River/Shore Project
Thomas Hart Benton
Huck Finn - 1936
Before We Begin…
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Let us recall the
elements of setting:
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Place
Time
Weather Conditions
Social Conditions
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Types of setting
include:
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Physical Setting
Geographical Setting
Cultural Setting
Historical Setting
Setting is Important Because…
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It creates mood
It provides a backdrops
It shapes and reveals
character
Its shows internal and
external conflicts
It highlights potential
contrasts between
characters or ideas
It may act as a symbolic
reflection of the character
It often embodies theme.
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We must consider all these
elements when considering
a novel’s setting.
Mark Twain uses all these
elements to maximum effect
throughout the novel but
nowhere more vividly and
symbolically than in Huck
and Jim’s ODYSSEY down
the Mississippi River
Setting Context
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And in fact, The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn has
been called “America’s
Homeric epic”.
What does this mean?
You will recall such Homeric
epics as the Iliad and the
Odyssey.
These works lie at the very
beginning of the great body
of Western literature and
are critical to this body.
Setting Context …
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An odyssey is
1. a long wandering or
voyage usually marked by
many changes of fortune
2. an intellectual or spiritual
wandering or quest
How does this work for the
novel’s protagonists, Huck
and Jim?
What elements of the
Hero’s Journey play out for
both characters?
Have You Noticed…?
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as its title suggests, is a
journey novel. They go from place to place, and the events from
place to place are usually not very connected.
It's kind of like The Simpsons. Something that happens in one
episode is not referenced in later episodes. Individual
characteristics may recur, but the events of the episodes stand
alone.
Note: Remember the literature of Realism is less concerned with
plot than the internal struggles of the character.
In Huckleberry Finn, each episode is separated from the others
by a return to the river. Going ashore means hassles with
humans; the river represents a Romantic-era, peace and
satisfaction – it represents escacpe for the characters (Jim from
slavery, and Huck from his father and “sivilization.”) But this
Romantic ideal is constantly interrupted by the damn human
race.
Literary Geography
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Literary geography is normally about
“humans inhabiting spaces while spaces
inhabit humans.” – Thomas Foster, How to
Read Literature Like a Professor
In literature, geography can be a part of the
theme, symbols, mood, tone, and/or plot.
“Geography can also define or even develop
a character”. – Thomas Foster, How to Read
Literature Like a Professor
Direction Counts
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Huck and Jim move south DOWN the Mississippi
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Think about what landforms or climate exist down
low or up high
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Slaves were afraid to be sold DOWN the river
The further one traveled south, the worse slavery became.
Low: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat,
unpleasantness, people, life, and death.
High: snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, life,
and death.
“When writers send characters south, it’s so they
can run amok.” Thomas Foster, How to Read
Literature Like a Professor
What is it About the South…?
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Huck and Jim miss the junction of the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, so
they end up heading into the deep South
where slavery was even more
entrenched than in Missouri.
The cruelty of the slave-holding system is
juxtaposed with the excessive
sentimentality/romaticisim of the pre-Civil
War South when we find out about
Emmeline Grangerford, the dead girl
whose earthly hobby was writing poetry
about … dead people.
Her poetry isn't very good (but Huck
thinks it's great). The point is that she
dwelt melodramatically on tragedies
among her obviously privileged people
while ignoring and perpetuating slavery,
arguably a much larger tragedy. (note
motif)
(Think Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the
Wind.)
In Literature
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Geography isn’t just physical land forms … rivers,
hills, valleys, glaciers and swamps
Geography can be symbols, can represent ideas,
people, or abstractions.
Think:
 The Mississippi River
 The Shore
What visions of Huck’s world are revealed in these
two settings?
What do they represent?
Yep….
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A project is coming.