- Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorn Clemens - Florida, Missouri - 1835
- Huck Finn - 1884 (following Tom Sawyer in 1876)
- Twain worked as type set for his brothers newspapers, Hannibal Journal
- Gave up printing to work on River boats on the Mississippi
- Name Mark Twain influenced by river boat & leadmen's signal--"By the Mark, twain"
- That was the water was deep enough for passage
- Raft scenes come from years on the river boats
- When Civil War broke out he joined the confederate side, but was not hard confederate
- After leaving the war headed west and became a silver minor in Nevada
- Eventually landing his true calling of journalism
- 1863 started penning his name as Mark Twain
- 1860 & 1870's, Twain's articles, stories, memoirs, and novels, characterized by an irrepressible wit and a deft ear for language and dialect garnered him immerse celebrity
- Huckleberry Finn is a sequel to Tom Sawyer, in an effort to capitalize on the popularity of the earlier novel
- More serious novel character and focused on the institution of slavery in the south
- Dwindling wealth and family hardships made future work take on a depressed tone but he was continued to enjoy immerse esteem and fame and continued to be in demand as a public speaker until his death in 1910.
- Novel didn't die with author. In the 20c. it has gained popularity as a subject of intense controversy
- The novel occasionally has been banned in the southern states because of its steadfastly critical take on the south and the hypocrisies of slavery
- Seen as vulgar/racist but loses the deeper meanings of antislavery
- Characterized by local color regionalisms
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- Set in St. Petersburg, MO (fictional town) (based on the town of Hannibal, MO) ~1834-1844
- Starts in the ending of Tom Sawyer and how Tom and Huck came into money because they found the robbers gold
- Tom was a mischievous middle class boy while Huck was a poor boy with drunken father
- Widow Douglas adopted Huck (sister to Mrs. Watson)
- The bank held Huck's money in a trust fund for him.
- Huck is not thrilled with his new life of cleanliness, manners, church, and school but learns to accept it.
- All is well until Huck's drunken father, Pap, reappears into town demanding Huck's money
- Judge Thatcher & the widow try to gain local custody of Huck; the new judge in town not knowing Huck's background refuses to take him from his father
- Pap kidnaps Huck from the widow & holds him hostage across the river in Illinois
- Pap keeps Huck locked in the cabin when he leaves
- Tired of his confinement Huck fakes his own death by killing a pig & spreading the blood all around
- Hides on Jackson's Island in the middle of the Mississippi
- Watches as the town folk search the river for his body
- After a few days he encounters Jim. One of Miss Watson's slaves
- Jim runs away after hearing of Miss Watson selling him down river to a "Southern" plantation where he'd be treated horribly and separated from his wife and children.
- Huck & Jim team up although unsure of his helping a slave run away
- While on the island a storm flood's the Mississippi
- A house & boat float by. They latch on to the boat to use to loot the house
- Inside the house they find a deadman; Jim refuses to let Huck see the face of the dead man
- They are forced to leave the island when a woman tells her husband she sees smoke coming from the island and believes Jim is hiding on there.
- Huck also learns there is a reward out for catching Jim.
- Huck & Jim start down river on a raft with plans to ditch it at the month of the Ohio where they'll get on a steamboat headed for free states
- Passing St. Louis they encounter robbers and manage to steal their loot
- Thick fog makes them miss the Ohio River
- Then they encounter men looking for runaway slaves
- Huck lies and tells the men his father is on board with smallpox & Jim is their slave
- Terrified of the disease the men give Huck money & leave quickly
- The next night their raft is slammed by a steamboat and they are separated
- (Kentucky) Huck winds up at the home of Grangerfords, Southern Aristocrat family locked in a bitter feud with a neighboring clan, the Shepherdson's.
- The elopement of the Grangerford's daughter with the Shepherdson's son leads to a gun fight and many of the family members killed
- Huck gets caught in the battle but Jim shows up with the repaired raft. Huck goes to Jim's hiding spot and they take off down the river.
- (Missouri Arkansas Tennessee border) A few days later they save a pair of men being chased by armed bandits
- The men claim to be a displaced English Duke and long-lost heir to the French thrown (the duke & the dauphin). They are clearly con-artists (llost Dauphin - rumors Louis-Charles spirited away)
- Unable to tell two white adult men to leave, the venture on with them.
- The duke and the dauphin pull several scams along the way in small river towns
- The con artists get wind of a dead man, Peter Wilks who left fortune to his relatives coming in from England. The next scam starts.
- They pretend to be Wilks brothers
- The 3 nieces greet with open arms and quickly begin liquidating the estate
- A few townspeople become skeptical & Huck grows fond of the Wilks's sisters so he's ready to thwart the scam
- Huck steals the gold and is forced to stash it in Wilks's coffin
- Huck reveals to the eldest Wilks sister, Mary Jane
- Just as Huck's plan to reveal the con artists is about to happen, the real Wilks brothers show up from England
- The duke and the dauphin just barely escape before the the ensuing confusion
- The gold is found by the sisters.
- The duke & the dauphin make it to the fart before Huck and Jim can escape them.
- They perform a few more small scams before their biggest one; they sell out Jim to a local farmer, telling him Jim is a runaway with a huge reward being offered
- Huck finds out where Jim is being held & resolves to free him
- At the house Jim is prisoner in, a woman excitedly greets Huck, calling him "Tom"
- The people holding Jim were Toms aunt and uncle, Sally & Silas Phelps
- The Phelp's mistake Huck for Tom who is due to visit; Huck goes with it
- Huck intercepts Tom between the Phelp's home and the docks; Tom pretends to be his young brother Sid
- Tom prepares a wild plan to free Jim with unnecessary obstacles; Jim is only lightly secured
- Huck is sure Tom's plan will get them killed but goes with it anyway
- After pointless preparation where the boy's ransacked the house and annoy Aunt Sally they put the plan to actions
- Jim is freed but Tom gets shot in the leg
- Huck is forced to get a doctor
- Jim risks his freedom to nurse Tom
- All are returned back to the Phelp's house; Jim is put back in chains
- When Tom wakes the next morning, he reveals Jim is a free man all along; Miss Watson made a provision in her will to free Jim, died 2 months earlier
- Tom planned the entire escape as a game & intended to repay Jim for all his troubles
- Tom's aunt Polly shows up, identifying Huck & Tom.
- Jim tells Huck, who fears his father will come back that the dead man they found in the house was Pap.
- Aunt Sally offers to adopt Huck
- Huck said he had enough "sivilizing' and plans to move out west.
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- Characterized by local color regionalisms
- Told in 1st person by Huck
- Colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River
- Often scathing Satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism
- Huck & Jim - Racism, Father and son relationship, rebirth
- Racism - moral confusion --> good people behaving badly to slaves
- explores father/son relationships
- Intellectual -->moral education
- Huck questions the morals he was taught by a society that rejects him
- He relies on streetsmarts (which works for him ) over book learning (which is mocked through Tom Sawyer)
- Superstition is huge
- lies/cons --> every mini story
Major Themes
- explores notions of race and identity
- obvious complexity concerning Jim's character
- Jim is seen by some as a good-hearted, moral, and not unintelligent
- Other site the novel as racist & emphasizing stereotypically "comic" treatment of Jim's superstition & ignorance
- 19th C. social climate & the role it forces on him regarding Jim
- Huck is in moral conflict with the received values of society
- makes his own valuation on moral choice due to friendship with Jim & human worth
- Twain highlights the hypocrisy required to condone slavery
- Huck imprissoned/punished by his father, then fleeing
- Meets Jim doing the same thing
- Huck seen as in the right, Jim seen as in the wrong.
- Racism & slavery
- Huck Finn written 2 decades after the Emancipation Proclamation
- Jim Crow Laws
- Allegorical representation of the condition of Blacks in the U.S.
- Intellectual & Moral Education
- Huck is an uneducated, Poor, orphan
- Distrusts morals & percepts of the society that treats him as an outcast
- Apprehension of society & growing relationship with Jim has Huck question his teachings regarding race & slavery
- Hypocrisy of "Civilized" society
- Huckleberry Finn - a boy of about 13-14 years old; brought up by drunk father; hard time fitting in
- Widow Douglass - Kind hearted lady who took Huck in
- Miss Watson - Widow's sister; hard on Huck
- Jim - Miss Watson's slave
- Tom Sawyer - Huck's mischievous friend
- Pap - Huck's father
- Judith Loftus - local town woman where Huck gets info
- The Grangerfords & The Sheperdsons
- The Duke & the King
- Doc Robinson
- Mary Jane, Joanna, & Susan Wilks
- Aunt Sally & Uncle Silas Phelps
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