Sequel to the adventures of Huck Finn
Mark Twain- one of the greatest American writers (real name Samuel Clemen)
The name Mark Twain (twain- to cut something in too) has something to do with steamboating because he was briefly a pilot on a steamboat many of his writings have to do with Steamboats--especially Huck Finn
Famous for both nonfiction and fiction
Tom Sawyer was a childrens book set out Huck finn as a childrens book but it became much more serious
Other books between children/young adults
Wrote nonfiction- Life on the Mississippi
Famous as a humorist and he is outwardly a realist
Realist-preceding this era was the Romantic era--we saw the individual as a God--that all the potential in the world is wrapped up in each one of us--very optimistic
Romantic stories have heroes who go against the whole world--super human
Image of a knight in shining armor
One dude against a whole army-romantic
Pirates, knights, sword fighting, damsels in distressed, one person getting washed up on an island
Steven Crain, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain all wanted to do something new and different
Rejects Romanticism
Romantic tradition looks at an individual that can do all
Realists-wanted literature to reflect real life-the civil war woke everyone up because
Naturalism-the helplessness of man against the power of nature and the power of society people talk about the realism/naturalism
Mark Twain grew up in Hannibal Missouri--the town we find Huck Finn in is supposedly the same town
Missouri=the South town at bank of mississippi
Mississippi-huge center for commerce
Place where all different classes and modes of technology unite
Make shift rafts---homade in contrast to the most technologically advanced
Mississippi river could be very lawless and dangerous--with huge advanced boats and then small homemade ones
Huck Finn was difficult for Twain to write
Emotionally
Tom Sawyer-run of the mill children’s story
Tom is rambunctious whos always getting into trouble
Hucks dad is a homeless, abusive drunk, always in ratted overalls ect.
Huck doesn’t go to school/church
You can’t tell the story of Huck Finn without telling the truths about America--Huck Finn became his soapbox
He looses control of the narrative sometimes--it becomes episodic--seem to go from one story to another to another---sequences
Huck Finn is an orphan but grows up in his aunt’s house--normal life
This is Twain’s biggest seller but also very controversial
Its very controversial because of the way it deals with race--the word nigger occurs more that 200 times
In general the slave character Jim is a serious character--he’s Huck’s friend
19th century--uncomfortable because...
Two main characters: huck and fin--friendship between black and white
20th century
“nigger” is controversial-- because people are uncomfortable with our racist past
Is this a racist book or not?
Complicated
Some parts can be seen as racist
Not because he says “nigger” because that’s the lingo we used
It’s not a realistic story so why do we consider it realistic?
Written in the first person dialect of a semi-literate boy
The things that happen to him aren’t realistic but his perspective is realistic
Regionalism-subset of realism
Capture the flavor of a specific place
Twain captures the situation of life on the Mississippi
Recognize the conflict between Tom and Huck
As you read, I want you to be thinking of the questions she brought up:
Is it racist or anti-racist?
What does the book say about America and Americans?
Romance vs. realism conflict?
Where does it fall in relation to Transcendentalism? Does it agree with it? Contradict it?
At the beginning of the book there’s some sort of disclaimer:
Humor and Satire
Persons attempting to find a motive will be prosecuted
Don’t find amoral or plot or motive in the writing--don’t try to think I’m saying something political
In one way its funny but also there’s a motive, moral but not so much a plot
This book was probably published in chunks
Explanation-Twain claims to be an expert anthropologist/linguist (joke)
Huck has a voice-Jim has a voice
Read Jim’s lines out loud--sometimes hard to understand
Huck-runon sentence--talks to us
Talking about truth vs lies
AUDIENCE SHOULD NOT BE “THEY” AUDIENCE IS AN IT BUT U CAN SAY PEOPKE IN THE AUDIENCE, LISTENERS
ALWAYS READ ITALICS
Tom lives his life according to stories “pirate books and robber books” he wants the drama from the stories
Tom wants to live an adventure in a book
Authority is in the books
Huck thinks religion doesn’t make sense--everyone tells him different things
He doesn’t want to see his dad because his dad is abusive he used to go to
Doesn’t understand that people can be prisoners of other people
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