Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s birthplace in Florida, Missouri. Twain was born on November 30, 1835.

Twain’s second home in Florida, Missouri.

Samuel Clemens at age 18 when he left Hannibal as a steamboat pilot.

Orion Clemens Jane Clemens father mother

1870 Hartford

Onteora, NY with Laurence Hutton With Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, and Laurence Hutton

Wife’s home place

Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) 1867

Olivia and children (Susy, Clara, and Jean)

1910 in England at Dollis Hill residence

Events in Twain’s life that affected his career Childhood in Hannibal: It gave him material for his best and most famous book. Assignment to write about a trip to Hawaii: It got him started on a career as a lecturer. Business failure: It caused him to go to Europe to live and lecture. It also made him a hero with the public when he paid back all his debts. Death of family members: It made him bitter, and this came out in his writing.

Twain’s books and their inspirations Roughing It, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were all inspired by his childhood in Hannibal Life on the Mississippi was inspired by his career as a riverboat pilot The Innocents Abroad was inspired by his trip to Europe and the Holy Land

Ernest Hemingway’s Quote Hemingway said about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huck Finn….There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

Pen Name Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorn Clemens. Mark Twain became his “pen name.” A pen name is a name a writer assumes when he/she is published. His pen name is from a riverboat term meaning: two fathoms deep (a depth of 12 feet).

Other Talents In addition to his reputation as an author, he also had a reputation as a witty speaker. He lectured around the world giving his humorous accounts of his trip to the Holy Land. These accounts were later published in Innocents Abroad.

Controversy of the Novel Controversial in death as he was in life, Twain has been seriously accused by some of being a “racist writer,” whose writing is offensive to black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today’s bookshelves. For Twain’s critics, the novel is racist on the face of it, and for the most obvious reason: many characters use the “n” word throughout. But since the action of the book takes place in the south twenty years before the Civil War, it would be amazing if Twain didn’t use that word. Twain uses “satire” (ridicule) to underscore the chilling truth about the old south. That it was a society where perfectly “nice” people didn’t consider the death of a black person worth their notice.

PLOT The book is about freedom and the quest for freedom. It’s about a slave who breaks the law and risks his life to win his freedom and be reunited with his family. It’s about a white boy who becomes his friend and helps him escape. Because of his upbringing, Huck starts out believing that slavery is part of the natural order; but as the story unfold he wrestles with his conscience, and when the crucial moment comes he decides he will be damned to the flames of hell rather than betray his black friend. Jim is the moral center of the book, a man of courage and nobility, who risks his freedom – and his life- for the sake of his best friend Huck.

Mark Twain Quotes “One of my theories is that the hearts of men are about alike, all over the world, whatever their skin-complexions may be.” “Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a beautiful white skin is rare.” “There are many humorous things in the world; among them is the white man’s notion that he is less savage than all the other savages.”

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” Mark Twain, Introductory Note