The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
American Realism
The Civil War to 1914
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
--Stephen Crane, author of The Red
Badge of Courage
American Realism
• A direct contrast to Romanticism
• Writers aimed at a “very minute fidelity” to the common course of everyday life; tried to
represent faithfully the environment: the way ordinary people lived and dressed and the
things they thought and felt and talked about
• Subjects included far-from-idealized characters: poor factory workers, corrupt politicians,
and prostitutes
• Realism is not just concerned with recording wallpaper patterns, hairstyles, or the subjects
of conversations. It sought also to explain why ordinary people behave the way they do.
• Realism also focused on emerging sciences—biology, psychology, and sociology—as well as
on their own insights and observations.
Our Author: 1835-1910
• Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens
• “Mark Twain” is a river term meaning
a depth of two fathoms, or twelve feet
• Spent his life as a river pilot,
Confederate soldier (for a few weeks)
reporter, writer, lecturer
• Lived abroad, which was cheaper than
America then
• Born and died poor
Mark Twain’s Wit
• “When I was 14, my father was so ignorant I
could hardly stand to have the old man
around. But when I got to be 21, I was
astonished at how much the old man had
learned in 7 years.”
• “Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the
company.”
• “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you
don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
• “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you
• “It is better to be thought a fool and remain
• “In the first place, God made idiots. That
• “To succeed in life, you need two things:
were a member of Congress; but I repeat
myself.”
was for practice. Then he made
government.”
silent than to open one’s mouth and remove
all doubt.”
ignorance and confidence.”
• “All generalizations are false, including this
one.”
Huck Finn
• Twain began HF as a sequel to Tom Sawyer, in 1876
• It was exceedingly hard to write, and Twain published it in 1884
• Considered a finer book than Tom Sawyer, demonstrating a more mature
point of view and a richer strata of human experience
• Set before the Civil War, 1835-1845
• One of the most banned books in the United States
• “The basis of all modern fiction.” --Ernest Hemingway
Huck Finn: The Basics
• Major Characters
• Huck
• Jim
• Minor Characters
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•
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Pap
Widow Douglas
Tom Sawyer
Judge Thatcher
Aunt Polly
• Setting
• Set shortly after Tom Sawyer (Huck was 12-
13 in TS; in Huck he’s 13-14 “or along those
lines”)
• Set before the Civil War—1840’s ish
• Locations range up and down the Mississippi
River
How Twain responded to censorship
DEAR SIR:
I am greatly troubled by what you say. I wrote Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for adults exclusively, and it
always distresses me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes
soiled in youth can never again be washed clean; I know this by my own experience, and to this day I cherish an
unappeasable bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but
compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw
a clean sweet breath again this side of the grave. Ask that young lady—she will tell you so.
Most honestly do I wish I could say a softening word or two in defence of Huck's character, since you
wish it, but really in my opinion it is no better than those of Solomon, David, Satan, and the rest of the sacred
brotherhood.
If there is an unexpurgated Bible in the Children's Department, won't you please help that young woman
remove Huck and Tom from that questionable companionship?
Sincerely yours,
S. L. Clemens
A word about language
• Dialect: a particular way of
speaking a language (accent, word
choice)
• Dialect is intentionally used as a
characterization tool
• The “N” Word is used 219 times in
the novel—once again, this is
deliberate to portray a message