Okay, so I'm at roughly 50 pages. I am unsettled with this novel's use of the word "nigger." I know that this novel is set in the 1930s in Alabama, but I find the author's lack of commentary on the usage of this word to be unsettling. I'm not sure if she later makes her position on this usage clear or not. I'm reading this novel because its one of the ones that are included on the canon of high school literature. It is one of the novels that we (America's educational institutes) teach the future of our country. With this in mind, I wondered if people think that if the term is used during a period, authors should stay with the historical context, use it and not reflect on its appropriateness. Or should authors make commentary that reflect our current understanding of its ignorance?