AUGUST 19 , 2013

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

About the Author

Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens.

Clemens was born on the Missouri frontier, learned several trades, traveled widely, and transformed himself into Mark Twain.

Four years after Clemens was born, his father moved the family to Hannibal, Missouri, along the Mississippi River.

Clemens spent his days as a young boy on the riverbanks watching the parade of boats that passed by.

Hannibal was also home to relatives, friends, and townspeople who served as the inspiration for characters in his fiction.

At the age of seventeen, Clemens left Hannibal to work as a printer’s assistant. He held printing jobs in New York, Pennsylvania, and Iowa.

At age twenty-one, he returned to the Mississippi River to train for his dream job—steamboat pilot.

He eventually became a pilot, but his job was cut short by the start of the Civil War in 1861.

After two weeks in the Confederate army, Clemens joined his brother in Carson City, NV.

In Carson City, Clemens began to write humorous sketches and tall tales for the local newspaper.

February 1863—Clemens first used the pseudonym, or pen name, that would later be known by readers throughout the world—Mark Twain.

It was a riverboating term for water two fathoms, or twelve feet, deep.

Clemens continued to move around during his adult years and his stories typically reflected the areas and cultures he lived in.

1865—Worked as a miner near San Franciso and wrote a tall tale he heard in the minefields—”The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Valaveras County.

Later traveled to Hawaii, Europe, and the Middle East and wrote a humorous book about his travels—The Innocents Abroad. This book made him famous.

In 1870 Clemens married Olivia Langdon and they moved to Hartford, CT.

More notable books followed this move, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Thanks to his lecture tours and books, Mark Twain became a familiar name around the world. His death in 1910 was met with great sorrow.

About Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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. - author’s note from The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

At the time Huck Finn was published, Twain was already well known as a humorist and the author of the “boy’s book” The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Readers likely had little reason to believe that Huck Finn would teach a serious moral lesson.

However, the odd notice at the beginning of the novel is the first warning that things may not be exactly as they seem.

The warning is ironic because the novel definitely has a motive, a moral, and a plot. Twain wanted his readers to be aware of each of them.

Centers around a journey that allows Huck and Jim to meet many different kinds of people.

Characters include many personalities: liars, cheaters, and hypocrites. Twain exposes their weaknesses and senseless cruelty to others.

However, the novels also shows that people are capable of making the right decisions and defy injustice. Moral beliefs can lead a person to reject what is

wrong in society. Personal values can overcome evil.

Even though Huckleberry Finn is a serious book that addresses serious issues, it is also humorous. Humorous incidents Oddball characters Goofy misadventures Language used by characters

Characters

Twain based his characters on people he know from his life in Hannibal and the culture along the Mississippi River.

Setting

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is set in the Mississippi River Valley, around 1840.

During the novel, Huck and Jim float down the Mississippi River. They travel from their hometown of St. Petersburg,

Missouri, north of St. Louis, hundreds of miles into the Deep South.

Some of the place they visit are real, while others are a product of Twain’s imagination.

Things to Note in Chapters 1-25

POINT OF VIEW Definition: relationship of the narrator, or storyteller,

to the events of the story. Huckleberry Finn is told by the character Huck, using

words like I and we. I and we = first person point of view. The reader sees everything through Huck’s eyes and is

given his perspective on events.

POINT OF VIEW Distinguish the narrator from the author when

determining point of view! Huck is an uneducated 14-year-old boy living in a village

in the 1840s. He has the knowledge, beliefs, and experiences of such a boy.

Twain was a well-traveled writer and experienced lecturer. He understood how to use narrative techniques, adopt different points of view, and speak in the role of different characters, and he used this knowledge to create a narrator who is very different from himself.

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR Definition: A narrator who does not understand the

full significance of the events he describes and comments on.

Huck is not intentionally unreliable; his lack of education and experience makes him so.

Much of the humor in the beginning of Huck Finn comes from Huck’s incomplete understanding of the adults around him and their “sivilized” ways.

CONFLICT Internal vs. external conflict

External conflict—struggles between characters who have different goals or between a character and forces of nature.

Internal conflicts—psychological struggles that characters experience when they are unhappy or face difficult decisions.

EXTERNAL CONFLICTS OFTEN TRIGGER INTERNAL CONFLICTS!

Conflict in Chapters 1-15 With the people at your table, identify 4 instances of

conflict and a brief explanation of the conflict (both internal and external are acceptable!) in Chapters 1-15.

When you have identified your 4 instances please write each one on a Post-It note and place them in the correct column on the white board.

LITERARY ELEMENT: CHARACTER

Understanding a character means moving beyond “He’s fourteen,” or “She’s blonde.”

Those details may be worth noticing, but they only tell us so much about a character.

Activity: Rating Roommates

Take 5 minutes, on your own, to rank the roommate personal ads from the person you’d most like to room with (1) to the person you’d least like to room with (5).

Take 10 minutes with the people at your table and try to convince your group members to adopt your ranking. Ask your group members to explain their ranking if you disagree. Ask “Why?”

Tallying the Results

1 2 3 4 5ChrisAlexSamDanaPat

Which profile created the most disagreement among your group?

What was revealed about each character?How was this revealed?What did you learn about yourself and your

group members about judgments and interpretations?

Character Jigsaw

Each table will take a category from the following list and discuss together the major characteristics you can identify. Characters’ Actions Characters’ Language Characters’ Thoughts Characters’ Body Language Physical Descriptions How Others Relate to Characters

Your Homework

Read Huck Finn! We will touch on Chapters 16-31 on Wednesday and Chapters 32-43 on Friday.

Character Response sheet (due Wednesday, 8/21) Complete this based on what you know about Huck

from Chapters 1-25 (or as far as you have read!)Character Relationships (due Friday, 8/23)

This will require you to be familiar with the characters of Huck Finn, some of which are introduced later in the book. If you need assistance because you are not yet far enough in the book, you are welcome to use character lists on SparkNotes, Wikipedia, etc. as a resource for this assignment.