The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
by Mark Twain
Born 1835- Died 1910
“All American literature comes from
one book by Mark Twain called
Huckleberry Finn… it’s the best book
we’ve had.”
- Ernest Hemingway
Background Information
on
Huck Finn
• Published in 1885 –
– Emancipation Proclamation signed in 1863
• Setting
1830-1840
Mississippi River
St. Petersburg, Missouri
• Wrote the book over a period of 10 years
– First twelve chapters are a “story”
– Rest of the novel is very episodic
• At the time, slavery was permitted in Missouri
but not held as “highly” as the more southern
states. (The beginnings of an anti-slavery
sentiment)
More Background Information on
Huck Finn
• Sequel to The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer
• Focus on slavery and the South
• Novel banned in Southern states
due to its critical take on slavery
and southern institutions
• Novel banned in other areas for
being considered vulgar and
racist
• Moral and racial tensions
Huck Finn : Context of the Novel
• SATIRE: humorous with a
serious message - mocking
• Both a work of humor and
serious social commentary
• Amusement and enjoyment
for the reader
• Picaresque Novel
• DIALECT and realism
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
Huckleberry Finn
• PROTAGANIST – Main Character
• Narrator of the story – First person point of view “I”
• An adolescent who is resourceful, clever, and wary
of “sivilization”
• Thoughtful, intelligent and willing to go against the
norms of society
• Fourteen year-old
• Son of the town drunk
• Social outcast
• Believes in superstitions
• Runs away
• Travels down the Mississippi River on a raft with a
runaway slave, Jim, as his companion
• Uses his skills as a mimic, actor, and teller of tales
to escape from danger
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
• Widow Douglas– She is an older distinguished
woman.
– Widow of the Justice of the
Peace of St. Petersburg (the
village story takes place in)
– Huck likes her, she’s kind to him,
feeds him
– Wants to ‘sivilize’ him – tries to
adopt him
• Miss Watson – The Widow Douglas’s sister.
– who lives with her sister, the
widow
– Her favorite subject is the Bible
– Owns Jim
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
Tom Sawyer • Huck’s stubborn and rebellious
friend
• Younger than Huck
• Serves as a FOIL to Huck.
(Mirror Opposite)
• Imaginative, dominating and full
of wild, adventurous plans,
• Often acts stupidly and cruelly
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
Jim
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A Slave
Owned by Miss Watson
Superstitious & Sentimental
Intelligent & Practical
Selfless
Huck’s best friend
Father figure to Huck
Ultimately more of an
adult than anyone else
in the novel
• Has a wife and children
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
Pap
• Huck’s father
• The town drunk and ne’er-do-well
• Abusive to Huck –
– neglects and beats Huck
• Ragged, dirty, foul
• Racist, ignorant bigot
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
• Judge Thatcher– In charge of Huck’s money and partly
responsible for Huck
– Kind, intelligent man
– A judge – duh.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
• The Grangerford Family–
–
–
–
–
–
Family who takes Huck in after the steamboat accident
Meant to be examples of the old Southern families
Wealthy - but ridiculous and empty
Engaged in a longstanding feud with the Shepherdsons
The youngest Grangerford is Buck…becomes a good friend to Huck
Sophia Grangerford runs off with Harney Shepardson – ala Romeo
and Juliet
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
The King and the Duke
• Two con men
•Take over Jim and Huck’s raft
•Pretend to be royalty
•Duke
•younger of the two
•invents the Royal Nonesuch
•later tarred and feathered in Pikesville.
•King (Dauphin)
•The elder of the two
•sells Jim as a runaway slave.
•later tarred and feathered along with the Duke.
•The duke and the king
pretend to be the Wilk’s
girls’ uncles from London
in an attempt to get the
dead father’s money
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
The Wilks Girls
•Three daughters
•Joanna Wilks: The youngest, has a harelip.
•Susan Wilks: The middle sister
•Mary Jane Wilks: The eldest sister, whom Huck starts to fall in love with.
•Father has died
•The duke and the king pretend to be the girls’ uncles from
London in an attempt to get the dead father’s money
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
The Phelpses
• Silas and Sally Phelps – Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle,
– Huck coincidentally
encounters them in his search
for Jim after the con men
have sold him.
– They bought Jim for $40.00
– They have custody of Jim and
try to return him to his owner
– They think Huck is Tom
Sawyer
– They are a good, intact familyalbiet slave owners…
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Central Characters:
• Aunt Polly –
– Tom's aunt
– Shows up at the end
– Finds out tricks Tom has been playing on her kinfolk.
– Reveals the true identities of Tom and Huck to her
sister and spoils their attempt to steal Jim out of
slavery by explaining he is already free.
•Sid Sawyer•Tom Sawyer's brother.
•Huck pretends to be Tom while living with
Sally Phelps – Tom pretends to be Sid
Point of View
• First person, told by Huck
• Huck is a semi-literate Missouri boy that serves as a
wry and observant narrator
• Twain uses a number of devices to make the
reader feel that Huck is actually telling the
story in his own words
1. The frequent use of incorrect grammar and
grammatical constructions
2. the use of dialect
3. the use of unorthodox spellings both to suggest
Huck’s brief exposure to formal education and to
represent Huck’s nonstandard pronunciation of certain
words.
Summary
• Written in 1885 but takes place in the
1840s - Huckleberry Finn, 14, grows up
in St. Petersburg, Missouri with no
mother and an alcoholic father who has
skipped town. Huck is being cared for by
two women: Widow Douglas and her
sister Miss Watson. Huck likes to skip
school and hang out with his best friend,
Tom Sawyer.
Summary – Part Two
• Huck’s dad, Pap, returns and imprisons
Huck in a cabin outside of town. Huck
escapes and runs into Jim, a black slave,
who is also trying to escape.
• The bulk of the story chronicles Huck and
Jim’s travels down the Mississippi River
and the continued trouble they seem to get
themselves into.