The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1. The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn By Mark Twain Excellence in Literature Unit 6

2. Literature Lecture • Finish Plagiarism • syllabus pp 26-28 • Read Excellence in Literature • p 74. • Go over quiz.

3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • The Sequel to Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, based on Twain’s own boyhood in Hannibal, MO. • Draws on Clemens's childhood in Hannibal, memories of… • The unfairness of slavery. • The punishments endured by slaves and those that aided them when they were caught. • The generosity of the whites who aided runaway slaves.

4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - controversy • Regarded by many as the greatest literary achievement America has yet produced. • Inspired by many of the author's own experiences as a river-boat pilot, the book tells of two runaways—a white boy and a black man—and their journey down the mighty Mississippi River. • When the book first appeared, it scandalized reviewers and parents who thought it would corrupt young children with its depiction of a hero who • Lies • Steals • Uses coarse language.

5. Controversy continues • In the last half of the twentieth century and beyond, the condemnation of the book has continued on the grounds that its racist because of its • portrayal of Jim – uneducated & superstitious • use of the “N-word,” a racial epithet. • The novel continues to appear on lists of books banned in schools across the country.

6. The Novel is also praised • Critics dub it "the great American novel” because of • Its strong point of view • Skillful depiction of dialects • Confrontation of issues of race and prejudice • Ernest Hemingway claimed that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huck Finn. . . . There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

7. Period of Realism/Naturalism • Time period • From 1865 – end of Civil War… • To 1914 – Beginning of WWI • History of America during this time • Disappearance of the American frontier due to growing population of the West • Disappearance of cattle drives • Emergence of the railroad • Disappearance of herds of buffalo • Emergence of the automobile • The era of flight (Wright Brothers 1903)

8. American Difficulties during this period • Reconstruction of the South following the Civil War • Social and political struggles over issues of race and the rights of the African Americans newly released from slavery • Vote for all males - Finally a constitutional amendment passed that granted all adult males the right to vote, regardless of race. • Still no Equality for Women - Women were still denied the right to vote, and the woman’s suffrage movement gained momentum. • Corruption on financial and political fronts • A depression (not the Great Depression) • A series of railroad strikes

9. New Forces in America • The country’s rapid industrialization • Change from an agricultural society to a highly industrialized one • Nearly 40% of all Americans lived in cities by the end of the 19th century. • Labor organizations emerged. • Darwin’s theory of evolution • Rejection of God / an assault on faith in God. • “Survival of the fittest” philosophy in life • Scientists disregarded the principle of scientific objectivity that demanded observation and testing before accepting a theory. • Karl Marx (father of communism) dedicated his Das Kapital to Darwin.

10. Realism in Literature • Realism for writers of the late 19th century emphasized the world was controlled by • Blind chance • Nature • Fate • Realists attempted to accurately describe • Scenery • People • Realist writers sought to narrate their novels from an objective, unbiased perspective that simply and clearly represented the factual elements of the story.

11. Realist WRiters • Became masters at • Psychological characterization • Detailed descriptions of everyday life in realistic settings • dialogue that captures the idioms of natural human speech. • Endeavored to accurately represent • Contemporary culture • People from all walks of life. • Thus, realist writers often addressed themes of socioeconomic conflict by contrasting the living conditions of the poor with those of the upper classes in urban as well as rural societies.

12. Naturalism in literature • Naturalism was an offshoot of Realism. • It was a literary movement that placed even greater emphasis on the accurate representation of details from contemporary life. • In the United States, Regionalism and local color fiction in particular were American offshoots of Realism.

13. The Period of Realism/ Naturalism affected ALL of the arts, not just literature. Grant Wood American Gothic(1930) oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago

14. Samuel Clemens…Mark Twain • What did you learn from your author profile?

15. Mark Twain 1835-1910 • Best known as Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens was born 30 November 1835 and raised in Hannibal, Missouri. • During his youth, he delighted in the rowdy play of boys on the Mississippi River and became exposed to the institution of slavery. http://www.enotes.com/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/author-biography

16. Samuel Clemens, age 15 Mark Twain - 1835-1910 • He began to work as a typesetter for a number of Hannibal newspapers at the age of twelve. • In the late 1850s, he became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. • This job taught him the dangers of navigating the river at night and gave him a firsthand understanding of the river's beauty and perils. • These would later be depicted in the books Life on the Mississippi and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

17. Mark Twain in his gown (scarlet with grey sleeves and facings) for his D.Litt. degree, awarded to him by Oxford University Mark Twain • Worked out west as a reporter for various newspapers • Adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain, taken from the riverboat slang that means water is at least two fathoms (twelve feet) deep and thus easily travelled. • His second book, The Innocents Abroad, a collection of satirical travel letters the author wrote from Europe, was an outstanding success. • Clemens married Olivia Langdon and moved to the East, where he lived for the rest of his life. • In the East, Clemens had to confront the attitudes of the eastern upper class, a group to which he felt he never belonged.

18. Mark Twain - Religion • Raised Presbyterian, but did not follow his roots. • VERY critical of religion: He wrote, for example, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so," and "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be—a Christian.” • Twain stated that he believed in an almighty God, but not in any messages, revelations, holy scriptures such as the Bible, Providence, or retribution in the afterlife. • He did state that "the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works," but also that "the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws," which determine "small matters," such as who dies in a pestilence.

19. Mark Twain - Religion • At other times he wrote or spoke in ways that contradicted a strict deist view, for example, plainly professing a belief in Providence. • In some later writings in the 1890s, he was less optimistic about the goodness of God, observing that "if our Maker is all-powerful for good or evil, He is not in His right mind." • At other times, he conjectured sardonically that perhaps God had created the world with all its tortures for some purpose of His own, but was otherwise indifferent to humanity, which was too petty and insignificant to deserve His attention anyway.

20. Quotes on Religion • On the Bible – “It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.” • “The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.” • “Alas! those good old days are gone, when a murderer could wipe the stain from his name and soothe his trouble to sleep simply by getting out his blocks and mortar and building an addition to a church.” • “Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes, and wishes he was certain.” • “I have a religion—but you will call it blasphemy. It is that there is a God for the rich man but none for the poor.....Perhaps your religion will sustain you, will feed you—I place no dependence in mine. Our religions are alike, though, in one respect—neither can make a man happy when he is out of luck.”

21. Satire sat·ire • noun 1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. • 2. a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. • 3. a literary genre comprising such compositions. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/satire

22. Satirical comic on Global Warming

23. Satirical Comic on the Taxpayer Bailout

24. Twain and Satire • Throughout Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses satire to attack what he sees as the hypocritical views of the midwestern society. • Nothing is sacred to his words, especially not slavery, politics, human nature, or religion. • From the first chapter with Miss Watson's preaching about heaven and hell to the performance of the Royal Nonesuch to the dramatic escape planned for Jim, Twain infuses the story with satire to the detriment of our opinion of the river society he is describing. http://jannon.tripod.com/critsati.html

25. Twain and Satire • Overall satire is a key defining feature of Huckleberry Finn, and Twain makes good use of it to poke fun at American and especially midwestern society. • Throughout the story satire keeps coming back to laugh at the characters and their settings and tell us how Twain really feels. http://jannon.tripod.com/critsati.html

26. Annotation key Code  Meaning – Mark these in a circle in the margin • R - Twain’s feelings about religion • S - Superstition – usually Huck or Jim • FS - Foreshadowing • TS - Tom Sawyer – Huck idolizes him and frequently wonders what Tom Sawyer would do. • MS - Mississippi River – Huck’s feelings about it / the river is almost a character in the book • SL - Slavery – how it affects Jim, how Huck grows to feel about it • M - Morals – Huck’s own set of morals/his own brand of integrity

28. Mississippi River • Contained entirely within the US. • Largest river system in North America. • 4th longest and 10th largest in the world. • Drains all or part of 31 states between the Rocky and Appalachian Mtns. • Mississippi River Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the US. • More than 2300 miles long, and up to 4 miles wide in some places.

29. Quotes • "The Great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide along, shining in the sun.“ Mark Twain • "A raindrop falling at Lake Itasca (at the Mississippi headwaters) would arrive at the Gulf of Mexico in about 90 days."National Park Service

31. “Notice” at book’s beginning Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR PER G. G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE

32. Discussion – chpt 1 • Twain starts off by having Huck accuse Twain of stretching the truth in an earlier book. • Widow Douglas – trying to “sivilize” Huck • Her sister, Miss Watson, is a source of distress to Huck. Why? • Why does he figure he’d rather be in hell than in heaven? • What sound calls him from the window?

33. Discussion – chpt 2 • Tom wants to prank Jim, Miss Watson’s slave, as he an Huck head out for the night. What prank? • Tom heads a gang of ________. • Where does Tom get his crazy ideas? • Tom’s an idealist (romantic)…Huck a realist. • Huck keeps assuming Tom is smarter than Huck. What do you think? • Does Twain expect the reader to be as naïve as Huck?

34. Discussion – chpt 3 • Miss Watson tells Huck he might get better if he prays. He wonders, “If prayer is so powerful, then ______? • He decides there must be two Providences (Gods). What are they? • What do you think Twain is saying about God? • What do you think about his self esteem? • Who do Tom’s Spaniards and A-rabs turn out to be? • Discuss the genie incident. • Tom’s tales “had all the marks of a Sunday School.” What does that mean?

35. How to Quote and Document (Cite) • Short quotations (four lines or fewer) should be placed in quotation marks. If you do not tell the name of the author prior to the quote, follow it with the author’s last name and the page number of the source of the quote in parenthesis. •  He remembered her last words to him: “I know you will always be good and kind. Try to live as I have taught you and love your heavenly Father” (Eibling and Gilmartin 176). •  Note that there is no comma between the author and the number, and that the period follows the parenthesis. •  If you mention the author with your quote, put only the page number in the parenthesis. • Angler believes that he was thinking of her when he remarked, “God bless my mother; all that I am I owe to her” (312).

36. How to Cite • It is preferred to introduce quotes with a signal phrase that tells the source of the quote, as above. •  Longer quotations (more than four lines) must be set off from the rest of the paragraph in what is called an inset quotation. To do this, the quoted material is indented ten spaces or one inch on the left and no quotation marks are used. • One book influenced Lincoln more than any other. Angler explains: Although he did not attend church regularly, Lincoln became a man of deep religious feelings. The Bible was probably the only book his parents ever owned. Abraham came to know it thoroughly. Biblical references and quotations enriched his later writings and speeches. As president, he kept a Bible on his desk and often opened it for comfort and guidance. (313) • Note that the colon goes before the inset quotation. Also note that the with the inset quotations, the period is before the parenthesis.

37. How to Cite - Special considerations • If a book has more than three authors, list only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” and then the page number. •  Abraham Lincoln is known as “the president who saved the Union” (Smith et al. 75). •    If the author is unknown, use a key word from the title instead. Underline if it is from a book title; place quotation marks if it is from an article. Your reader should be able to match the word to a title in your Works Cited page. •  “Probably no American has been so much written about as Abraham Lincoln and seldom has any man had his life, mind, and character so distorted” (Words 7).

38. How to Cite - Special considerations • If there are not page numbers, such as with short Internet articles, use paragraph numbers instead. • Quotations from the Bible are simply followed by the reference and Bible version. • “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the street” (Proverbs 1:20 KJV).

39. CRITIQUE VOCABULARY syllabus p 19 INTRODUCTION • Types of Stories: allegory, tale, fairy tale, saga, narrative, epic, legend, mystery, comedy, anecdote, myth, science fiction, adventure, fable, folk tale, anti-utopian, biography, drama, devotional, spiritual • Setting/Mood: bright, cheerful, lively, sad, solemn, tragic, comical, fun, light-hearted, whimsical, fanciful, mysterious, eerie, suspenseful, bleak, dreary, peaceful, chaotic, violent, foreboding, spiritual, cynical, satiric, tongue-in-cheek

40. CRITIQUE VOCABULARY syllabus p 19 CHARACTERS • Synonyms: hero, villain, protagonist, antagonist, players, participants • Role: central, dominant, main, leading, major, minor, subordinate, lesser, supporting, shadowy, secondary • Analysis: well (or poorly) drawn, fully (or under) developed, convincing or unconvincing, consistent, static (unchanging), dynamic (changing), lifeless, too predictable, overly evil, not believable, typical

41. CRITIQUE VOCABULARY syllabus p 19 CONFLICT/PLOT • Synonyms: problem, dilemma, desire, plan, conspiracy, scheme of events, chain of events, sequence of events • Stages: began, initiated, driven, promoted, continued, expanded, exacerbated, heightened, lessened, relieved

42. CRITIQUE VOCABULARY syllabus p 19 CLIMAX/RESOLUTION/THEME • Climax: turning point, most exciting moment, dramatic event, change in events, high point, emotional crisis • Resolution: solution, remedy, fix, amelioration • Theme: message, moral, teaching, lesson, subject, inspiration, Application

43. CRITIQUE VOCABULARY syllabus p 19 CONCLUSION • Opinion: enjoyable, inspiring, dull, trite, too predictable, unique, fascinating, captivating, suspenseful, thrilling, convincing, convicting, compelling, obscure, thought-provoking, clear, poignant, pointed, sketchy, unrealistic • Literary Devices: point of view (first, second, third person), foreshadowing, irony, symbolism, flashbacks, quality of language (simple, archaic, verbose, descriptive), poetic devises, decorations

49. Discussion – chpt 4 begin 2/9 • We’ve learned Huck is superstitious. • Why do the boot prints in the snow make Huck go see Judge Thatcher? • What does Huck have the judge do with the $? • What do we learn about Huck’s morals and lying? • Describe Pap. • Huck and Jim both believe Jim’s hair-ball has magical powers. He wants Jim to predict what Pap is planning to do. Does the hair-ball help? • Describe Jim. • Is Twain portraying Jim negatively?

50. Discussion – chpt 5 • How does Pap see Huck? • Illiteracy seems to be a mark of family pride! • Why can’t Huck give Pap his money ($6000)? • A Judge won’t take Huck away from Pap and then tries to help reform Pap. How? • How does that turn out?