Huckleberry Finn Notes

by DH

• Genre
o Picaresque novel
• Written in episodic style
• In Huck Finn, a young man breaks with his past and sets off on a
journey (literal and symbolic)
• Mark Twain
o Samuel Clemens
o Pseudonym
o Born in 1835 and when he was 4 years old, his family moved to
Hannibal, Missouri
• The fictional town of St. Petersburg where Huck Finn was from
represented Hannibal, Missouri
o In 1857, Mark Twain always had a fascination in the steamboats on the
Mississippi. He sought out to be a steamboat apprentice.
o He served as a river pilot until the start of the Civil War (early 1860's)
• This was the reason that he chose the name Mark Twain
• When they shouted this on a boat, this meant that the water
was deep enough (2 fathoms)
o He went out west, went to Europe, went to mining camps, and lived a
long life
o He died in 1910 in Stormfield, Connecticut
o He is so many things in his writing! Even romantic!
o He showed both sides of human nature in this novel.
• The Subject matter
o Man can function better as an individual rather than as a group of
society
o He tries to make the story realistic
o Twain could not stand hypocrisy. Following your conscious was a big
deal to him
• This is what creates the main issue of Huck deciding if he should
help Jim escape or return him.
• Society is the corrupting force in this novel.
 This can be contrasted to Lord of the Flies in which the
author felt that the individual is naturally bad regardless of
society.
• Dialect
o The characters are given everyday speech
o They speak in the vernacular or the everyday speech of the average
man.
o There are various local dialects
o Twain was considered a local color writer.
• He would write about the area that he knows best and gives you
the complete picture of the area.
• The Mississippi River
o This becomes a very essential symbol
 o It is a symbol of good
o Nature gives back and fosters goodness in you
o Huck felt that the river, which took him out of society, made him better
off
o Coming of age
• This is Huck's symbolic road on which he will travel to find
himself
• Rebirth
o Huck must symbolically die and be reborn to find himself
o The river's waters are working with the symbol of cleansing
o In the beginning, Huck fakes his own death and is "reborn" on the river
o Huck's father had died and , symbolically, Jim will become like his
father
• Their bond grows on and on
• Jim realizes that he is a human being and not property and he
comes to care and respect this man and regarding him as a father-
figure
• Comparing Jim and his real father- there is no comparison based
on skin color
• There are so many hypocrites in this novel
o Huck can't be free until he is HIMSELF
• Society
o Twain rejects the romantic concept that man is fundamentally good
and there is good in everyone. He thinks this idea is naïve.
o There is evil in every man
o Man has the capacity for evil.
o Even Twain is contradictory because in the end Huck Finn is rewarded
and the bad guys get what they deserve. This makes it more romantic and
less realist.
o He followed the romantic idea of women which is that they are
generally good.
• A Great American Novel
o Twain did break with the conventions of previous writers in a radical
way
o America, at this time, looked to Europe for their arts and literature.
o He used dialect which was very uniquely American and this was never
done before.
o Twain also used satire- he wasn't the first- but he was the first to
majorly used it in a novel.
• People were not sure enough of themselves as a nation to use
satire on themselves.
o Note: the use of the word "nigger" was not racist. It was standard in its
use.
• Narrator
o Huck Finn
o Speaks in the vernacular
o We can, to an extent, identify with him in his moral decisions he has
trouble making.
• Superstition and Religion
 o Good/bad omens
o Twain feels that organized religion create hypocrites.
o Huck smokes, swears, steals, lies, etc. and yet he is a better person
and less of a hypocrite than many of the religious people he meets.
o Huck accepts from society that a slave is property
• This is ironic because his father treats him like a slave and he
resents this.
o Tall tales
• Very exaggerated story
• They have a purpose. They can give you prestige (Jim's necklace
that he got from a witch) or you can use it to pull someone's leg
(gullible) or it can be used as you think on your feet to save your own
ass.
• Tom Sawyer
o He is less of a realist than Huck Finn
o He is not a natural liar.
o He is somewhat civilized
o He's a romanticist.
• Huck's journey begins
o He takes on a number of identities
• He first dresses up like a little girl
• As king as he has assumed identities, bad things happen in the
plot.
• When he is himself, there is a peaceful ending and outlook
o The river
• There is a boat that symbolizes the presence of evil on the river
• HOWEVER the boat has an ironic name Walter Scott
 He was an author who put forward writings about chivalry
and honor.
o They are discussing royalty
• Jim doesn't see the socio-economic difference between himself
and royalty.
 This is Twain speaking through him.
o Relationship with Jim
• Huck was once teasing him but then takes it back and feels bad
about it. He was engrained with this racist idea that he can take
advantage of an ignorant runaway slave.
• Jim is talking about his future with great enthusiasm
o The feuding families
• Grangerford vs. Shepardson
• They are upper class but feud
• It has like a Romeo and Juliet with two of the young people of
the families.
o The duke and the King
• Before they commandeer them, Huck was giving his version of
the "golden rule"
• He knows that these guys are bad news but he kind of lets them
take over
  He wanted to just keep peace and his and Jim's
relationship is cemented and he doesn't want to do anything to
rock the boat.
• These men are called confidence men (con men) and grifters
o Town 1
• The sheriff and Boggs
• There is a drunk man who gets into a shoot out
• The town is excited and entertained by it.
• They then turn on the sheriff and form a lynching mob
• Twain feels that man accomplished more on his own- this mob
mentality and the colonel supports this idea
o Scams
• The royal nunsuch
• The inheritance with the three sisters
• The collecting of money from the parish in the woods
• Huck is ashamed because he sometimes goes along with them
• Exposing them, though, risks Jim's freedom and he genuinely
cares about him
o Turning point
• He writes a letter to Ms. Watson about Jim's whereabouts but
then never sends it and destroys it.
• He is going against society as an individual conscience.
o Tom Sawyer
• He takes on his identity
• He romanticizes everything
• He creates an escape "plan" because "that's the way it's done"
• It is preposterous
• He isn't even upset when he's shot in the leg because it is a part
of the "adventure"
• Jim risks his freedom for him
o Freedom
• The west symbolizes freedom
• Slavery and racism
• Jim Crow
o Civilization vs. the Wild
o Tom Sawyer was written prior to this
• Twain says that both characters were loosely based on
childhood friends of his
• When published, it was banned because of it's abolitionist
themes
• Twain went on tour to promote the banned novel but people
were reading it anyway simply because it was banned and they were
curious
• It is still frowned upon in some places today for themes and
language and will most likely remain so.