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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.
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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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Characters • As a reward for reviewing the PowerPoint notes in preparation for the first test, you have earned 3 points to be applied toward the test. • However, in order to receive the points: • You must peruse the other PowerPoints: the 1-7 chapter notes and Regionalism for other potential clues/requirements. • You must email me with the clues as confirmation that you did this by 9 p.m. Sunday, March 3 at mark.johnston@wayzata.k12.mn.us.
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.
Themes • But it is also an allegory. • It is an allegory: 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 God, be it natural creation (the river) or 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.
