- Mark Twain was born in 1835 in Missouri and drew inspiration from the town of Hannibal, Missouri for his most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. - Huckleberry Finn is considered by many to be the first Great American Novel and features Huck Finn's journey down the Mississippi River with the runaway slave Jim as they encounter various adventures and challenges. - The novel examines themes of racism, morality, and hypocrisy through the use of dialects, symbols like the Mississippi River, and characters like Huck Finn, Jim, and the King and Duke con men.

1. The Adventures Of
Huckleberry Finn
By Wasan Abu-Baker

2. Meet Our Author This Week
• Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens
in the town of Florida, Missouri, in 1835.
• When he was four years old, his family moved to
Hannibal, a town on the Mississippi River much
like the towns depicted in his two most famous
novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
• Huckleberry Finn, solidified him as a noteworthy
American writer
• Some have called it the first Great American
Novel, and the book has become required reading
in many schools throughout the United States.
Huckleberry Finn was an offshoot from Tom
Sawyer and had a more serious tone than its
predecessor.

3. • Genre
– Picaresque novel (episodic, colorful story often in
the form of a quest or journey); satire of popular
adventure and romance novels; bildungsroman
(novel of education or moral development)
• Language
– English, frequently makes use of Southern and
black dialects of the time
• Synopsis
– The main premise behind Huckleberry Finn is the
young boy's belief in the right thing to do though
most believed that it was wrong

4. CHARACTERS
Huckleberry Finn The protagonist and narrator of the novel
Tom Sawyer Huck’s friend, and the protagonist of Tom Sawyer
Widow Douglas and Miss
Watson
Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in
St. Petersburg and who adopt Huck
Jim One of Miss Watson’s household slaves
Pap Huck’s father, the town drunk and ne’er-do-well
The duke and the dauphin A pair of con men whom Huck and Jim rescue as they are
being run out of a river town
The Grangerfords A family that takes Huck in after a steamboat hits his raft,
separating him from Jim
The Wilks family At one point during their travels, the duke and the
dauphin encounter a man who tells them of the death of
a local named Peter Wilks, who has left behind a rich
estate
Silas and Sally Phelps Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle, whom Huck coincidentally
encounters in his search for Jim after the con men have
sold him. Sally is the sister of Tom’s aunt, Polly
Aunt Polly Tom Sawyer’s aunt and guardian and Sally Phelps’s sister

5. Character Analysis (roles)
• Protagonist: Huckleberry Finn
• Antagonist: The Duke and The King
• Guide Mentor: Judge Thatcher, Miss Watson,
The Widow, Aunt Sally, and All Those Civilized
Folks - collectively
• Foil: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Buck
Grangerford and Huckleberry Finn

6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Quotes Quiz
Which river does Huck travel?
Mississippi
Missouri
Amazon
American
Colorado
The river might be a symbol for:
Choice
Equality
Freedom
Friendship
Joy
The obstacles Jim and Huck encounter symbolize
Education
Happiness and sadness
Fear and joy
Political parties
Freedom with responsibilities
"To be or not to be; that is the bare bodkin" is a takeoff of
which play?
Othello
Death of a Salesman
A Room with A View
The Crucible
Hamlet
Which author is also a symbol?
Arthur Miller
William Shakespeare
Homer
Stephanie Meyer
Anne Sexton

7. Themes
• Racism and Slavery
• Intellectual and Moral Education
• The Hypocrisy of “Civilized” Society
• Motifs
• Childhood
• Lies and Cons
• Superstitions and Folk Beliefs
• Parodies of Popular Romance Novels

8. Symbolism
• Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and
colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
• The Mississippi River
• For Huck and Jim, the Mississippi River is the
ultimate symbol of freedom

9. During Reading
• Using appropriate Guided reading strategies,
students will be reading at their own pace and
teachers will be:
– Listening to students read
– Monitoring
– Giving feedback
– Taking anecdotal notes and running records
– Suggested Pacing: a week in each chapter.
• Attend to Comprehension within, beyond, &
about the text

10. Resources
• http://www.shmoop.com/huckleberry-finn/
• http://www.webenglishteacher.com/huckfinn.
html

11. Study Questions
• Huck Finn is a thirteen-year-old boy. Why does
Twain use a child as the center of
consciousness in this book?
• Discuss Twain’s use of dialects in the novel.
What effect does this usage have on the
reader? Does it make the novel less of an
artistic achievement?
• Discuss the use of the river as a symbol in the
novel.