Mark Twain, Satire, & The
Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
Before we begin…
• You already know that
Romanticism ended
with the Civil War
• What followed?
Realism. 1850 to 1900
• Photography allowed
people to see the truth
of the Civil War, a war
they thought would
only last a short time.
• The horror of the war
caused people to lose
their idealistic nature &
gain a realistic view of
the sadness of life.
The Civil War
• Authors gained a first hand view
of the war. Walt Whitman worked
as a military nurse helping the
wounded
• Realists were a new group of
writers who wanted to capture the
reality of the world. (poverty, war,
sickness, and tragedy)
• This was anti-Romantic because
they were no longer inspired by
intuition and nature, but rather by
the REAL world as it presented
itself.
Characteristics of Realism
• Common, ordinary people
• Set in the present
• Examined the difficulties of
life
• Highly detailed and
descriptive (especially of
grotesque images of war)
• Regionalism: Sub category of
realism; emphasized a
specific location, their people
and dialect (ie. The Deep
South)
Continued…
• Naturalism: scientific
view; experimented
with psychology and
sociology; studied
human behaviors
• Naturalists were
characteristically grim
and pessimistic; they
didn’t believe in God
Jot down your answers…
• Why should a school recommend that all American
Literature students read a book that has been called
crude, racist, and irrelevant for the modern age?
• Why should an American classic that has been read by
millions and that Ernest Hemingway called the "one
book" from which "all modern American literature" came
be declared unnecessary for 21st Century education?
• These conflicting questions are at the center of the
controversy over Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn that we
confront today.
Meet the Author
• Given name – Samuel Clemens
• 1835 to 1910 (Witness to the shift
between Romanticism & Realism)
• Pen Name – Mark Twain
• “Father of American Satire”
• Worked on a steamboat
• Born in Missouri (setting for many of his
stories)
• Famous for his humor, wit and charm
The beginnings of a classic…
• Twain began to write The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a
sequel to his comedy Tom Sawyer.
• This new book was a serious and dark satire of slavery in the deep
South.
• He was forced to shelve the book, until well after the Civil War
(Reconstruction).
• His personal life began to collapse:
• His wife was sickly
• His young son passed away
• He made several poor financial choices
• He continued to write and finished Huck Finn
• Since its publication, the novel has been the center of intense
controversy
• It has been considered vulgar and racist by those who refuse to see
Twain’s satirical views.
Major Characters
• Huckleberry Finn –
adventurous, young, kind (a
bit of a hooligan)
• Tom Sawyer – Huck’s best
friend and foil character
• Jim
• Pap
• The Widow & Ms. Douglass
• The Duke and the Dauphin
• The Grangerfords
• Sally and Silas Phelps
• Aunt Polly
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
• Plot: While
traveling down
the Mississippi
with a runaway
slave, an
adolescent boy
learns to decide
for himself what
really matters.
• Setting: 19th
Century, small
town, Mississippi
River
What was happening in
history…
• Written 20 years after
the Civil War
• Slavery had been
abolished
• Extremely race
oriented &
controversial
• Twain wanted to
show the reality of
racism & human
nature
Thematic Ideas
(Look for these as you read!)
• Racism and Slavery ( The reality
of how people acted)
• Intellectual vs. Moral Education
(Are the school educated
smarter or more aware than
those who understand morality?)
• Hypocrisy in “civilized” society
• The quest for freedom
• Twain’s satirical view of
superstition (a very Romantic
ideal)
Things you should know as you
read…
• The goal of the novel is to explore the
racial and moral controversies that
continue to surround society.
• The material in Huck Finn is sensitive and
shockingly open. It is important to
understand that Twain uses this method to
show readers that we must not exhibit the
same immoral tendencies as the
characters.