Do you find songs that use the “n-word” a lot offensive?

Is this different depending on the singer/songwriter’s race/color of skin?

What would you think of a book that used the “n-word” copiously, written by a white man?

Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn

English III

The Basics Samuel Langhorne

Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Faulkner called him “the father of American literature"

Early Life Born in Florida,

Missouri on November 30, 1835 to a Tennessee country merchant

When Twain was four, his family moved to Hannibal, a port town on the Mississippi River

Youth to Adult When Twain was 11, his father died of

pneumonia At 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a

printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati.

He educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider sources of information than he would have at a conventional school

Jobs and The Man A steamboat pilot:

• Twain meticulously studied 2,000 miles of the Mississippi for more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license in 1859

Miner, journalist, lecturer, etc. Saw himself as a blue-collar, heavy-drinking,working man

Love and Marriage Twain met Charles Langdon, who

showed him a picture of his sister Olivia; Twain claimed to have fallen in love at first sight.

They met in 1868, were engaged a year later, and married in February 1870 in Elmira, New York

A Man of Belief Held strong

views on religion, racism, politics, America, etc.

Most important, perhaps, is racism and slavery

Death “I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is

coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' ”

His prediction was accurate—Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth

Vernacular, Regionalism, and the Picaresque

Vernacular: language of a specific place• Huck is a young, “uncivlized,” low-class kid – and he

writes like he speaks Regionalism: Literature concerned with the

specifics of a particular region; unconcerned with its “universality”• East-coast America, focusing on the South

Picaresque novel: an episodic novel about a rogue or picaro (a person of low social status) wandering around and living off his wits.

Lens for Reading the Novel Slavery and Racism:

• Even though the novel is anti-slavery and anti-racist, is it itself racist?

Censorship, Offensive Language, and Politically Correctness• Use of the “n” word

Moral Compass: personal vs. social• Problems with both

Satire• Deeply critical of certain American ideals and

ideas

Lens, continued Satire

• Deeply critical of certain American ideals and ideas

Socratic Irony• Taking a side of an argument in order to

reveal its problems Cognitive Dissonance

• Holding 2 contradictory beliefs at once

Pre-Unit Discussion Questions Is a novel that uses the “n” word

copiously improper? Is taking the word out a good idea?

Should we make moral decisions based on what society tells us is right or wrong, or our inner selves? What are potential problems with both of these?

What are some examples, past and present, of satire?