The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By: Mark TwainPublished in 1884

Mark Twain• Real name was

Samuel Clemmens• Very political• Wrote about social

issues and how he

felt about slavery,

racism, and war• Grew up in Missouri and was a river boat

pilot• His experience on the river is what

inspired a lot of his stories

Mark Twain cont.• Twain wrote novels,

articles, essays, and poems

• He wrote of happy times

• His wit turned a bit darker when he wrote the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published in 1884

Realism• a theory of writing

in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is.

Huckleberry Finn

The novel occasionally has been banned in Southern states because of its steadfastly critical take on the South and the hypocrisies of slavery. Others have dismissed Huckleberry Finn as vulgar or racist because it uses the word “n*****,” a term whose connotations obscure the novel’s deeper themes—which are unequivocally antislavery—and even prevent some from reading and enjoying it altogether. The fact that the historical context in which Twain wrote made his use of the word insignificant—and, indeed, part of the realism he wanted to create—offers little solace to some modern readers.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

• A story of a boy’s journey to finding himself in an imperfect world

• Bildungsroman-self discovery

Background Information

• Huck is friends with Tom Sawyer

• Huck lives with Miss Watson

• Huck’s mom died when he was young and his dad is an abusive alcoholic

• Huck seeks to run away from Miss Watson and be able to live on his own and take care of himself

Major Characters:

Huck Finn: young boy that seeks to run away from home; smart and efficient; uncivilized in manner and habitJim: slave on Miss Watson's plantation who later escapes and becomes Huck’s friendHuck’s father: abusive, drunk old man who is using Huck for his money

More Characters:

• Tom Sawyer: idealist and hopeless romantic, constantly pretending and creating situations in his head

• Miss Watson: foster mother who tried to civilize Huck

Themes- Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

• Friendship• Racism and

Slavery• Maturity• Freedom• Legality vs.

Morality• Love• Hypocrisy of

society

Symbol- Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

• Mississippi River-place of escape

Motifs- Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

• Childhood

• Lies and Cons

• Relationships

Literary Terms• Dialect- regional or social

variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary

• Hyperbole- extreme exaggeration

• Satire- the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule in exposing, denouncing, or deriding immorality