Transcript Intro Power Point

The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
Mark Twain
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“All American literature
comes from one book by
Mark Twain called
Huckleberry Finn… it’s the
best book we’ve had.”
- Ernest Hemingway
Summary

Written in 1885 but takes place in the
1840s - Huckleberry Finn, 14, grows up
in St. Petersburg, Missouri with no
mother and an alcoholic father who has
skipped town. Huck is being cared for by
two women: Widow Douglas and her
sister Miss Watson. Huck likes to skip
school and hang out with his best friend,
Tom Sawyer.
Summary – Part Two
Huck’s dad, Pap, returns and imprisons
Huck in a cabin outside of town. Huck
escapes and runs into Jim, a black
slave, who is also trying to escape.
 The bulk of the story chronicles Huck
and Jim’s travels down the Mississippi
River and the continued trouble they
seem to get themselves into.

Major Symbol:
The Mississippi River

In Huck Finn, the river symbolizes freedom, and it
becomes symbolic of Huck’s journey to discover his
natural virtue.
 The current of the river determines the direction of the raft,
as well as Huck’s life. There is a major contrast between
life on the river and life on the shore because life on the
river (“uncivilized”) is peaceful and easy, yet not totally
without danger; however, life on the shore (“civilized”) can
be cruel, authoritarian, hypocritical, and reflective of what
Twain called the “Damned Human Race.”
 Life on the raft is paradoxical. Even though they are
confined to a small space on the raft, Huck and Jim
experience greater freedom on the raft.
Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can
help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Rebirth/Childhood
•Huck’s youth is an important factor in his moral education; only a
child is open-minded enough to undergo the kind of development
that Huck does. When Huck feels stifled by society, he escapes to
become reborn again. Throughout the novel, Huck loses his identity,
assumes different names, and in turn is reborn with new values. As a
result of these changes in the main character, this novel is referred to as a
bildungsroman.
Lies and Cons
•Huckleberry Finn is full of malicious lies and scams; the lies are
bad and hurt a number of innocent people.
Superstitions and Loneliness
•Confronted with the obtuseness of their isolation, Huck and Jim rely on
each other and their superstitions to cope. Huck does not like being alone,
but, ironically, it’s when he’s within society that he feels most alone.


Intellectual and Moral Education

Huck is an uneducated boy.
 He distrusts the morals and precepts of the
society that treats him as an outcast and fails
to protect him from abuse.
 Huck questions his teachings, especially
regarding race and slavery.
 In many instances, Huck chooses to “go to
hell” rather than go along with the rules of
“civilized” society.
The Hypocrisy of “Civilized”
Society
“Civilized” to Huck means . . .

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Regular baths, uncomfortable clothes
Mandatory school attendance
Degraded rules that defy logic
Huck’s drunkard, abusive father gets to keep custody of
Huck because he is his natural father
The injustice of slavery that keeps Jim from his family
Seemingly good people are prejudiced slave-owners
Terrible acts go unpunished, while lesser crimes lead to
severe punishment
Who was Mark Twain?
Actually, he was Samuel Clemens.
b. 1835 d. 1910
Who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri
- the town that St. Petersburg is
heavily based on.
Mark Twain = 2 fathoms or 12 ft.
deep - “safe water” (a riverboat
term)
Believed strongly that the problem
of race had to be solved.
Huck Finn controversy
Huck Finn was banned from many
libraries because the content was
thought to be too dark, distasteful, and
unsuitable for children.
Considered "rough, coarse and inelegant,
dealing with a series of experiences not
elevating, the whole book being more
suited to the slums than to intelligent,
respectable people."
So, what’s the big deal?
The problem was that readers took Twain literally and
believed he was serious! The key to understanding
Twain’s novel is by realizing that it’s a satire.
(definition for your notebooks coming up)
Racism & Slavery

Although written 20 years after the Emancipation
Proclamation, America – especially the South – was
still struggling with racism and the aftereffects of
slavery.
 Insidious racism arose near the end of
Reconstruction that oppressed blacks for illogical and
hypocritical reasons.
 Twain exposes the hypocrisy of slavery and
demonstrates how racism distorts the oppressors as
much as the oppressed.
 The result is a world of moral confusion/conflict.
What others were saying at the
time:
1884

Written by William E. Henley of the Athenaeum
“In Huckleberry Finn Twain returns to his right
mind”
“The book is Mark Twain at his best”
“It is meant for boys”
“Huckleberry . . . is the hero of such scrapes and
experiences as to make your mouth water”
“Jim and Huckleberry are real creations”
1885
Statements
made by the Concord Library
Committee after they excluded the book for
the public library
“absolutely immoral in its tone”
“very little humor”
“If not for the author’s reputation, the book
would undoubtedly meet with severe
criticism.”
“the veriest trash”
“a low grade of morality”
“language of a rough, ignorant dialect”
“systematic use of bad grammar and an
employment of rough, inelegant
expressions.”

What is Satire?
Satire - a technique employed by writers to expose and
criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or
a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or
ridicule in hopes of prompting change
So what is Twain trying to denounce? Racism.
Irony - Opposite of literal meaning:
I have a ton of homework - how nice! (this is also sarcasm)
Or the opposite of what is expected to happen:
Twain creates a racist protagonist to prove his
point that racism is wrong.
So basically, we need to take everything that Twain
says, flip it around, and that’s what he really means!
Twain’s Writing Style

Colloquial Language – dialects


Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd
Picaresque novel - usually a first-person
narrative, relating the adventures of a rogue or lowborn adventurer (Spanish pícaro) as he drifts from
place to place and from one social milieu to another
in his effort to survive.
Episodic structure – series of mini stories
 1st person unreliable narrative

Main Ideas of Twain’s Novel

Christian religion vs. superstition

Racism/Slavery (shown through satire)

Individual beliefs vs. Society’s rules

Morality and Ethics

Friendship
Chronology of Events
1840 – Time when novel takes place
1861-1865 - Civil War: Southern confederate states wanted to form
their own United States. Northern Union states fought to keep the country
unified
1863 - Emancipation Proclamation: Pres. Abraham Lincoln
signed this document declaring all slaves in Confederate states to be free.
1866 - 13th Amendment: Amendment to the U.S. constitution
abolishing slavery.
1883 - Tom Sawyer was written
1885 - Huck Finn was written
Chronology of Events cont’d.

1964 - Civil Rights Act: President Lyndon Johnson
signed a law prohibiting discrimination in public
places (remember Rosaleen watching President
Johnson sign the document on TV?)
The Civil Rights Act was signed only 45 years ago.
Think about it.