views seep into Huck's personality. Huckleberry Finn's commentary on religion is a satirical attack on institutions by Twain. Huck does not understand religion and perhaps the same can be said of Twain, however Huck is used by Twain to attack the institution of prayers: “Miss Watson took me into the closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. He told me to pray every day and whatever I asked for I would get. But it wasn't like that and I couldn't understand it in any way. (23). Twenty-three pages into “The Great American Novel” and Mark Twain has openly and willfully ignored an entire institution by attacking prayer. Twain is relentless in his proselytizing to his readers and a hundred pages later his next assault… in the middle of the paper… in terrible ways. In doing so, they have destroyed the very purpose of reading Huckleberry Finn and it is the one indisputable positive that it is the first true first-person adventure novel. Teachers simply can't get to the positives because the book is a minefield of distractions and disturbances for the class to navigate. It's too difficult to deal with for the average teacher who could spend their time much more effectively on the hundreds of other popular titles available. Reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a public classroom is an unfair and morally shortsighted decision that schools across the United States must reconsider. The book's blatant defamation of religion, more than blatant racism, and the sheer difficulty of teaching outweigh any real positives or benefits the book offers to a classroom. The book needs to be banned across America and now.