1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
“All American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn… it’s the best book we’ve had.”
- Ernest Hemingway

2. Summary
Written in 1885 but takes place in the 1840s - Huckleberry Finn, 14, grows up in St. Petersburg, Missouri with no mother and an alcoholic father who has skipped town. Huck is being cared for by two women: Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson. Huck likes to skip school and hang out with his best friend, Tom Sawyer.

3. Summary – Part Two
Huck’s dad, Pap, returns and imprisons Huck in a cabin outside of town. Huck escapes and runs into Jim, a black slave, who is also trying to escape.
The bulk of the story chronicles Huck and Jim’s travels down the Mississippi River and the continued trouble they seem to get themselves into.

4. Major Symbol: The Mississippi River
In Huck Finn, the river symbolizes freedom, and it becomes symbolic of Huck’s journey to discover his natural virtue.
The current of the river determines the direction of the raft, as well as Huck’s life. There is a major contrast between life on the river and life on the shore because life on the river (“uncivilized”) is peaceful and easy, yet not totally without danger; however, life on the shore (“civilized”) can be cruel, authoritarian, hypocritical, and reflective of what Twain called the “Damned Human Race.”
Life on the raft is paradoxical. Even though they are confined to a small space on the raft, Huck and Jim experience greater freedom on the raft.

5. Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Rebirth/Childhood
•Huck’s youth is an important factor in his moral education; only a child is open-minded enough to undergo the kind of development that Huck does. When Huck feels stifled by society, he escapes to become reborn again. Throughout the novel, Huck loses his identity, assumes different names, and in turn is reborn with new values. As a result of these changes in the main character, this novel is referred to as a bildungsroman.
Lies and Cons
•Huckleberry Finn is full of malicious lies and scams; the lies are bad and hurt a number of innocent people.
Superstitions and Loneliness
•Confronted with the obtuseness of their isolation, Huck and Jim rely on each other and their superstitions to cope. Huck does not like being alone, but, ironically, it’s when he’s within society that he feels most alone.

6. 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 “civilized” society.

7. The 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

8. Who was Mark Twain? Actually, he was Samuel Clemens. b. 1835 d. 1910
Who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri - the town that St. Petersburg is heavily based on.
Mark Twain = 2 fathoms or 12 ft. deep - “safe water” (a riverboat term)
Believed strongly that the problem of race had to be solved.

9. Huck Finn controversy
Huck Finn was banned from many libraries because the content was thought to be too dark, distasteful, and unsuitable for children.
Considered "rough, coarse and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people."

10. So, what’s the big deal?
The problem was that readers took Twain literally and believed he was serious! The key to understanding Twain’s novel is by realizing that it’s a satire.
(definition for your notebooks coming up)

11. Racism & 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/conflict.

12. What others were saying at the time:
1884
Written by William E. Henley of the Athenaeum
“In Huckleberry Finn Twain returns to his right mind”
“The book is Mark Twain at his best”
“It is meant for boys”
“Huckleberry is the hero of such scrapes and experiences as to make your mouth water”
“Jim and Huckleberry are real creations”

13. 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.”

14. What is Satire?
Satire - a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule in hopes of prompting change
So what is Twain trying to denounce? Racism.
Irony - Opposite of literal meaning:
I have a ton of homework - how nice! (this is also sarcasm)
Or the opposite of what is expected to happen:
Twain creates a racist protagonist to prove his point that racism is wrong.
So basically, we need to take everything that Twain says, flip it around, and that’s what he really means!

15. Twain’s Writing Style Colloquial Language – dialects
Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd
Picaresque novel - usually a first-person narrative, relating the adventures of a rogue or low-born adventurer (Spanish pícaro) as he drifts from place to place and from one social milieu to another in his effort to survive.
Episodic structure – series of mini stories
1st person unreliable narrative

16. Main Ideas of Twain’s Novel
Christian religion vs. superstition
Racism/Slavery (shown through satire)
Individual beliefs vs. Society’s rules
Morality and Ethics
Friendship

17. Chronology of Events 1840 – Time when novel takes place
Civil War: Southern confederate states wanted to form their own United States. Northern Union states fought to keep the country unified
Emancipation Proclamation: Pres. Abraham Lincoln signed this document declaring all slaves in Confederate states to be free.
th Amendment: Amendment to the U.S. constitution abolishing slavery.
Tom Sawyer was written
Huck Finn was written

18. Chronology of Events cont’d.
Civil Rights Act: President Lyndon Johnson signed a law prohibiting discrimination in public places (remember Rosaleen watching President Johnson sign the document on TV?)
The Civil Rights Act was signed only 45 years ago. Think about it.