1. Lit Speak What’s the Word??? Samuel Clemens's pen name Mark Twain is the phrase Mississippi boatmen used to signify 2 fathoms (about 12’) of water, the depth needed for a boat’s safe passage.

2.  Twain was born when Halley’s comet appeared in 1835 and died – as he had predicted – when it appeared again in 1910. “It would be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s comet,” he wrote. “The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’” This American Life

3. Lit Wit It took Twain 8 years to finish the novel that would become a turning point in American literature. Twain worked very hard on his new book, but he didn’t think much of it at first. “I like it only tolerably well, as far as I have got,” Twain wrote to a friend, “and may possibly pigeonhole or burn the manuscript when it is done.” Twain got stuck in the middle of writing it and took several years off. Pressured by financial needs, he pushed through until the book was finished.

4. The Write Stuff Ethnography There is much description of life in small towns along the Mississippi. Every so often we get an explanation of customs along with the setting. These customs deal with a particular ethnic group.

5. Lit Speak What’s the Word??? Lampooning A sharp biting satire often directed against one individual or institution (i.e: the institution of slavery).

6. Pay attention to the ending of Huck Finn? Would you have ended the novel the same way? Why or why not?

7. Many critics of Huck Finn have pointed out that the Phelp’s farm episode differs in tone and seriousness from the first two- thirds of the novel. Do you agree? Why or why not?

8. Mark Twain called Huck Finn “a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience suffers defeat.” What influences have “deformed” Huck’s conscience? Are such influences still at work in the world today? What forces are available to try and change “deformed consciences”?

9. Review Learning Targets and Other Devices American Realism Allusion Personification or Allegory Complex Character Development Tone and Mood Relationships between characters Mississippi River’s place in the novel Issues of Race Vernacular