The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

2. Mark Twain • Samuel Clemens raised in Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri • Left school at eleven and worked for a printing shop • By sixteen, he published a piece in a Boston magazine • Worked as a riverboat pilot • Reported for various newspapers before writing his works of fiction • “Mark Twain” is the river leadsman’s cry for two fathoms of water

3. Setting • written after Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery, but time period of story set during slavery • presents hypocrisy of “civilized” society which values morality, but condones slavery • takes place in a fictional town called St. Petersburg, Missouri (based on Twains hometown of Hannibal) • majority of the novel follows Jim and Huck up the Mississippi river

4. Huck Finnas written by Everett Emerson in The Heath Anthology of American Literature • Idyllic, epic, and satiric • Especially admired for its comedy, though Huck the narrator lacks a sense of humor • Huck’s great problem is to reconcile his adherence to social norms with what his heart tells him • Conflict centers on his experiences with Jim, whose humanity he has to learn to respect, for it is denied by what Huck has been taught • Controversy centers around whether Huck Finn is an attack on racism/exaltation of property values over human values or whether it is a racist narrative that mirrors Twain’s own values and understanding

5. Huck, the Narrator • No pretension • Voice helped define what truly American literature was to be • Prepared us for all types of vernacular speech • Ernest Hemingway proclaimed, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn”