The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain

Huck Finn Introduction

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain. It first published in the Untied States in ______.

It was published during the ______ which refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century.

  • The term "Gilded Age" was coined by ______and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.
  • The name refers to the process of ______an object with a ______of gold and is meant to make fun of ostentatious display while playing on the term "______."

WHY IS MARK TWAIN A SIGNIFICANT AMERICAN WRITER?

He was the first major writer to:

  • use ______(and not only in dialogue)
  • deal with ______that were important to Americans
  • assume that ______of Americans were as worthy of ______as British/ European concerns were.

His Beliefs:

  • ______of the world which insisted on the importance of conventional manners while ignoring inner corruption.
  • The dictates of conscience should take precedence over the dictates of society.
  • Twain ______who escapes contamination by society.
  • Believes the peak ______in a person’s life happens during ______.
  • Why do you think Mark Twain’s beliefs are important to know?

WHY IS HUCK FINN A SIGNIFICAN AMERICAN NOVEL?

  • It was ______: It departs from the Victorian, genteel English novel tradition.
  • Introduces ______– focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, and other features of a particular region.
  • Twain researched southwestern ______for authenticity in his story.
  • Dialects develop when groups of people are separated from one another for long periods by geography or social barriers.
  • Is written in the ______.
  • Vernacular = the everyday spoken language of a particular locality/group, as distinguished from its formal, literary language.
  • Published in 1885; takes place in ______. Civil War is in between, therefore…
  • He is writing about slavery, but after it has been abolished.
  • American audiences after the Civil War wanted ______, not romanticism.
  • After writing approximately half of the book, Twain returned to the Mississippi River in the early 1880s, and traveled down the river.
  • Was appalled by the post-Civil War era treatment of former slaves.
  • Second half of book takes on darker tone.

CHARACTERS IN HUCK FINN

  • ______: child narrator, protagonist
  • ______: runaway slave owned by Miss Watson
  • ______: the ladies who adopt Huck
  • ______: Huck’s father
  • ______: woman Huck “borrows” from
  • ______: two feuding families (like the Hatfields and McCoys)
  • ______: Two con artists Huck and Jim meet on their journey
  • The Wilkes Family:
  • ______: A wealthy man who has died
  • ______: Peter Wilkes’s daughters
  • ______: Peter’s brother who live in England. Harvey is a preacher and William is deaf and dumb.

SETTING OF THE BOOK/FILM

  • The story is set in the Mississippi River Valley along ______.
  • The Mississippi River is an important ______in this novel/film.
  • The river is the ultimate symbol of ______for both Huck and Jim
  • The story begins in ______.
  • Huck and Jim visit ______.
  • ______: where the Mississippi River and the Ohio river meet

THEMES TOPICS IN HUCK FINN

  • ______: maturing and growing up
  • ______of the post-Civil War American South
  • Satire: the use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to ______a person’s or society’s flaws
  • Allegory about ______
  • Allegory about ______
  • ______: an extended metaphor in which symbolic fictional figures and actions reveal certain truths or generalizations about human existence