Huck Finn Literature
Circle # 1
Chapters 1-8
Summarizer (5-7 minutes)
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Share your assessment of the major events of
chapter 1-8. Make sure you clearly outline each
chapter—consider Historical/Biographical school
as you discuss
Group members may add to the summary, but
be RESPECTFUL
This is a good time to clarify any confusion you
may have had while reading these chapters
Discussion director should make sure everyone
stays on task.
Illustrator (5 minutes)
Share your illustration with your group and
explain why you chose what you did. Make
sure you are detailed.
 Other group members should ask
questions and make connections to what
the summarizer said

Discussion Director (7-10 minutes)

Begin asking and discussing your
questions. Make sure you facilitate the
discussion so it lasts the full time period.
Make sure you invite everyone to
participate in the discussion; don’t
monopolize the conversation. Get it going
and then allow others to comment.
Illuminator (7-10 minutes)
Share your passages and insights. Make
sure you tell your group the page number.
 This is a good time to discuss the
passages, add to the discussion as the
illuminator shares (discussion director, you
should be exceptionally perceptive in
adding your thoughts here)

Word Watcher (5-7 minutes)
Share the words and their significance
with particular attention paid to
historical/biographical significance—
 If you do not have a word watcher, you
should work together as a group to find
important words in the passage to record.

Connector (7-10 minutes)
Share your connections to the text and
encourage your group to add their own
thoughts to your connections.
 Read the Spike Lee version of the Hat
Scene and discuss these three questions

 How
does this scene change your
perception?
 What point of view do we see in this revised
version?
 Why is it important to look at multiple
perspectives?
Next Lit Circle (11/2) chapters 9-20
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Discussion director will be
the illuminator
Illuminator will be the
illustrator
Illustrator will be the
connector
Connector will be the
summarizer
Summarizer will be the
discussion director






Discussion director will be
the illuminator
Illuminator will be the
illustrator
Illustrator will be the
connector
Connector will be the
summarizer
Summarizer will be the
Word Watcher
Word Watcher will be the
discussion director
The Adventures of
Huck Finn
Chapters 1-8
Narrator
Huck Finn or Mark Twain?
 HUCK! Do not confuse the two. Huck is
ignorant and innocent, Mark Twain, the
author is very aware.

HUCK Vs. TWAIN


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Huck is too innocent and ignorant to
understand what’s wrong with his society
and what’s right about his own rebellious
behavior.
Twain and Huck do NOT share the same
voice. Twain teaches lessons through Huck.
You have to look beneath the surface.
Twain had come to believe not only that
slavery was a horrendous wrong, but that
white Americans owed black Americans
some form of reparations for it. That is one of
the lessons he teaches
HUCK IS AN OUTCAST IN
SEARCH OF HIS IDENTITY

Who does he live with?
 Widow
Douglas and Miss Watson not his
own father.

What happens when he doesn’t have
family to offer as “ransom”?
 almost

kicked out of band of robbers
Who does he admire?
 Tom
(his YOUNGER friend) because he
has no one to look up to.
JIM—The REAL hero of the
 He seems gullible but remember, the story is
novel
being
toldyou
by a KID
(12 years to
old!!!!!!)
As
continue
read,


Jim breaks free from the stereotype
look
Jimwith
asthe
the
of
uses
theat
incident
hathero
to gain fame!—SPIKE
LEE’s
Hat Scene Look
by Ralphat
Wiley
(African
the novel.
him
as American
the
Screen writer and satirist)
protector
ofgenius
Huck.
Look
“ part of Twain's
in this book
is letting the reader
see things that
Huck doesn't
see,
making and
Huck an
beyond
what
Huck
says
endearing and engaging but ultimately unreliable
narrator.
In Wiley's
script, the
juxtaposition
of
the visual
see
Jim
for
who
he
really
is.
message the viewer gets, on the one hand, and the

comically limited version of that reality that Huck (the
narrator) communicates, on the other, captured that
dramatic irony.”

P. 18 uses a nasty hairball to make money—only
works w/money!
 TO UNDERSTAND JIM you must read between the
lines.
HUCK & TOM= REALISM vs
ROMANTICISM



book written at the end of the Romantic
period (look at your timeline)
Romantic= imagination, individualism,
creativity; Tom is optimistic and idealistic
and BUT he tends to follow the rules and “do
the right thing” according to Huck
Realism= practical decisions and trouble
imagining gang events with TOM but HUCK
does like adventure so he does have some
romantic qualities
HUCK’s Internal conflict



Society vs. Individual morals
Miss Watson tries to teach Huck about
Moses but Huck “takes no stock in dead
people,” and looks to the future proving that
he acts by his own opinions rather than
society’s.
Huck’s first RESOLUTION: decides to stop
praying b/c he didn’t get what he wanted.
Decides that helping others doesn’t help you
any and there is no reason to do it.
PAP: Symbol of EVIL and CORRUPTION

Greedy


Child abuser


Racist—he kidnaps his own son! Just because
he wants the $6,000 (that’s love for ya)
Beats Huck. Twain loved children and anyone
who was not nice to children was ridiculed in
his books.
Racist


Pap is angry about a black man going to
school.
So why would Pap act this way?


He’s JEALOUS!
Alcoholic
 Criminal
Why does Huck need
a Father Figure?
Who can become the Father
Figure?
Jim as the Father Figure
Historically: why is this a radical move on
the part of Mark Twain?
 Biographically: what does this reveal to
you about Mark Twain?

Superstition Motif

Who believes in superstitions?
 Pap
 Huck
 Jim
What does this reveal to you about the
historical time period?
 What does this reveal about Twain?

Huck Finn
The research project
Topic Selection

You will be writing a lit crit paper on The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 Choose
a school to align yourself with
 Decide on an argumentative question that is
aligned with that school
 Begin researching as you read to develop the
most effective paper
Suggested schools

Historical/Biographical—with this school you
would research the author’s background and the
historical context. Really consider the roles
these things play to develop your argumentative
question. Remember, it’s not a report on Mark
Twain or the Civil War, or Slavery, but it
evaluates the influences of these things on the
text and the reader.
 Sources: MUST HAVE 5
 Textbook (English, US History etc)
 Class notes (mine, US History etc)
 Novels
Suggested School

Moral/philosophical—with this school you
would research the moral issues involved
with Huck Finn. For example, you might
focus on the censorship of Huck Finn, or
the issues of race.
 Sources:
Must have 5
Class notes (Mine, US History, etc)
 Novel

Suggested Schools

Archetypal—with this school you would
research the symbolism and the patterns
seen in the text and how it
affects/enhances meaning
 Sources:
Must have 5
Class Notes (Mine, Psychology etc)
 Jungian books
 Novel

Suggested Schools

Feminist—with this school you would
research the female role in comparison to
the male roles in the novel.
 Sources:
Must have 5
Novel
 Class Notes (mine)

Suggested Schools

Marxist—with this school you would
research the class system (slavery and
race) and the role of the government (precivil war politics)
 Sources:
Must have 5
Class notes (mine, US History, Civics etc)
 Textbook (mine, US History, Civics etc)
 Novel

Suggested Schools

Reader Response—with this school you
would focus on your own reaction as well
as the reaction of other readers and critics
and what elicits that reaction, particularly
the backgrounds of the audience in
question
 Sources:
Must have 5
Literature circle Notes (classmates/interviews)
 Novel

Requirements
Must be argumentative
 Must be 5-7 pages of WRITING (not
including the works cited page)
 Must incorporate in-text citations
 Must be turned in to www.turnitin.com
 Choose your own due date—caveats to
this etc.

Questions?
Write them on the note card.
Tonight: start preliminary
research and begin to focus in
on a school of thought