The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “All American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn… it’s the best book we’ve had.” - Earnest Hemingway Mark Twain

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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. “safe water” riverboat term Believed strongly that the problem of race had to be solved.

5. Controversy Huck Finn was banned from many libraries because the content was thought to be too dark, distasteful, and unsuitable for children. Typical Review: “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.” People didn’t get the irony or satire.

6. 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.

7. What is Satire? Satire - using sarcasm to denounce or expose something foolish 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!

8. Twain’s Writing Style • Episodic structure – series of mini stories • 1st person unreliable narrative (like Holden) Huck Finn: literal, realistic, practical • Satiric Novel (Fiction) - A work that uses humor, irony, and extreme exaggeration to ridicule society in order to bring about change • Setting /Time: Before the Civil War; roughly 1835–1845 • Place • The Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. The adventure continues down the Mississippi into Arkansas • Colloquial Language – dialects & the “N” word.

9. Quotes • Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed. • It don’t make no difference how foolish it is, it’s the right way – and it’s the regular way. • All right then, I’ll go to hell. • You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. • People would call me a low doen Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum – but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t going to tell. • I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so. • What! And not sell out the rest o’ the property? • Human being can be awful cruel to one another. • Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now.

10. Topics of Twain’s Novel (Ideas to Find THEMES) • Racism & Slavery • Education • The Hypocrisy of “Civilized” Society • Religion and Superstition

11. Racism • 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.

12. 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 society.

13. Hypocrisy • “Civilized” to Huck means . . 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

14. 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 t be free. 1866 - 13th Amendment: Amendment to the U.S. constitution abolishing slavery. 1883 - Tom Sawyer was written 1885 - Huck Finn was written

15. Chronology of Events cont’d. • 1964 - Civil Rights Act: President Lyndon Johnson signed a law prohibiting discrimination in public places.