Are you a romantic or a realist?

Explain your response.

Complete page 1 of your packet

• In 1885, Twain wrote in his notebook, “My works are like water. The works of great masters are like wine. But everyone drinks water.”

The Adventures of The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnHuckleberry Finn

Why the Controversy?Why the Controversy?

A FEW QUICK FACTS* ABOUT A FEW QUICK FACTS* ABOUT HUCKHUCK::

• Required reading for 11th grade

• Huck Finn is the most taught novel and most taught work of American literature in American schools

• Sales surpass twenty million copies

• At least twenty-five different languages.

• 1891: Huck = “great American novel”

• 1900: Huck = admirable work*Information for this handout was obtained from the following sources:Brown, Robert B. “One Hundred Years of HUCK FINN.” American Heritage Magazine. 35.4 (June/ July 1984). AmericanHeritage.com. (20 Jan. 2008).“Exploring the Controversy: The ‘N’ Word.” Huck Finn in Context: The Curriculum. Public Broadcasting Service Teacher’s Guide. <www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/teachers/huck/section1_2.html> 19 Jan. 2008.Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. “Teaching Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Lecture. Summer Teacher’s Institute, Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT. July 1995.

Despite the accolades…Despite the accolades…

– Initial reviews of the book are either nonexistent or negative.

– 1885: What Robert Brown calls “one of the great ironies of our literary history”—book is banned in the home of Emerson and Thoreau

Quick Historical ContextQuick Historical Context

• 1808- Congress outlaws the importation of slaves• 1820-Missouri Compromise allows for admission of

Missouri into the Union as a slave state• 1850- The Compromise of 1850 includes fugitive

Slave Act, which requires all citizens to assist in the return of fugitive slaves to their owners

• 1857-Dred Scott decision by US Supreme Court rules that a slave’s residence in a free state or free territory does not make him free

• 1861- Civil War begins• 1863- Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln

freeing “all slaves in areas still in rebellion”• 1865- Lincoln assassinated; 13th amendment

abolishes slavery; Civil war ends.

Major Themes in the NovelMajor Themes in the Novel

• an emphasis on realism

• a basic contempt for organized society

• a belief in the superiority of the individual, particularly during youth

HUCK & TOM= REALISM vs ROMANTICISM

• book written at the end of the Romantic period (look at your timeline)

• Romantic= imagination, individualism, creativity; Tom is optimistic and idealistic and BUT he tends to follow the rules and “do the right thing” according to Huck

• Realism= practical decisions and trouble imagining gang events with TOM but HUCK does like adventure so he does have some romantic qualities

HUCK IS AN OUTCAST IN SEARCH OF HIS IDENTITY

• Who does he live with? – Widow Douglas and Miss Watson not his

own father.

• What happens when he doesn’t have family to offer as “ransom”? – almost kicked out of band of robbers

• Who does he admire? – Tom (his YOUNGER friend) because he

has no one to look up to.

HUCK’s Internal conflict

• Society vs. Individual morals• Miss Watson tries to teach Huck about

Moses but Huck “takes no stock in dead people,” and looks to the future proving that he acts by his own opinions rather than society’s.

• Huck’s first RESOLUTION: decides to stop praying b/c he didn’t get what he wanted. Decides that helping others doesn’t help you any and there is no reason to do it.

4 Major Points of Emphasis4 Major Points of Emphasis• reflection on the frontier (Huck escapes

society)

• the importance of the river (symbolizes 2 things)

– byway for the hero to travel (not a road, a river)

– a security device (provides a haven from the trouble they face in the towns)

• the theme of rebirth

• Twain’s realistic appraisal of man

So, what’s wrong with So, what’s wrong with Huck? Huck?

• Initial criticisms center on gentility.

• More recent anti-Huck movements focus on racial issues: – the treatment of Jim in the novel, the

presence of the word “nigger” (213 times, to be exact)

– perceived ambiguity in both Huck’s and Twain’s attitudes toward African-Americans.

How do we handle these hot How do we handle these hot topics? topics?

• Read the novel with an understanding that “Twain’s consciousness and awareness is larger than that of any of the characters in the novel, including Huck.” In other words, analyze Huck’s words carefully in order to hear Twain’s own perspective peeking through. Do not make the age-old mistake of confusing author and narrator!

• How does this change our perception?

Narrator

• Huck Finn or Mark Twain?

• HUCK! Do not confuse the two. Huck is ignorant and innocent, Mark Twain, the author is very aware.

How do we handle these hot How do we handle these hot topics?topics?

– Consider the fact that in 1885—the year of Huck’s American debut—Twain writes a letter to Yale Law School, requesting to pay the tuition of one of the first black students. Twain claims, “We have ground the manhood out of them, and the shame is ours, not theirs, & we should pay for it.”

– What does this tell us?

HUCK Vs. TWAIN

• Huck is too innocent and ignorant to understand what’s wrong with his society and what’s right about his own rebellious behavior.

• Twain and Huck do NOT share the same voice. Twain teaches lessons through Huck. You have to look beneath the surface.

• Twain had come to believe not only that slavery was a horrendous wrong, but that white Americans owed black Americans some form of reparations for it. That is one of the lessons he teaches

How do we handle these hot How do we handle these hot topics?topics?

• Remember that Twain is a Realist. He wants to get away from the genteel, Romantic, British-style novel. He wants his story to be distinctly American, rugged, earthy, bold, and even messy. He could use the elision “n—” instead of the word “nigger,” but he doesn’t. WHY?– Realism – Put the issue of prejudice on the table

PAP: Symbol of EVIL and CORRUPTION

– Greedy• Racist—he kidnaps his own son! Just because

he wants the $6,000 (that’s love for ya)

– Child abuser• Beats Huck. Twain loved children and anyone

who was not nice to children was ridiculed in his books.

– Racist • Pap is angry about a black man going to

school. • So why would Pap act this way?

– He’s JEALOUS!

– Alcoholic – Criminal

JIM—The REAL hero of the novel

• He seems gullible but remember, the story is being told by a KID (12 years old!!!!!!)

– Jim breaks free from the stereotype– uses the incident with the hat to gain fame!—SPIKE LEE’s Hat

Scene by Ralph Wiley (African American Screen writer and satirist) • “ part of Twain's genius in this book is letting the reader see

things that Huck doesn't see, making Huck an endearing and engaging but ultimately unreliable narrator. In Wiley's script, the juxtaposition of the visual message the viewer gets, on the one hand, and the comically limited version of that reality that Huck (the narrator) communicates, on the other, captured that dramatic irony.”

– P. 18 uses a nasty hairball to make money—only works w/money!

– TO UNDERSTAND JIM you must read between the lines.

As you continue to read, look at Jim as the hero of the novel. Look at him as the protector of Huck. Look beyond what Huck says and see Jim for who he really is.

Why does Huck need a Father Figure?

Who can become the Father Figure?

Other thoughts on the “n” Other thoughts on the “n” word…word…

Writer David Bradley: “Language hurts people, reality hurts people. . . . If the word ‘nigger’ did not have meaning today we wouldn’t care that it was in [Huck Finn]. The hurt is that it still does have meaning.”

The old adage “sticks and stones might break my bones…”

Other thoughts on the “n” Other thoughts on the “n” word…word…

Unlike other words or phrases that have become negative through association (i.e. Buchenwald or 9-11), “nigger” has always been used pejoratively.

Other thoughts on the “n” Other thoughts on the “n” word…word…

• Consider Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen’s “Incident”:

Once riding in old Baltimore,    Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

I saw a Baltimorean    Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,    And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out    His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore    From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there    That's all that I remember.

Tough questions:Tough questions:Write these down, Write these down, answer with answer with

cautioncaution and we’ll discuss them. and we’ll discuss them.

• In general, who can or can’t say the word?

• Is the use of the word in the classroom different from outside the classroom?

• Is it different to read it in a text by an African-American? Why or why not?

• Does the use of the word in a “classic” work give it validity elsewhere?