The Historical and Cultural Context of

Adventures of Huckleberry

Finnby Mark Twain

Historical Context of

Huckleberry Finn

Set in pre-Civil War years 40-50 years before 1885 publication

Slavery ended, but racism still rampant (Jim Crow Laws)

Mark Twain underwent moral transformation…

He believed slavery was wrong and white Americans owed black Americans reparations

Backlash to Romanticism

• Realism– Twain tried to avoid romanticizing the story,

though it does still have a few romantic ideas. He wanted to capture life as it happened to Huck.

– Because of this idea of Realism, Twain’s characters came from backgrounds that were almost disdainful (poor, super-urban, super-industrial). He chose characters who would never have been romantic heroes.

19th CENTURY

The Civil WarIndustrial Revolution Extreme contrasts between rich and poor

HUCKLEBERRY FINN is a…COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL: moral growth of a comic character in a physically beautiful yet morally repugnant setting

and a…PICARESQUE NOVEL: follows

the adventures of a roguish hero• episodic: Mississippi River • flight to freedom vs. river•flowing toward Deep South (slave territory)

A Picaresque story depicts the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits

in a corrupt society.

19th century Firsts…

First mappings of the West

First transcontinental railroad

First Photography

“Something new happened in Huck Finn that had never happened in American literature before. It was a book…that served as a Declaration of Independence from the genteel English novel…

Vernacular (noun)1. The standard native language of a country or locality.2. a. The everyday language spoken by a people as distinguished from the literary language. b. A variety of such everyday language specific to a social group or region: the vernaculars of New York City.

A Satirical work

• Definition of satire (n)– sat·ire– use of wit to criticize behavior: the use of wit,

especially irony, sarcasm, and ridicule, to criticize faults

– literary work using satire: a literary work that uses satire, or the branch of literature made up of such works

Irony

• Verbal irony occurs when a narrator says one thing but means the opposite.

• Situational irony occurs when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect (usually an oddly appropriate twist).

Irony cont.

• Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or audience knows something a character does not.

Themes in Huck Finn

• Racism and slavery

• Hypocrisy of a “civilized” society

• Morality: Right vs. Wrong

• Rules and order

• Friendship

Ideas to consider

1. What does it really mean to be free?

2. Is “right” always acceptable?

3. Are laws always good?

"Slave Boy Brought to Waterbury from Bucks Hill by Aunt

Ella Johnson's Second

Husband (Whelan)"Ninth-plate ambrotype, circa 1855

http://www.photographymuseum.com/slave

boylg.htmlThe American Photography

Museum, Inc.

#1

W. Queen (Philadelphia), Publisher or Retailer:

"The Darkey's Vanity"Tinted Albumen

Stereograph circa 1860

http://www.photographymuseu

m.com/vanitylg.htmlThe American Photography

Museum, Inc.

#3

Cumberland Landing, Virginia,Group of "contrabands" at Foller's house, May 14, 1862http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/psources/slavpho2.htmlThe American Photography Museum, Inc.

#4

Unidentified Photographer:Civil War Soldiers with a "Contraband"Albumen carte de visite, circa 1863

http://www.photographymuseum.com/contrabl.htmlThe American Photography Museum, Inc.

#5

Unidentified Photographer: Ten ChildrenCyanotype, circa 1898http://www.photographymuseum.com/cyanokidslg.htmlThe American Photography Museum, Inc.

#7

Palmer (Tuskegee, Alabama)

Instructor & Three Graduates with Diplomas and Geraniums

Gelatine-Silver Print, circa 1905

 http://www.photographymuseum.com/tuskeglg.htmlThe American Photography Museum, Inc.

#8

Works CitedThe American Photography Museum, Inc.   Virtual Exhibit: “The Face of Slavery and Other Early

Images of African Americans.” (2004). http://www.photography-museum.com/faceof.html

Cross, J.M. . “Nineteenth-Century Photography: A Timeline.” The Victorian Web. (2001). http://www.victorianweb.org/photos/chron.html

Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 5: Late Nineteenth Century: American Realism - A Brief Introduction.” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide - An

Ongoing Project.(2003). http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap5/5intro.html

Rubio, Juan Carlos. (Curator). “Portraits and Landscapes in Nineteenth Century Photography. Private Collections of Madrid.” Fundacion Telefonico. (2001).

http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/photoes/efotoxix.html