Huckleberry Finn Pathfinder
"It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with
stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss
about whether they was made or only just happened."
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Books available in the library!
Literary Criticism
Bloom’s Guide Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: a Norton Critical Edition
How to Write about Mark Twain
Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voices
How to research wisely using the internet !
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Some articles only provide the Abstract (summary of the article). Full-text provides the
entire article.
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Boolean Operators are words which construct relationships among search terms
o AND – retrieves records containing all of the words listed
o OR – retrieves records containing any words listed
o NOT - retrieves records that do not contain the term following it
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Wildcard symbols can expand the scope of your search. The asterisk (*) expands a
search term to include all forms of a root word.
o patent* retrieves patent, patents, patentable, patented, etc.
You can also try to come up with your own search combinations
 Be patient with your research (it’s not always easy)
 When you are searching you might have to try different combinations
 Read the abstract (the summary of the article) to find out if it matches your topic
Click on Literary Reference Center
Sign in to create an account
 This will help you to retrieve your information when you add articles to your folder.
o adding articles to your folder will help you organize your material.
o When you sign in the articles you have chosen will be there for you to retrieve
o You can also email the articles to yourself
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After you have created an account you can begin your search
Typing in just Huckleberry Finn in the box will result in over 300+ articles
To modify your search results:
o Click on Literary Criticism
o Click on Advanced Search on the very top
o And check off
the Full Text box
o Now you will see 300+ articles to choose from
Advanced Research
 Type in Huckleberry Finn AND river (you get about 28 articles instead of 300+ articles).
 Using a Boolean search strategy allows us to save time.
 It also makes our research more refined & authentic
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Using your project sheet come up with Boolean terms to guide your research
project
Thematic elements of Huckleberry Finn include:
o River and the raft as symbolism
o The bond between Huckleberry Finn and Jim
o Morality vs. Society
o Satire in Huckleberry Finn
o The role of women in Huckleberry Finn
o Satire Southern Society
o Slavery
o Folklore
o Huck Finn romantic or realist
Create Boolean Terms such as:
 Huckleberry Finn AND women
 Huckleberry Finn AND slavery
 Huckleberry Finn AND Southern Society
 Huckleberry Finn AND raft
Helpful Websites
http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/
http://www.marktwainhouse.org/
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/MTP/
http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/MarkTwain/photos.asp
HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Why do I have to cite my sources?
HOW DO I CITE MY SOURCES?
 You MUST provide a Works Cited Page at the end of every
Research Paper
 Do I have to?
o Imagine if you wrote a book, a song, a speech or created
an authentic dish and one of your friends claimed it as
their own work.
o How would you feel?
o This is why you MUST give credit to the works you have
used in your papers
 You MUST also provide in-text citations
o In-text citations provide “support” or “evidence” in your
papers
o An example of a direct quote:
 “Repeatedly Huck’s common sense and naïve
literalism combine with his perceptiveness to lead
him to observe silliness in society” (Doyno 62).
Examples of a basic citation
(refer to your handouts for more examples)
Book with a Single Author
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publication City: Publisher, Year. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Levine-Scholastic, 2000. Print.
Database Article
●
Database citations are usually included with the article.
Last Name, First Name. “Title.” Publication Title Volume #.Issue# (Year): Pages. Database
Title. Web. Date of Access.
Sherrard-Johnson, Cherene. "'A Plea for Color': Nella Larsen's Iconography of the Mulatta."
American Literature 76.4 (2004): 833-869. EBSCOhost. Web. 10 Sept 2010.
Please use the library website
MLA Citations
http://nrhs.nred.org/www/nred_nrhs/site/hosting/Library/LibraryWebFi
les/LibraryPages/citationresearchhelp.htm
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/
EXAMPLES OF IN-Text Citations
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"
(Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).
Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the
information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named
Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works
Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information: