Samuel
Langhorne
Clemens
(Mark Twain)
1835-1910
“A literary classic is a book which people praise and don’t read”
– Mark Twain
Sam Clemens as a boy
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Born on November 30, 1835 in Florida,
Missouri
Sixth of seven children
Only three siblings survived childhood
“Do not put off until tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just
as well.”
Sam Clemens as a boy
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Brought up in Hannibal,
MO, moved when four
years old
A sickly, strange, quiet
child who hated the indoors
and liked to run away.
Purposely contracted the
measles to gain attention
and nearly died
Father died when Sam was
11
“By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity – another man’s, I mean.”
Sam as a young man
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Apprenticed to a printer and wrote for his
brother’s newspaper after his father died.
Worked as a type-setter and writer for the
Hannibal Journal
When he turned 18, he became a printer,
living in several eastern cities, including
New York. Returned to Missouri at 22.
Inspired to become a steamboat captain on
a trip to New Orleans
When the Civil War ended river traffic, he
joined the Confederate army in Missouri
until it looked like they were going to have
to fight.
“The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man
who can’t read them.”
Sam Clemens becomes Mark Twain
Moved to Virginia City, Nevada, with his
brother Orion and became a miner
Failed at mining so he went to work at The
Territorial Enterprise as a writer
Used the pen-name Mark Twain for the
first time in 1863
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to
open it and remove all doubt.”
Mark Twain in California
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Left for San Francisco to avoid a duel and became a
reporter in 1864
Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog was published
around the country in 1865; giving Twain his first
national fame
Visited Hawaii as a correspondent for The
Sacramento Union
Set out on a tour of the Mediterranean and Europe in
1867; wrote about it successfully as The Innocents
Abroad in 1869
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Marriage and Home Life
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Writing success gave Twain enough money to
marry Olivia Langdon in 1870
Moved to Buffalo, NY
First child, son
Langdon, died at 19
months
Eventually had three
daughters: Susy, Clara,
and Jean
Movin’ on up
The Twains
moved to
Hartford,
Connecticut
“Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the
vast limits of their knowledge.”
From travel writer to immortal
artist
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Started Huck Finn in 1876 but quit by chapter
16 because of difficulties with the plot
Published:
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Tom Sawyer: 1876
The Prince and the Pauper: 1881
Life on the Mississippi: 1883
Huckleberry Finn: 1884
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes
you nothing. It was here first.”
Later life
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Susy died in 1896 while
Twain was on a world
tour
Olivia died in 1904
Later works were darker
with a tinge of bitterness
Died on April 21, 1910
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
The Adventures
of Huckleberry
Finn
“All modern literature comes from
one book by Mark Twain called
Huckleberry Finn…All American
writing comes from that. There
was nothing before. There has
been nothing as good since.”
-Ernest Hemingway
Huckleberry Finn
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Huckleberry Finn is thought to be a sequel to
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but the first
sixteen chapters of Huck were written before
Tom Sawyer was published.
 The novel is really about a boy’s discovery of
true morality by shedding the messed up
conventions of society in favor of his own sense
of right and wrong.
 Huck Finn is a comedy in which the humor is
disguised – mostly ironic humor as real
situations and people are different than Huck
perceives them to be.
Plot
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The plot is episodic, meaning that it has a
series of separate situations, or episodes, that
are almost unrelated but tied together by a
certain character, theme, or device.
 The Mississippi River is the plot device that
holds the different episodes together.
 The plot alternates between the idyllic life on the
raft and the confusion, gullibility, callousness,
and prejudice of the people within the towns
along the banks of the river.
Characterization
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the first American
novel to use dialect (the way people really speak in a
certain region) in such abundance
 Huck is in the picaresque (rogue) novel tradition in
which the main character is a rascal, thief or scoundrel
 Huck is an unreliable narrator, meaning he cannot be
trusted to see the action of the story accurately; he has
the perspective of a naïve, young boy
 Huck’s straightforward reporting of ridiculous situations
provides much of the humor in the book as the reader
sees what is going on while Huck may not.
 Huck is a tableau rasa (a blank slate) untainted by
society’s traditions, relying on instinct and common
sense
Themes
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The hypocrisy of a certain type of religion; Twain
did not like Southern-based Christianity that
taught love and compassion but sanctioned
slavery
 The ineffectualness of the law to protect the
most innocent and weak members of society
 Traditions that stifle creativity and common
sense but promote conformity and narrowmindedness are to be abandoned
Themes
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Society is the individual violence, greed,
conformity, laziness, gullibility, and selfishness
of common citizens ruled by imperfect laws
 Satire (making fun of a serious subject through
exaggeration or mockery in order to improve the
subject of mockery) of other melodramatic
novels of the time period (melodramas being
those plots that rely on suspense, sensational
events, and coincidence)
Conflicts
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Huck matures and develops into a moral human
being as he journeys down the Mississippi,
Huck’s moral struggles are the central conflict of
the novel as he frees himself from the taint of the
society in which he grew up
 Good vs. bad type of religion
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Life on the raft vs. life in society on shore
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Widow Douglas’s vs. Miss Watson’s
Jim and Huck are free on the river and bound on land
Instinct vs. education
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Huck’s common sense vs. Tom’s book learning
Huck Finn Final Notes
How are Tom and Huck
different?
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Although not book-smart, Huck is sensible, practical, and
efficient
Tom adds unnecessary things to his plans based on silly rules
and fantasy (symbolizing the laws and education of society)
Twain is making a statement about society’s rules and
institutions through Tom: they don’t help in the real world, they
are based on imagination, and they are random and often
ridiculous.
Tom is a representative of those who completely conform to
the rules of society: his imagination is based on the traditions
of books, he will not break a law (leaves five cents when he
“steals” the candles.
Huck does not follow all the rules of society, but he knows
how to treat others respectfully and with compassion, which is
more important characteristics according to Twain
The river vs. the town
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The river is always described as either powerful, large,
beautiful, or stable – suggesting its dignity and majesty
The townspeople are most often described as quarrelsome,
unreasonable, gullible, corrupt, or greedy
The river represents the natural state of society when not
corrupted: people are free to make choices, have
relationships, and are surrounded by peace and beauty
The town shows society in its corrupted state: lacking
freedom, civility, and morals while pretending to have all of
these things
On the river, Huck and Jim are free to be friends, but their
relationship is constantly interrupted and questioned by
agents of the town
Society cannot protect the
vulnerable
 Huck
is forced to obey an evil and corrupt
person through the courts
 Widow Douglas does little to recapture
Huck
 Miss Watson’s greed leads her to desire to
sell Jim to an unknown fate
Money corrupts
Pap is always scheming for Huck’s money
Miss Watson wants to sell a human being for money
The King and Duke do everything they do because of
the want of money
• The river boat fellow won’t go rescue the people on
the ship wreck until he’s assured of payment
• The worst characters (those who are least
sympathetic) are all corrupted by money
• The best characters are all least concerned by money,
including Huck, Jim, Judge Thatcher, Widow Douglas,
Silas Phelps, Aunt Sally, and even Tom Sawyer.
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Representative Characters
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Miss Watson represents hypocrisy because she
speaks of the Bible and Christianity (particulary
Moses) and owns a slave, is greedy, and plans
to sell another human being regardless of where
Jim would end up
 Pap represents brutality because he is violent
and ruled by his habits, prejudices, and jealousy.
 Kidnaps and threatens Huck
 Pushes the uppity negro off of the sidewalk
Jim and Huck
 Huck
and Jim’s relationship grows as the
story progresses:
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Huck says “They’re after us!”
Huck feels sad about the trick in the fog and
asks Jim’s forgiveness
Jim doesn’t tell Huck about his dead father
because he wishes to spare his feelings
Huck tears up the letter though he thinks he
will go to Hell for it
Why bring Tom Sawyer back?
 Tom
is a highly popular character
 Some comic relief is needed after Huck’s
decision to “go to Hell” to protect Jim;
theme getting too dark and serious
 Jim needed to be put in his place to play to
the sensibility of the reader
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Jim regains his dignity by sacrificing himself
for Tom Sawyer’s sake by fetching the doctor
Superstition and religion
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Superstition and religion are linked because Twain
shows the beliefs of both leading to poor decisionmaking and irrational behavior.
• Twain also suggests that religion can be effective
in helping good people become better (Huck,
Widow Douglas, Silas Phelps) if they actually live
their teachings about compassion and greed
• Otherwise, Twain sees religion as a tool for
corrupt people to hide their corruption behind a
cloak of respectability (Southern religions teaching
that slavery was approved of by God)
Supreme Moments of Selfsacrifice
 Jim
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risking his freedom to help Tom
Gives Jim his dignity back and shows him to
be a human being equal to white people
despite his lack of education
 Huck
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risking his eternal soul to help Jim
Shows his sense of right and wrong is
superior to the teachings of his upbringing
Twain puts a twist on the picaresque tradition
by making his “rascal” character a strong
moral character
Good and Bad Folks
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Sympathetic characters: Huck, Jim, Judge
Thatcher, Widow Douglas, Uncle Silas, Aunt
Sally
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Less sympathetic characters: Pap, Miss Watson,
King, Duke, and the new judge
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In-between: Tom Sawyer (too tied into the
traditions of society but a symbol for the fun and
imagination of youth