Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

IntroductionBackgroundDiscussion Starters

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

What do you do when you’re torn between what people want for you—or from you—and what you want for yourself?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

Huckleberry Finn lives in Missouri before the Civil War, near the Mississippi River.

Huck is young and uneducated.

With an alcoholic and unreliable father, he has grown up mostly on his own.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Not long before the novel begins, however, Huck has been taken to live with the Widow Douglas and her sister.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

But Huck thinks life with the two sisters is too civilized.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

He prefers living in the open and having adventures with his friend Tom Sawyer.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

On one of their adventures, the two boys found a lot of money in a cave (described in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).

Huck and Tom like to plan great adventures and play pranks on people.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

Pap wants Huck’s money—and kidnaps him to get it.

One day, Huck’s father, Pap, returns to town.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

After a miserable time with his father, Huck escapes.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Introduction

While he is running away, he meets Jim—a slave of Widow Douglas’s sister—who has escaped too.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: IntroductionThe two set off together on a raft on the Mississippi River—and on one of the most famous journeys in American literature.

• Will Huck be able to find freedom—or will civilization catch up to him?

• Should Huck help Jim or send him back to slavery?

• What adventures will they find on the river?

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, is one of the United States’ best-known authors.

In novels such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain vividly depicts the lives and dialects of southern people from long ago.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

Twain also uses humor and satire both to entertain and to comment on society.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place in the years before the Civil War.

Stealing a hunted slave was seen as a great crime—and morally wrong.

In the South at that time, a slave was considered property.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

When Twain wrote the novel, in the 1880s, the Civil War had been fought, and the slaves had been freed.

However, conditions for African Americans were still very difficult in many parts of the United States.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

When Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published, critics hated the novel, accusing it of “coarse fun” and “gutter realism.”

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, wrote “If Mr. Clemens cannot think of something better to tell our pure-minded lads and lasses, he had best stop writing for them.”

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

Twain welcomed the controversy, however, hoping that it would bring more sales.

The book sold fifty thousand copies in the first few months.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

Today, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remains controversial.

Although it’s accepted as a classic of American literature, some critics still accuse it of being racist, and its use in schools has been challenged.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Background

Twain does use terms now considered racist.

However, he creates a powerful argument against slavery as well.

Also, in a way perhaps surprising for the time, he allows Jim to speak for himself, revealing truths that even Twain may have found uncomfortable.

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Discussion

Many books that were written in the past contain ideas about race, gender, or class that we now view as outdated or offensive.• How can we approach these

books?• What can we learn from them?• Do you think there are some

audiences for which they would be inappropriate? Why?

Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or

historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of

years ago, and how are they still relevant today?

Thinking about the New England Dialect

• What are some words that we use that are not used in other parts of the country? Also, think about the way that we say words. Can you think of some rules that reflect how we pronounce words?

• If you’re stuck think of how we saw coffee, drawer, Splenda, park, etc. Draw a web on a sheet of paper and start brainstorming some of our unique words and pronunciations.

• Have you ever been judged by how you speak by people from out of state? What assumptions did they make?

• If you finish early, start reading Huck Finn.Core Values: Communication and Higher Order Thinking SkillsStd 9: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary work by relating it to its contemporary or historical background. EQ: What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago, and how are they still relevant today?