The Adventures of Huck Finn
Chapters 1-3
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
 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 novel
 He seems gullible but remember, the story is
Astold
you
read,
being
by acontinue
KID (12 yearsto
old!!!!!!)
look at Jim as the hero of
the novel. Look at him as the
protector
of
Huck.
Look
 “ part of Twain's genius in this book is letting the reader
see things what
that Huck Huck
doesn't see,
making Huck
an
beyond
says
and
endearing and engaging but ultimately unreliable
see
JimIn for
who
hejuxtaposition
really ofis.
narrator.
Wiley's
script, the
the visual
 Jim breaks free from the stereotype
 uses the incident with the hat to gain fame!—SPIKE
LEE’s Hat Scene by Ralph Wiley (African American
Screen writer and satirist)
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.
Who do you identify most with? Why?
Tom Sawyer
Huck Finn
Jim
Huck Finn
Chapters 4-7
FATHER and the need for a
FATHER FIGURE
PAP: Symbol of EVIL and CORRUPTION
 Greedy

Racist—he kidnaps his own son! Just because he
wants the $6,000 (that’s love for ya)
 Child abuser

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?