Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
- When Mark Twain began The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn in 1876, he probably wasn't
setting out to write an American classic, and
certainly not, as Ernest Hemingway later
proclaimed it, the book from which "all modern
American literature" flows. What started out as a
simple sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
turned out to be one of the most celebrated and
controversial novels in American history. - For some readers, it is simply a boy's adventure
tale. For others, it is a story of the choices we
must make in order to make ourselves free. For
still others, it is an unsettling exploration of
one of the most persistent and troubling divides
our nation faces, that of race. Each generation,
it seems, has its own Huck Finn.
3Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910)
- Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida,
Missouri and spent most of his childhood in
Hannibal, Missouri. - His fathers family had once been slaveholding,
and his mothers family had not, being from NY. - After his father's death in 1847, now 12, Twain
worked as an apprentice in one of his brother's
newspaper. He later became a skilled licensed
Mississippi river-boat pilot. - The Civil War broke out in 1861, and Louisiana
seceded. Twains steam boat was taken and put in
Confederate service. In these days his sympathies
were with the South and he enlisted. It rained a
lot, so he resigned to be with his brother Orion
in Nevada, who was a Union abolitionist and had
received an appointment from President Lincoln as
Secretary of the New Territory.
4Twains many trades
- There wasnt much to do with his brother Orion,
so he became a miner, and then he went to Carson
City to become a reporter. This was where 'Mark
Twain' was born when Clemens signed a humorous
travel account with that pseudonym. - Thereafter, he used that name and became popular
with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County. He became well known for his stories and
lectures and was able to earn a living at it.
5Mark Twain
- Clemens maintained that his primary pen name,
"Mark Twain," came from his years working on
Mississippi riverboats, where two fathoms (12 ft,
approximately 3.7 m) or "safe water" was measured
on the sounding line. The riverboatman's cry was
"mark twain" or, more fully, "by the mark twain"
("twain" is an archaic term for two). "By the
mark twain" meant "according to the mark on the
line, the depth is two fathoms".
6Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910)
- Between 1876 and 1884 Clemens published several
masterpieces, Tom Sawyer (1881) and The Prince
And The Pauper (1881). Life On The Mississippi
appeared in 1883 and Huckleberry Finn in 1884. - In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in
financial speculations and in the failure of his
own publishing firm. To recover from the
bankruptcy, he started a world lecture tour.
Twain toured New Zealand, Australia, India, and
South Africa.
7Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910)
- The death of his wife and his second daughter
darkened the author's later years, and Twain died
on April 21, 1910. - At the same time of Twain's death, Halley's Comet
reappeared in the April skies. The last time the
comet had appeared was in November 1835, the time
of Twain's birth. Twain often said the he would
"go out with the comet." Remarkably, his
prediction came true.
8When and where do the events of the novel take
place?
- Setting (time) - Before the Civil War, roughly
18351845 Twain said the novel was set forty to
fifty years before the time of its publication. - Setting (place) Hannibal (St. Petersburg) is a
legendary small riverfront city, popular with
tourists internationally, located in Marion and
Ralls County, Missouri. Their adventure leads to
various locations along the river through
Arkansas.
9Slave vs. Free States 1860
10The Time and Place
- So important to the novel is the great
Mississippi River that many readers consider it
as much a character as a place. T. S. Eliot, the
great twentieth-century poet who grew up in St.
Louis, said, The River makes the book a great
book. It fired the imagination of the young
Twain, served as the setting for his beloved
riverboats, and became the only real home
Huckleberry Finn and Jim were to know.
11These humorous warnings were the first words that
readers of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn saw
when they opened Mark Twains new novel in 1885.
At the time, Twain was already well known as a
humorist and the author of the nostalgic boys
book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Therefore,
Twains readers probably did not expect that
Twain would have serious motives for writing
Huckleberry Finn or that the novel would teach
serious moral lessons. Readers soon found out,
however, that Huckleberry Finn is very different
from Tom Sawyer. The odd notice at the beginning
of the novel is the first warning that things may
not be exactly as they seem. The warning is
ironic because the novel definitely has a motive,
a moral, and a plot and Twain wanted his readers
to be aware of each of them.
12The Most Essential Questions
- Is the novel racist?
- Should it be taught or banned?
- What is the book really about?
- To answer these questions you will consider
these themes - Hucks search for identity (coming of age)
- Social Identity (when how to conform and what
it means to be civilized) - Friendship Betrayal
- Freedom Enslavement
13Other Aspects We Will Examine
- What Twain satirized and how he uses irony to
make us think! - Huck as narrator- his voice, speech, his
portrayal of Jim, and his moral dilemmas and
conflicts - The relationship between Huck Jim and how it
changes - Well also examine slave narratives,
illustrations of the novel, and others arguments
for banning the novel.
14Reading chapters 1-5
- On the right side of your interactive notebook,
youll want to gather data (take notes!) on - Theme
- To what and to whom does Huck conform?
- When and how does Huck reject conformity?
- Notes on characters- Huck, Jim, Widow Douglas,
Miss. Watson, and Pap - Quotes you find important when considering
whether the book is racist or not
15On the Left Side
- Write any questions you have- skinny ones ok.
Fat ones encouraged!