Slavery

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain Slavery

2. Slavery in 1885 • Accepted practice • The way you were raised • The proper way of life • You were either a slave or a slave owner • No say in being sold • Slaves usually helped other slaves

3. Example #1 • Huck and Jim got separated after their raft was hit by a steamboat. • Huck found a house that was owned by the Grangerfords • They gave him a slave, Jack. • Jack showed him where Jim was hiding.

4. Example #2 • Jim was locked up and Nat, a slave, had responsibility to feed him. • Nat got the key from Uncle Silas. • Unusual for a slave to have that job.

5. Example #3 • Tom and Huck used Nat’s beliefs in supernatural events to help Jim. • Common to use slaves beliefs to take advantage of them.

6. Huck’s Changing POV • Raised with the thought that he is better that slaves. • Through Jim’s influence on the raft, Huck begins to think of slaves as, in a way, almost equal to him.

7. Example #1 • Huck’s conscience starts getting to him about Jim. • He still protects Jim several times by lying to people about who Jim is.

8. Example #2 • Huck finds out that Jim had been sold, so he writes to Miss Watson to tell her where Jim is. • Huck tore the letter up because he remembered all the things that Jim had done for him. • Felt like he was betraying a friend.

9. Example #3 • Finds Jim locked up in hut. • Decides to set Jim free. • Receives help from Tom Sawyer.

10. 1800’s POV • Rocky Mountain News • Liked the book • Thought it was funny. • Great source of entertainment

11. 1800’s Example • “…overflows with wit and humor….abounds in startling incidents and hair-breadth escapes.” • “….written in Twain's peculiar and fascinating style..will hold the reader spell-bound…”

12. 1907-1925 POV • Brooks Critique • Thought that Huck’s character was a representation of Mark Twain’s childhood. • Thought that it was bad for children. • Thought only that mature adults should read it. • Liked the book regardless

13. 1908-1925 Example • “…the character of Huck, the disreputable illiterate boy, as Mrs. Clemens no doubt thought him, he licensed to let himself go….” • “…must have had a certain sense of his unusual security when he wrote some of the more cynically satirical passages of the book…..”

14. 1973 POV • Geismar Critique • Thought Twain used lovely and appropriate language. • Greatest work that Twain had done yet. • Thought it was for entertainment. • Good for children

15. 1973 Example • “…accepting these modern strictures, it was lovely language that Mark Twain fashioned to carry along the exuberant, lyrical, touching, entertaining and………….” • “This is a deadpan, double-edged social satire which is brilliantly entertaining and acute.”

16. Current POV • Want to change the ‘N’ word to slave and ‘injuns’ to Indians. • They feel that those words are hurtful to the blacks • Not everyone agrees with this change.

17. Example #1 • “…condemned Huck as "trash and only suitable for the slums…..” • ……refuse to teach the unexpurgated text…..

18. Example #2 • Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition. • Written by Alan Gribben

19. Example #3 • http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7217198n

20. What will happen with this • Will be made politically correct • Already has with the publication of the "Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition“ written by Alan Gribben. • Since it has started with Huckleberry Finn, it will continue with other classic books until all the books that have controversy in them are changed.

21. Call to Action: What I Want to See • Classical texts need to be left alone. • Needs to be this way because if you change anything in a book, it changes the entire meaning of the book. • Having these words show readers history and culture that was at the time that the classical book was written.

22. Call to Action (continued) • Classical texts left alone (continued) • This books were not written to be politically correct. • Written for entertainment not to provoke controversy.

23. Credits • Brooks, Van Wyck. 1968. 19 April 2011 <http://jrenglishmohrluke.wikispaces .com/file/view/Brooks+critique.pdf>. • Falmanac: The Fallston Almanac of American History. 29 December 2010. 19 April 2011 <http://www.falmanac.com/2010/12/ frederick-douglass-visited-port- deposit.html>. • Geismar, Maxwell. Mark Twain: An American Prophet. January 1970. 19 April 2011 <http://jrenglishmohrluke.wikispaces .com/file/view/Geismar+critique.pdf> • Inc., New South. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition. 24 April 2011 <http://www.newsouthbooks.com/b kpgs/detailtitle.php?isbn_solid=1588 382672>. • News, ABC. The Latest Word From Huck Finn. 4 January 2011. 24 April 2011 <http://abcnews.go.com/US/latest- word-huck-finn/story?id=12539499>. • News, CBS. Huckleberry Finn Censored. 5 January 2011. 24 April 2011 <http://www.cbsnews.com/video/wa tch/?id=7217198n>. • Platenburg, Gheni. New version of 'Huck Finn' eliminates the 'N' -word. 17 April 2011. 24 April 2011 <http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/n ews/2011/apr/17/gp_huckfinn_041711 _133697/?features&education>. • The Rocky Mountain News. 22 March 1885. 19 April 2011 <http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huc kfinn/rockymt.html>. • Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell, 1997. • Watering Down Huck Finn. 5 January 2011. 24 April 2011 <http://penpaperpad.com/2011/01/w atering-down-huck-finn/>.