1. CAT Notes
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain
Huck and Jim floating down the Mississippi River
The original cover on the novel
“ALL MODERN LITERATURE COMES FROM ONE BOOK BY MARK TWAIN CALLED HUCKLEBERRY FINN. IT’S THE BEST BOOK WE’VE EVER HAD. ALL AMERICAN WRITING COMES FROM THAT. THERE WAS NOTHING BEFORE. THERE HAS BEEN NOTHING GOOD SINCE.”
-HEMINGWAY

4. Right Page
Essential Question: How do Mark Twain’s upbringing and life experiences influence the views presented in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
Teacher Notes
Summary: DLIQ

5. Right Page Mark Twain Often called “eye witness to history”
Watched a young United States evolve from nation torn apart by internal conflicts to one of international power
Experienced country's growth and change - from westward expansion to industrialization, end of slavery, advancements in technology, big government and foreign wars.
Included historical issues in all of his plots

6. Right Page Birth name= Samuel Clemens Born on November 30, 1835
Died April 21, 1910 at the age of 74
Sixth of seven children
At four, he and his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri on the banks of the Mississippi River
Father owned one slave and his uncle owned several
On his uncle's farm Sam spent summers playing in the slave quarters

7. Left Page
Considering most authors draw on life experiences to write their novels, what might be his views on slavery?

8. Right Page Worked on several newspapers & had a
career as a riverboat pilot on Mississippi
River
Began writing for a newspaper and used pen name, Mark Twain

9. Right Page Most famous work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Satirized the institution of slavery and the continued poor treatment of African-Americans overall
Enjoyed financial success, but continually made bad investments which brought him to bankruptcy
In 1900, his finances were restored
From 1901 until his death he served as the vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League
 In these later years, writings turned dark
Began to focus on human greed, cruelty and
questioned the humanity of the human race

10. Right Page The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Published in Jan. 1885
Follow-up story to Tom Sawyer
Characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were loosely based on Twain’s childhood friends
In March 1885, book was banned
Due to its abolitionist tone (parts of the South were still struggling with slavery even though the book was written after the end of slavery)
Best publicity for this novel
It is still banned in some places!
Use of the “N” word (appears 213 times in the novel)
However, the way Twain and Huck used and understood this word was not derogatory
Critics say that Jim (the African-American character) actually shows the most humanity
People today are fighting to get this word deleted from the novel (VERY CONTROVERRSIAL)
Considered an “American Classic”
Many famous authors have mirrored Twain’s writing techniques, plot development, use of literary elements

11. Left Page
Satire is defined as the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice , folly, etc.
Considering the setting, why is satire an effective tool in addressing topics such as slavery and religion?
Why is Huckleberry Finn, a tweenager, an effective narrator for the novel?

12. Right Page Themes/Motifs Slavery and Racism
Inhumanity of slavery and racism
Moral conscious
The contrast between civilization and the wild
What nature offers and what towns offer
The contrast between social norms and honest morality
Do social norms always fit in with your own morality?

13. Right Page
Dialect: A variety of language that is distinguished by grammar and vocabulary and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially. In this case,
Southern dialect
Uneducated southerner dialect
Slave dialect

14. Left Page
Keeping the different forms of dialect in mind, write at least three lines of dialogue for each of the following slides.
You do not know into which category the characters fall, so use your imagination (and inferencing skills)!

15. Left page

16. Left page

17. Left page

18. Literary Terms
1. Ab ovo: The technique of beginning a story at the earliest possible point.
2. Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds is called alliteration. In other words, consonant clusters coming closely cramped and compressed-no coincidence.
3. Allusion: A reference to another work or famous figure is an allusion. A classical allusion is a reference to Greek and Roman Mythology such as, The Iliad. Allusions can be topical or popular as well. A topical allusion refers to a current event. A popular allusion refers to something from popular culture, such as a reference to a television show or a hit movie.
4. Analogy: An analogy is a comparison. Usually analogies involve two or more symbolic parts, and are employed to clarify an action or a relationship. Just as the mother eagle shelters her young from the storm by spreading her great wing above their heads, so does the Acme Insurers of America spread an umbrella of coverage to protect its policy-holders from the storms of life.

19. Literary Terms Continued…
5. Assonance: The repeated use of vowel sounds, as in, “Old king Cole was a merry old soul.”
6. Ballad: A long, narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme. A ballad typically has a naïve folksy quality, a characteristic that distinguishes it from epic poetry.
7. Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings, which is alliteration). A flock of sick, black-checkered, ducks.
8. Denotation: the literal meaning of a word.

20. Continued…
9. Dialect: A variety of language that is distinguished by grammar and vocabulary and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially
10. Diction, syntax: The author’s choice of word. Whether to use wept or cried is a question of diction. Syntax refers to the ordering and structuring. Whether to say, The pizza was smothered in cheese and pepperoni. I devoured it greedily, or Greedily, I devoured the cheese and pepperoni smothered pizza, is a question of syntax.
11. Farce: Today we use this word to refer to extremely broad humor. Writers of earlier times used farce as a more neutral term, meaning simply a funny play; a comedy. (And you should know that for writers of centuries past, comedy was the generic term for any play; it did not imply humor.)
12. Flashback: a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time.

21. Right Page
Essential Question: How do Mark Twain’s upbringing and life experiences influence the views presented in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
Teacher Notes
Summary: DLIQ
Be sure to answer the essential question within your summary!