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Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn. Mr. Moccia’s Honors/Pre-IB English II. FOUR Pre-Unit Questions . 1 ½ minute per question Ponder these questions over the next week – feel free to change, tweak, or nuance your opinion throughout the week. Question 1.

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Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn

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  1. Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn Mr. Moccia’s Honors/Pre-IB English II

  2. FOUR Pre-Unit Questions 1 ½ minute per question Ponder these questions over the next week – feel free to change, tweak, or nuance your opinion throughout the week.

  3. Question 1 • Do you find songs that use the “n-word” a lot offensive – and does it matter to you the race/color of the singer/songwriter?

  4. Question 2 Should we speak out the “n” word in class if it appears in a text, or should we replace it with “slave”?

  5. Question 3 Are there ways in which our society remains racist on any level? Explain your answer either way. (Would you need to be in a minority to know the answer to this?)

  6. Question 4 Should any literature be censored? If not, why not? If so, when?

  7. The Basics Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910) Faulkner called him “the father of American literature” But this may give us the wrong picture of the man…

  8. His Opinion of Himself Twain saw himself as a heavy-drinking, cigar-smoking, blue-collar, crude contrarian – not an elite literary figure This should figure into how we read, analyze, respond to, and interpret his work

  9. Early Life Born in Florida, Missouri to a Tennessee country merchant Lower/middle class When Twain was four, his family moved to Hannibal, a port town on the Mississippi River

  10. Youth to Adult When Twain was 11, his father died of pneumonia At 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati He educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider sources of information than he would have at a conventional school

  11. Jobs and The Man • A steamboat pilot: • Twain meticulously studied 2,000 miles of the Mississippi for more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license in 1859 • Miner, journalist, lecturer, type-setter, etc.

  12. Love and Marriage Twain met Charles Langdon, who showed him a picture of his sister Olivia; Twain claimed to have fallen in love at first sight. They met in 1868, were engaged a year later, and married in February 1870 in Elmira, New York

  13. A Man of Belief Held strong views on religion, racism, politics, America, etc. Most important, perhaps, are his beliefs concerning racism and slavery

  14. Death “I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' ” His prediction was accurate—Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth

  15. Ways of Reading Huck Finn Good adventure story Comic satire Historical narrative Experimental novel Great American novel

  16. Vernacular, Regionalism, and the Picaresque • Vernacular: language of a specific place • Huck is a young, “uncivlized,” low-class kid – and he writes like he speaks • Regionalism: Literature concerned with the specifics of a particular region; unconcerned with its “universality” • East-coast America, focusing on the South • Picaresque novel: an episodic novel about a rogue or picaro (a person of low social status) wandering around and living off his wits.

  17. Lens for Reading the Novel • Slavery and Racism: • Even though the novel is anti-slavery and anti-racist, is it itself racist? • Censorship, Offensive Language, and Politically Correctness • Use of the “n” word • Moral Compass: personalvs. social • Problems with both

  18. Lens, continued • Satire • Deeply critical of certain American ideals and ideas • Socratic Irony • Claiming ignorance on a subject, and then taking a side of an argument in order to reveal its problems • Cognitive Dissonance • The unsettling feeling that is a result of holding 2 contradictory beliefs at once

  19. Pre-Unit Discussion Questions Is a novel that uses the “n” word copiously improper? Is taking the word out a good idea? For homework: Should we speak out the “n” word in class, or replace it with “slave”? Should we make moral decisions based on what society tells us is right or wrong, or our inner selves? What are potential problems with both of these? What are some examples, past and present, of satire?

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