Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • Took Mark Twain (real name, Samuel Clemens) more than seven years to write: started in 1876, completed in summer of 1883; published in 1885. • Clemens was born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Moved to Hannibal when he was four. • Hannibal becomes “St. Petersburg” in his books.

2. Huck Finn • In 1859, Clemens became a riverboat pilot, spurred by his love for the Mississippi River. • He loved the work but cut it short to (sort of) enlist in Confederate Army; he did not take his military service seriously and did not see battle. • After the war, he headed west, where he began writing as “Mark Twain.” • “Mark” and “Twain” were a river pilot’s phrase that meant “two fathoms,” or about 12 feet, and indicated the difference between safe and dangerous water.

3. Huck Finn • He became a traveling correspondent, journeying to Hawaii, Europe. He collected his abroad stories in a book called The Innocents Abroad. • Book sales and lectures made him rich and famous, even more so with the publication of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876.

4. Huck Finn • The book was such a success, he decided to write a sequel, although it became much more than that: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was born.

5. Huck Finn Twain had the humorist’s gift for expressing his thoughts and opinions: “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” “Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.” “Noise proves nothing. Often, a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.” “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” “If Christ were here, there is one thing he would not be – a Christian.”

6. Huck Finn • Twain himself, in his typical humor, said: “Everybody wants to have read the classics, but nobody wants to read them.” • Let’s prove him wrong with this novel.

7. Characters • Huck • Son of the town drunkard, “Pap,” who is often missing and often abusive toward his son. • Huck prefers to live on his own, although he starts out living with a charitable widow who tries to “sivilize” him. • When he’s in trouble, Huck can be a great liar. Paradoxically, though, he is also very honest, sensitive about others, and kind. He has a healthy conscience.

8. Characters • He is also very hard on himself; sees himself as “low-down” and lacking in all the things that make people “respectable” (education, religious training, willingness to follow rules, etc.). • What he doesn’t realize is that goodness is an inner quality: something he has in abundance.

9. Characters • Jim • A slave, owned by Miss Watson, sister of woman taking care of Huck (Widow Douglas). • Has wife, small children; scared of being separated from them. • Illiterate, superstitious, afraid of unnamed forces. • He’s also tender, sensitive, loyal, and capable of very deep feeling. • He is both child-like in some ways, and an adult for Huck to rely on. • He unwittingly brings Huck to a series of important moral decisions that lie at the heart of the novel • Most importantly, some believe Twain uses Jim as vehicle for a powerful indictment of the institution of slavery.

10. Characters: Jim’s life as a slave Slave laws varied from state to state, but the following were enforced to some degree throughout the South. No one was allowed to teach slaves how to read or write, nor could slaves be given reading material. Any child who had one slave parent and one free parent was free only if the mother was the free parent. Slaves could not conduct business without a permit, or own any personal property. Slaves were not allowed to possess weapons of any kind. Court testimony by slaves was disallowed except in cases involving other slaves. Slaves were never allowed to strike white men or to insult them in any way. Slaves were not allowed to enter any legal, binding contract, including marriage. Slaves were not allowed to swear or smoke in public.

11. Characters: Jim’s life Slaves had to step aside when whites passed them on a public street. It was illegal for more than five slaves to gather together away from their own homes unless a white person was present. Slaves could not own their own animals, nor could they grow their own cotton. They could have their own gardens if their masters allowed. It was illegal for a master to work slaves on Sundays, except as punishment or unless he paid them to work.

12. Characters • Tom Sawyer • Huck’s friend and idol. • Tom is the center of Tom’s universe: has a flaming imagination, is the leader of his friends’ “gang” dedicated to “robbing and killing.” • An amusing dreamer, creator of grand schemes, a voracious reader of fantasy and romantic novels (which he has an imperfect understanding of), which leads him to ignore the real world around him.

13. Characters • Huck has mixed views about Tom. • He sees Tom’s wide reading and imagination as qualities that set Tom above Huck, and he is happy when he thinks he can impress Tom. • Yet, Huck has little patience with Tom’s fantasies. Huck is interested in the here-and-now, and he is not prone to fantasies. • He often becomes annoyed with Tom’s daydreams, but he always acquiesces because he sees Tom as one of his superiors.

14. Characters • The king and duke • King is about 70; the duke about 30. • Pair of “confidence” men who pretend to be royalty; take over the raft. • Cook up schemes to cheat people. • More roguish than despicable – until they try to swindle the Wilks sisters out of inheritance.

15. Characters • Phelps family: • Tom’s Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas. • A kindly couple driven to distraction by Tom’s antics and plan to free Jim.

16. Setting • Takes place before the Civil War (likely about 1845). • The dominant setting is the Mississippi River. • It is almost a character: “a living, powerful, even God-like force that has as much to do with what happens to Huck as any of the human characters he meets during the story.” • Huck reserves his most touching language for his descriptions of the river. • Other settings include towns and villages Huck visits, and the people in them give Twain (through Huck) a chance to observe and comment on 19th century American society. • Twain, then, often rails “at the human race while singing a hymn to one of nature’s greatest creations.”

17. Themes • The novel addresses many themes: • It is a coming-of-age novel: Huck undergoes certain rites of passage that allow him to enter the adult world. • It is a satire of the American South in the 19th century. Slavery is its main target, but it often attacks humanity in general. • This includes humans’ obsession with symbols of material wealth. • At its heart, this is a story about real human figures with genuine moral and ethical problems and decisions.

18. Themes • But it is also an allegory. • It is an allegory about man and God: Huck represents mankind’s need to retreat (at least from time to time) from the real world and to take solace in the pleasures of religion. • It is also an allegory about good and evil: Huck represents the forces of good, and most of the people he meets represent evil. Huck doesn’t win all of his battles against evil, but he never gives in to it.

19. Structure • The book basically divides into three sections. • In the first, Huck introduces himself, Tom, and Jim, giving us a glimpse into Huck’s thoughts and beliefs. • The second (and longest) has Huck running away from civilization and Jim running away from slavery. • In part three, Huck is (probably temporarily) back in civilized society.