PREAMBLE:

(For Comp, Intermediate Comp, Lit, and Advanced English)

You have a real treat in store in this assignment: the chance to read and absorb one of the greatest works of American literature, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain’s book is brilliant, funny, engaging, and entertaining; but it is also a great work of literary art. It is a troubling work that has been regarded as dangerous by many communities in the United States, dangerous enough to have been placed numerous times on banned or censored book lists. It is perhaps one of the strongest anti-slavery texts to come out of the post-Civil War era, and yet it has been banned by some well-meaning African American groups because of its use of the word “nigger.” Paradoxically it has also been banned by white racists because of its critique of slavery and its portrayal of a strong friendship and intimacy between white and black characters, as well as its portrayal of racism itself. Commit yourself to being ready to talk about this book and its issues by the end of the summer.

Things for all students to think about

when reading Twain’s first few chapters.

• There are many references to magic, religion, the supernatural, and witchcraft in the first chapters. How do these issues help to shape the story? What kinds of conflicts do they represent (conflicts such as truth vs. falsehood, sacred vs. profane, good vs. evil, superstition vs. knowledge)? How do these conflicts shape the meaning of the text? How does Jim profit from his claim to supernatural knowledge? What can we say about Huck’s view of each of these conflicts?

• In the first chapters the issue of slavery and the status of slaves also crops up many times. Jim’s status in relation to other slaves (via his special knowledge of Magic) speaks of power and status within slave communities: what does Jim’s status tell us? Also what does Jim’s worry about being sold imply about slavery and the new conditions slaves could expect upon being sold?

• The book is a resolutely male-oriented novel; the Narrator is a young boy who tells a tale largely devoted to a friendship between two male characters. Huck’s tale opens with a variety of portrayals of women, but they always appear as obstacles to Huck’s desires and ambitions. How are women portrayed in general in Twain’s novel? What they have to say about themselves, and what they mean as underrepresented characters? The book is after all a representation of a major set of issues in American culture, so why/what does it mean that the women are so marginalized in this representation? In what specific ways are they marginalized and what specific roles do they play?