1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn very brief background

2. Mark Twain
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Mark Twain is his pen name.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was ready to be published in 1884.
The community greeted this book with critical eyes, but it soon became very popular and is considered a classic today.

3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck Finn was written as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
In the end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer ( a dreamer, adventurous, middle class boy) and Huckleberry Finn ( a poor boy with a drunken dad) find a robber’s stash of gold. This is where Huck Finn begins.

4. The Adventures of Huck Finn cont.
Because Huck received the money, he became rich and put his money into the bank to hold for him.
Because Huck’s father was a drunk and was hardly around, Huck was adopted by the Widow Douglas who lives with her sister Miss Watson.

5. The Adventures of Huck Finn cont.
Because Huck was adopted recently in the book, he had a new life which required him to be clean, use manners, go to church and school. He doesn’t want to do this, however he is bribed by Tom Sawyer, who tells him if he wants to be in the “robber’s gang” Huck must stay “respectable”.

6. The Adventures of Huck Finn cont.
Huck’s father returns because he has gotten word of Huck’s newfound money, and he wants it.
Local judge, Judge Thatcher, and the Widow try to get legal custody of Huck, but another well-intentioned new judge believes the rights of Huck’s natural father and tried to take Pap in and reform him.

7. The Adventures of Huck Finn cont.
Pap returns to his old drunken ways and hangs around for several months harassing Huck.
Huck learns to read which makes Pap mad.
When the Widow Douglas warns Pap to stay away from her house, Pap kidnaps Huck and holds him in a cabin across the river.
Whenever Pap goes out, he locks Huck in the cabin, and when he returns home drunk he beats Huck.

8. Controversy with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck Finn is extremely controversial in society today. The “N word” is repeated numerous times throughout this novel.
Twain purposely did this because this is how people talked during the time he wrote it, and he did it so many times to show how offensive, unnecessary and crude it was. He also wanted to show how insignificant the word was in that time because people used it so often. This was with good intent.
Many people feel uncomfortable with the amount of “N words” in this text and have banned it from many schools and libraries.