Huckleberry Finn Research Paper

1. How does Huck solve the problem of forgetting his name? Bets Buck that he can't spell his name, and does, so then he knows his name - George Jackson

In our Socratic seminar Friday we discussed superstitions in the story Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Jim and Huck are very superstitious. They are superstitious because that is the only way they can make sense of the bad luck that always seem to come their way. Both Huck and Jim are both poor so they resort to superstitions to explain for their bad luck. “I wouldn’t ever take aholt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it” (61). They blame Jim getting bit by the snake by Huck touching the snakeskin. Although it had nothing to do with luck. Jim got bit by the snake because Huck put a dead snake that he killed on Jim’s blanket as a joke to scare him. But when a snake dies the snakes mate curls around it. This

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has been seen as controversial since its original publication. It immediately faced objection by the south and religious groups because of Twains obvious and unrelenting attack on Southern society. As times have changed, however, the reader can now tell that, at the time, he was actually attacking the societal norms dealing with their views on morality and society. Through Huck, Twain questions the normality of Huck’s moral and societal views by his exclamation, “All right, the, I’ll go to Hell,” on page 162.

Though I disagree entirely with the prompt, for the sake of this essay I will assume the façade of high school teacher defending The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Now, many people claim that usage of the n word is very offensive, and that the book carried an underlying theme of racism. However, at the time the book was written it was the norm. It carries important pieces of out history that are vital to know so that they are not forgotten.

“The free use of a word so associated with hate and racial strife is inappropriate, particularly at a time when hate crimes are rising and race relations are fragile,” says NAACP Pennsylvania state president Charles Stokes. The ongoing debate over The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn mostly entails the use of the “n-word,” poor character structure, and if the novel could have ended better. Stokes continues on, saying, “The concern we have is that to a black child it might be damaging. Also to a white child, or a Hispanic child, those words could be damaging.” Basically he believes that the use of the word could have a negative impact on a child no matter what racial background they are from. Yet at the grade level when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is taught, students have most likely already heard the word in both neutral and negative connotation. Tolerance.org elegantly elaborates, “they (teens) hear the “n-word” repeatedly in their music and movies.” The article adds more, “after all, high school students have likely already studied Southern slavery in history class.”

“When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom.” These wise words are said to be quoted from Confucius, a great philosopher and teacher from thousands of years ago. It seems that this man had predicted the future of our society. Our society has become a place where words lose their meaning due to sensitivity that a word may cause. We try so hard to ensure that someone isn't offended, and by doing so we lose the meaning of words. While I agree that there is some need for political correctness in our society, I believe that efforts have been taken to the extreme, causing many words to lose their meaning, and people to lose their freedom of expression.

Imagine it’s the 1800's. You're walking along the banks of the Mississippi river, in your newly free life, enjoying the view. There's just one thing, you're a black man. Next thing you know a slave holder cracks you across the back of the head, and drags you away to his plantation. There you work for the rest of your life, unpaid, doing hard, laborious work. This was the real life experience of many people during the contentious era of slavery. Mark Twain was a regionalist American writer who grew up on the Mississippi, piloted a steamboat on the river, and was surrounded by the horrors of slavery during his childhood which influenced him to write the controversial novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

“Huckleberry was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town…” (pg. 47) Huckleberry Finn was one of the most hated yet admired characters in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The question is, why? When adults think of Huck they think about the general idea of him, from his appearance. The adults believe he’s a bad influence on their children, but the children admire Hucks freedom. Huck Finn should’ve been admired by everyone, of all ages because of his independence at such a young age.

Many times the question “Should Mark Twain have added in the last ten chapters inHuckleberry Finn” has been asked. Why did he include those? It just makes the book longer,right? Well, yes and no. The last ten or so chapters add some necessary details. It does makethe book longer and it does drag it out, but the last chapters kind of “sum it up” as well. Howshould these last chapters affect the book in such a positive and negative way? Well, let’s seehow this works.The positives to the last ten chapters is very obvious when the last chapter or two hasbeen read. A detail that couldn’t have been summed up in chapter thirty, was the fact that TomSawyer told Jim he was free after he had gone through all of those complications to get “freed”.“Turn him loose!

Eighty-three percent of the white population during the eighteenth century accepted slavery. This book is known for the way black toned people were treated while slavery was accepted. Back then, the children had been taught not to help the colored/toned people. Finn runs into Jim and helps him escape because he likes to have a companion with him during his runaway. During this he feels guilty for helping Jim, but he says he would rather be uncivilized rather than helping out slavery, afterwards, but during the actual time he thinks he will go to hell for helping the slave out. Huckleberry had been taught by the society that helping a human, African American, was a sin. The thought of even thinking such thing and the lack of knowledge the people

What is individualism? Individualism is about being self-reliant in one self. How does individualism contribute into our government? Individualism makes someone strong. Individualism gives someone the courage to fight for what they believe in. In these three passages different people proved how individualism gives you the courage to fight. Depicted in Mark Twain’s satiric novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the 14 year old protagonist, Huck exposes the hypocrisy of white society’s morals during his childhood in the Antebellum South. The author's purpose for authoring his work is to lambaste racism, slavery, and hypocrisy of the white society. As described in “Song Of Myself” from the collection Leaves Of Grass poet, Walt Whitman, expresses everyone is connected because every person who exists is important. Therefore everyone should be treated equally. Author, James McPherson, wrote a nonfictional war account collection in the year of the Civil War, the collection what we fought for took place in the northern states. The notion of independence and individualism is developed by North fighting for freedom and South fighting for freedom of states.

“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” a novel based around a boy named Huck and a freed slave named Jim as they venture out away from where the originally from in search of freedom. In the beginning of the story, the main character of the story was named Huck, and later we find out that Huck’s father, Pap Finn, was coming back to town. Huckleberry got terrified, because of, Pap Finn’s alcoholic past. I could visualize why Huck was so scared for by the news of his father coming back, and could relate to his feelings. Huck does nothing to prevent Pap’s presence to be around and Pap proceeds back into Huck’s life. He advised Huck to stop wasting his time and school and to stop going. Huck refused and continued to go to school, for this reason, Pap

Twain makes sure that Tom and Huck differ so the strict separation of imagination and reality is identified. Romantic engagement in a troubled world, can be very dangerous as seen in this novel. When struggling with real world problems it is best to take a realistic approach, because when your imagination take over, it can lead to an anticipation of an unrealistic outcome.

1. Introduction Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been, and continues to be the main focus of critics for years. Many people believe it to be the first American novel. He broke many literary stereotypes, most strikingly While this may be true The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn provides a gallery of characters- both major and minor characters- which contribute to enrich the story line of the novel and attract the readers’ attention.

A study of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an adventure in understanding changes in America itself. The book, at the center of American geography and consciousness, asks readers to reexamine definitions of “civilization” and freedom, right and wrong, social responsibility and inhumanity. Published in 1885, the novel recounts those pre-civil war days when the controversy over slavery, with designated slave and Free states, disfigured the face of America and its view of itself as a land of the free.