The Civil War and It’s Aftermath, Regionalism/Realism, & Mark Twain

1. The Civil War and It’s Aftermath, Regionalism/Realism, & Mark Twain American Literature from 1845-1910

2. IMPORTANT DATES:1845-1880 • 1848—first Women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls • 1850—Fugitive Slave Act • 1860—Abraham Lincoln elected president • 1861—Civil War begins • Confederate forces win first battle at Bull Run • 1865—Civil War ends, Lincoln assassinated, 13th Amendment bans slavery • 1867—US buys Alaska from Russia • 1870—Hiram Revels becomes the first African American in US Senate

3. THE CIVIL WAR • Brought about by regional differences • South—enslaved African Americans provided the labor needed for an agricultural economy based on raising and selling cotton • North—free people—both white and black worked in mines, factories, and trading companies for an industrial economy • South wanted slavery to expand as nation expanded—North did not • When Lincoln won election, Southern states seceded from US

4. RECONSTRUCTION • Eleven year period after the civil war • Marked by economic growth • South rebuilt • North expanded industrialization • Both North and South: Still oppression • African Americans battled discrimination/racism—not enslaved • Women fought for Equality—Susan B. Anthony was arrested in 1872 in NY for attempting to vote • Native Americans continue to struggle to protect their land from the spread of white settlements

5. LIFE & TIMES • Underground Railroad • Social network of hideouts for people fleeing slavery • Harriet Tubman becomes most famous guide • Firsts • First transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1858 • First typewriter produced in 1867 • Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the first telephone in 1876

6. FOOD/FASHION • Laws prohibiting consumption of alcohol go into effect between 1846 and 1857 • Invention of sewing machine makes possible production of inexpensive, ready-to-wear clothing • 1870s clothing maker in San Francisco begins making rugged pants out of blue denim reinforced with copper rivets. Levi’s blue jeans • Fashionable women wear skirts that are held out from bodies with wire frameworks

7. ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT • Baseball—1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first team of all professional players • Photographers photograph war

8. LANGUAGE • Dialects • Variety of language common to a specific region • Writers often mimic dialects in realist writing

9. REALISM • Before the war, fiction and poetry depicts people and situations that are highly imaginative • Nonfiction depicts hope and ideal notions of life in America • After war, people shocked by war’s brutality • Writers begin to change what they write about—shift to portrayal of real human experience with all of its imperfections and find truth in everyday people and experiences • Inspiration for realism found in colorful portrayal of own local region

10. REGIONALISM • Feed American’s curiosity of different regions of US by taking inspiration from local region • Uses distinct language, landforms, and custom’s of certain part of the country • Way of speaking that is localized geographically • Characteristics • Sound/pronunciation (cah/car) • Word formation (crick/creek) • Variations in syntax (on accident/by accident) • Word choices (soda/pop) • Figures of speech (by and by) • Mark Twain uses 7 different dialects in novel, Huck Finn

11. MARK TWAIN • Born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri • Real name Samuel Clemens • 4 years old moved to Hannibal Missouri • Father died from overwork when he was 11 years old • 14 apprenticed the publisher of a local newspaper • 18 ran away to the East where he worked as a temp printer in many cities: New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati

12. TWAIN CONTINUED • Father • Free thinker, intellectual, held puritanical views, was community minded • Mother • Always helping others, highly religious, highly regarded by Twain • Hannibal • Good-sized river city along the Mississippi; has newspapers, churches, good schools • Twain read a lot and decided to go to South America

13. TWAIN CONTINUED • Met a river-boat pilot named Horace Bixby and hired him to teach him how to be a river-boat pilot • Became familiar with all the towns along the Mississippi River • Important part in Huck Finn • Stopped when Civil War put a close on Mississippi to riverboat navigation • Twain enlisted in Confederate army—deserted after two weeks • Went west and wrote short stories • 5 years later moved to New York, married, edited a newspaper • Wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884 • Died in 1910

14. HUCK FINN • Somewhat of a sequel to Tom Sawyer • Set in the Mississippi River Valley around 1840 • Book centers on Huck and Jim’s travel from their hometown of St. Petersburg, Missouri, north of St. Louis, to hundreds of miles into the deep south. • Written in regionalist style • Various dialects

15. HUCK FINN CONTINUED • Uses figurative language throughout • Simile/metaphor • Symbolism • Allegory--a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another. • Irony—subtle, sometimes humorous perception of inconsistency in which the significance of a statement or event is changed by its content the firehouse burned down. • Personification—giving a non-living object human characteristics • Satire—using humor to ridicule or comment • humor

16. THE CONTROVERSY • Huck Finn is one of the most debated books • The “N” word • Morals of the main character • Smoking, drinking, swearing