Introduction to Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Life and Times of Mark Twain Born Samuel Clemens in 1835, he worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. When he started his writing career, Samuel Clemens adopted the name “Mark Twain,” which meant two fathoms, a safe depth for a riverboat. I thought these pictures of the river boats and Twain as a young man helped to depict that period of his life when he worked on the Mississippi River. He loved his time on the river and even used “Mark Twain” as his pen name.

Life and Times of Mark Twain cont. In 1861, Samuel Clemens avoided the brewing Civil War by going west. He took his first writing job as reporter at the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Serious news was often mixed with “reports” that had to be taken with a grain of salt. Soon, he began using the name Mark Twain and affixing it to sketches, reportage, and an occasional hoax. It was a time when he first discovered his talent, his calling, and his voice. These pictures of western towns help to illustrate the next phase of Twain’s career as a reporter. The pictures helps us visualize Twain during this period of his life.

Life and Times of Mark Twain cont. At 34 years of age he married Olivia Langdon Clemens. She was the daughter of a New York coal magnate, a member of the country’s wealthy elite. She would be partner, editor, and fellow traveler in success and failure for the next thirty-five years. She would also furnish him her family’s home in Elmira, New York, a place where he visited often and wrote many of his best-loved books. Twain enjoyed a successful marriage with his wife. He lived and wrote in New York where he met Olivia Langdon. It was here that he worked on Huckleberry Finn.

Life and Times of Mark Twain cont. Although his most famous novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is criticized for being racist, Mark Twain never expected nor intended the controversy that arose with the publication of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain was not racist, but depicted life in his times. When HF was published Mark Twain was astonished at the controversy about the book as a racist novel. His response to the criticism was that he wrote as he saw life on the Mississippi when he was growing up there. “I vividly remember seeing a dozen black men and women chained to one another, once, and lying in a group on the pavement, awaiting shipment to the Southern slave market. Those were the saddest faces I have ever seen.”– Mark Twain

Mark Twain’s quote about the controversy over HF. "I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse." Pictures from www.pbs.org

Life and Times of Mark Twain cont. By 1900 Twain had become America’s foremost celebrity. He was invited to attend ship launchings, anniversary gatherings, political conventions, and countless dinners. Reporters met him at every port of call, anxious to print a new quip from the famous humorist. To enhance his image, he took to wearing white suits and loved to stroll down the street and see people staring at him. Mark Twain love his notoriety. When he became well known for his humor, he started wearing his trademark white suite. We have many pictures of Twain from this era of his life.

Life and Times of Mark Twain cont. People loved his lectures that he gave as he traveled. He became a performer as a humorist. Hal Holbrook, today with his imitation of Mark Twain, captures what Twain must have been like as a speaker. He developed as a speaker and traveled on lecture circuits, much in demand. His early performances combined humor, information and eloquence in measures that delighted most people.

Life and Times of Mark Twain cont. When he died on April 21, 1910, newspapers around the country declared, “The whole world is mourning.” By then, Sam Clemens had long since ceased to be a private citizen. He had become Mark Twain, a proud possession of the American nation. When Twain died in 1910, he had become an American icon. He is one of the few writers who became very popular while he lived. I was interested in learning this about Twain because it is interesting that Americans can treasure literary figures and not just popular sports figures. “I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I’m not feeling so well myself.”—Mark Twain

Mark Twain died in 1910, the year Halley’s Comet appeared. “I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together." This tidbit of information is eerie, but true. Do you think he willed himself to die in this year? Mark Twain died in 1910, the year Halley’s Comet appeared. Pictures from www.pbs.org

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written after The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. At the end of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, a poor boy with a drunken father, and his friend Tom Sawyer, a middle-class boy with an imagination too active for his own good, found a robber's stash of gold. As a result of his adventure, Huck gained quite a bit of money, which the bank held for him in trust. Huck was taken in by the Widow Douglas, a kind but stifling woman who lives with her sister, the self-righteous Miss Watson.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain’s most famous novel is about the relationship between a young white boy, Huck, and a black slave, Jim as they travel along the Mississippi River The novel is set in the mid 1800’s in the South in a fictional town called St. Petersburg During this time, about half of the country was considered “free” and half still supported slavery

Free vs. Slave States in America in the mid 1800’s

Introduction Mark Twain described the major theme of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as “A sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision, and conscience suffers defeat.” “A sound heart” = a good, honest heart. “A deformed conscience” = a conscience influenced by the laws of society and a sense of duty toward those laws.

Themes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Racism and Slavery In Huck Finn, Twain exposes the hypocrisy of slavery. It does not support slavery. Intellectual vs. Moral Education Huck is forced to make a decision between education and moral correctness Mocks or pokes fun at “Civilized” Society Twain shows the ways in which society of his time did not act in a civilized manner

Racism and Slavery Although written 20 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, America – especially the South – was still struggling with racism and the aftereffects of slavery. Insidious racism arose near the end of Reconstruction that oppressed blacks for illogical and hypocritical reasons. Twain exposes the hypocrisy of slavery and demonstrates how racism distorts the oppressors as much as the oppressed. The result is a world of moral confusion.

Intellectual and Moral Education Huck is an uneducated boy. He distrusts the morals and precepts of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. Huck questions his teachings, especially regarding race and slavery. In many instances, Huck chooses to “go to hell” rather than go along with the rules of society.

Hypocrisy of “civilized” society “Civilized” to Huck means . . . Regular baths, uncomfortable clothes Mandatory school attendance Degraded rules that defy logic Huck’s drunkard, abusive father gets to keep custody of Huck because he is his natural father The injustice of slavery that keeps Jim from his family Seemingly good people are prejudiced slave-owners Terrible acts go unpunished, while lesser crimes lead to severe punishment

Dialect “Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.”

Symbolism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Mississippi River For Huck and Jim, the river symbolizes freedom. The two follow the river from the South to the North to escape the oppression they both face at home. Huck wants to get away from his abusive father and family while Jim, a black slave, wants to live in a free state.

Path of the Mississippi River States that touch the Mississippi River- Minnesota Wisconsin Iowa Illinois Missouri Tennessee Arkansas Mississippi Louisiana

Controversy Surrounding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a controversial book since it was first published in 1885 – mostly because of its inappropriate language and racial slurs. The following slides will represent four different points of views of Twain’s most famous novel.

1885 Statements made by the Concord Library Committee after they excluded the book for the public library “absolutely immoral in its tone” “very little humor” “If not for the author’s reputation, the book would undoubtedly meet with severe criticism.” “the veriest trash” “a low grade of morality” “language of a rough, ignorant dialect” “systematic use of bad grammar and an employment of rough, inelegant expressions.”

1992 Comments by John H. Wallace of The Washington Post “Huckleberry Finn uses the pejorative [insulting] term nigger profusely.” “It speaks of black Americans with implications that they are not honest, they are not intelligent as whites, and they are not human.” “It constitutes mental cruelty, harassment, and outright racial intimidation to force black students to sit in a classroom to read this kind of literature . . .”

1992 Written by Clarence Page of the Des Moines Register “Huckleberry Finn may have been black . . . No, not Huck himself, but his voice.” “The news that ol’ Huck might have been a soul brother is ironic considering how many blacks have tried to keep Huckleberry Finn out of the hands of school children every year, despite its strong anti-slavery, pro-brotherhood message, because it happens to mention the word ‘nigger’ about 200 times. “Twain exposed the lunacy and hypocrisy of American racism by showing it through the eyes of a boy who finds himself . . . helping a slave to escape.”