Transcript Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
AUGUST 19, 2013
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.
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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.
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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
Chris
Alex
Sam
Dana
Pat
2
3
4
5
 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.
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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.