CAT Notes Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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?

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

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)!

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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.

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.

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.

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!