The Adventures of Huck Finn

Huck Finn Introduction

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain. It first published in the United States in 1885.

It was published during the Gilded Age which refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century.

The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.

The name refers to the process of gilding an object with a superficial layer of gold and is meant to make fun of ostentatious display while playing on the term "golden age."

Why is Mark Twain a significant American writer?

He was the first major writer to:

use real American speech (and not only in dialogue)

deal with themes and topics that were important to Americans

assume that concerns of Americans were as worthy of serious treatment as British/ European concerns were.

Why is Mark Twain a significant American writer?

His Beliefs:Detested the hypocrisy of the world which insisted on the importance of conventional manners while ignoring inner corruption.

The dictates of conscience should take precedence over the dictates of society.

Twain glorifies the individual who escapes contamination by society.

Believes the peak period of nobility in a person’s life happens during youth.

Why do you think these beliefs are important to know?

Why is Huck Finn a significant American novel?

It was 1st “real” American book: It departs from the Victorian, genteel English novel tradition.

Introduces American Regionalism – focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, and other features of a particular region.

Twain researched southwestern dialects for authenticity in his story.Dialects develop when groups of people are separated from one another for long periods by geography or social barriers.

Is written in the vernacular.Vernacular = the everyday spoken language of a particular locality/group, as distinguished from its formal, literary language.

Why is Huck Finn a significant American novel?

Published in 1885; takes place in 1830s or 1840s. Civil War is in between, therefore…He is writing about slavery, but after it has been abolished.

American audiences after the Civil War wanted realism, not romanticism.After writing approximately half of the book, Twain returned to the Mississippi River in the early 1880s, and traveled down the river.

Was appalled by the post-Civil War era treatment of former slaves.

Second half of book takes on darker tone.

Characters in Huck Finn

Huck Finn: child narrator, protagonist

Jim: runaway slave owned by Miss Watson

Miss Watson and Widow Douglas: the ladies who adopt Huck

Pap: Huck’s father

Mrs. Loftus: woman Huck “borrows” from

Characters in Huck Finn

Grangerfords and Sheperdsons: two feuding families (like the Hatfields and McCoys)

The Duke and the King: Two con artists Huck and Jim meet on their journey

The Wilkes Family:Peter Wilkes: A wealthy man who has diedMary Jane, Julia, and Susan: Peter Wilkes’s daughters

Harvey and William Wilkes: Peter’s brother who live in England. Harvey is a preacher and William is deaf and mute.

Setting of the FilmThe story is set in the Mississippi River Valley along the Mississippi River.The Mississippi River is an important symbol in this novel/film.

The river is the ultimate symbol of freedom for both Huck and Jim

The story begins in Hannibal, Missouri.

Huck and Jim visit Jackson Island.

Cairo: where the Mississippi River and the Ohio river meet

Themes in Huck FinnComing of age story: maturing and growing up

Satire of the post-Civil War American South Satire: the use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to expose and criticize a person’s or society’s flaws

Allegory about Religious hypocrisy

Allegory about good and evil in ordinary society

Allegory: an extended metaphor in which symbolic fictional figures and actions reveal certain truths or generalizations about human existence