Transcript Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
Mark Twain
Introduction
Background
Discussion Starters
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction
What do you do when you’re torn between what
people want for you—or from you—and what you
want for yourself?
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction
Huckleberry Finn lives in Missouri before the Civil
War, near the Mississippi River.
Huck is young and
uneducated.
With an alcoholic
and unreliable
father, he has
grown up mostly on
his own.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Not long before the
novel begins, however,
Huck has been taken to
live with the Widow
Douglas and her sister.
But Huck thinks life
with the two sisters is
too civilized.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
He prefers living in the
open and having
adventures with his
friend Tom Sawyer.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Huck and Tom like to plan great adventures and
play pranks on people.
On one of their
adventures, the two
boys found a lot of
money in a cave
(described in the novel
The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer).
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
One day, Huck’s father, Pap, returns to town.
Pap wants Huck’s money—
and kidnaps him to get it.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
After a miserable time with his father, Huck
escapes.
While he is running away, he
meets Jim—a slave of Widow
Douglas’s sister—who has
escaped too.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
The two set off together on a raft on the Mississippi
River—and on one of the most famous journeys in
American literature.
• What adventures will they
find on the river?
• Will Huck be able to find
freedom—or will civilization catch
up to him?
• Should Huck help Jim or send him
back to slavery?
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Mark Twain, the pen
name of Samuel
Clemens, is one of the
United States’ bestknown authors.
In novels such as Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Twain vividly
depicts the lives and dialects of
southern people from long ago.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Twain also uses humor and satire both to
entertain and to comment on society.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn takes place in the years
before the Civil War.
In the South at that
time, a slave was
considered property.
Stealing a hunted slave was
seen as a great crime—and
morally wrong.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
When Twain wrote the novel,
in the 1880s, the Civil War
had been fought, and the
slaves had been freed.
However, conditions for
African Americans were still
very difficult in many parts
of the United States.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
When Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was
published, critics hated the novel, accusing
it of “coarse fun” and “gutter realism.”
Louisa May Alcott, author
of Little Women, wrote “If
Mr. Clemens cannot think of
something better to tell our
pure-minded lads and
lasses, he had best stop
writing for them.”
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Twain welcomed the controversy, however,
hoping that it would bring more sales.
The book sold fifty thousand copies in the
first few months.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Today, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
remains controversial.
Although it’s accepted
as a classic of
American literature,
some critics still
accuse it of being
racist, and its use in
schools has been
challenged.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Twain does use terms now considered
racist.
However, he creates a
powerful argument against
slavery as well.
Also, in a way perhaps surprising for the
time, he allows Jim to speak for himself,
revealing truths that even Twain may have
found uncomfortable.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Many books that were written in
the past contain ideas about race,
gender, or class that we now view
as outdated or offensive.
• How can we approach these
books?
• What can we learn from them?
• Do you think there are some
audiences for which they would
be inappropriate? Why?
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?
Thinking about the New England Dialect
• What are some words that we use that are not used in
other parts of the country? Also, think about the way
that we say words. Can you think of some rules that
reflect how we pronounce words?
• If you’re stuck think of how we saw coffee, drawer,
Splenda, park, etc. Draw a web on a sheet of paper and
start brainstorming some of our unique words and
pronunciations.
• Have you ever been judged by how you speak by people
from out of state? What assumptions did they make?
• If you finish early, start reading Huck Finn.
Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking Skills
Std 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical
background.
EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and
how are they still relevant today?