Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain (1885)

1. Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain (1885) “All modern American literature comes from one book…Huckleberry Finn.” --Ernest Hemingway

2. Who was Mark Twain? • He was a first hand witness to slavery in Missouri; a man named “Uncle Daniel” served as the real life Jim; he and Twain were friends. • He was an abolitionist and was politically active. • He sang in black church gospel choirs, he sponsored the education of freed slaves in the North and worked to create social awareness for fugitive slaves.

3. Key Themes of the novel: • The hypocrisy of American values. • The inhumanity of mankind. • The development of “rural” America. We are no longer just East; we are no longer Southern. America has a population that prior had no voice: the uneducated, backwoods American.

4. The Controversy! • White America initially bans the book (libraries frequently reject it; Twain states he’s never been more flattered than to be banned) because it shows an uneducated, racist, anti-authority culture. • Black America will have some strong, mixed feelings regarding the novel: it depicts Jim (the slave) as ignorant and his character uses dialect; however, slavery is also criticized. • READ EXCERPT #1 & #2

5. The Novel is FUNNY! • Twain’s own “notice” as a prelude to the book guides readers to not take the novel too seriously: “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.” • Read excerpt #3

6. The book is also Romantic in parts: • Huck and Jim celebrate the freedom they feel looking at the stars while on the raft. • Society (on land) is inherently evil and keeps them from their peaceful trip. • “We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” --Huck describing life on the river

7. Huck Finn is American! • Twain creates a character that is as conflicted as the nation: Morality shouts slavery is wrong, but laws and established culture conflict with this message. • Twain reflects, “Huck Finn is a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision…”

8. Huck serves as a moral compass for Americans: • Huck realizes that although it was against the way he was raised, he felt bad about tricking Jim to feel stupid one night in the fog. Read excerpt #4 • Huck realized there was a discrepancy between the moralities of his religion and societal laws versus the morality of his heart; he was torn and scared about having to keep the secret of Jim (someone’s property) on the run. Read excerpt #5 • Huck also recognized the brutality slave trading imposed on black families. Read excerpt #6

9. The Slave is the hero! • Though Huck may not know it, (he’s roughly 13-14 years old) as they float down the river, Jim becomes a father figure to him. • Jim saves Tom Sawyer--hit by a stray bullet--by coming out of hiding to help a doctor remove the slug before Tom bleeds to death. The doctor shows his shining opinion of the slave. Read excerpt #7

10. The Novel’s Resolution? • THERE IS NONE! • Jim is freed by his former owner and that’s it! • Huck’s last lines, “…there ain’t nothin’ more to write about and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book, I wouldn’t a tackled it and I a’int a going to no more…”

11. The “non-ending” is ATTACKED! • Critics ask key questions: “So what happens to beloved Jim? What happens to his dear family?” • Twain doesn’t offer an answer. • NEITHER DOES AMERICA! When the slaves are freed, America fails to provide an answer for the question, “So what do we do now?”

12. Some Big Questions: How are Huck Finn and Uncle Tom’s Cabin similar? What key differences are there between the novels? Why do you feel Huck Finn is regarded as an American classic and more frequently read in schools--more so than Uncle Tom’s Cabin?