Corn-Pone Opinions, Local Color, and Mark Twain

Are you an independent thinker? How do you know? Discuss… Are you an independent thinker? How do you know?

Your Task: Mark Twain’s Corn-Pone Read Corn Pone Opinions individually Answer (individually, in complete sentences): Where do people get their political opinions and beliefs? What examples does Twain give? How does this affect the country? Society? The individual? How does this idea relate to high school students having their own opinions? What writers/thinkers that we have already read would Twain agree most with? Why?

Definition- Corn-pone Of or characteristic of an unsophisticated rural person, especially from the South (hick) Type of corn bread

Summary Man's ideas and opinions are solely based on local ideas and opinions Man does not think for themselves, instead they conform

Twain Wrote Corn-Pone Opinions in 1901 Near the end of his life (died 1910) Good description of his thoughts on the human race As you read the novel, think about where Huck is getting his political and social beliefs.

Twain & Literary Movements Realism: aimed at being true to common life Opposite of Romanticism, which exaggerates to make points about the world A new choice of subjects: characters are often flawed Attempt to represent every day life faithfully Regionalism: emphasis on specific geographic setting, making use of diction (speech) and manners of the people of that region Huck is one of the first major American novels ever written in the vernacular, or common speech; sounds American, not European

What makes Twain’s writing so appealing? Dialect Regionalism Local Color

What is Local Color? Fiction or verse which emphasizes its setting Concerned with the district, era, customs, dialects, costumes, landscape, clothes, language, traditions, and other particulars of a place Dual influence of romanticism and realism

Plateau Local Color If an author used the Plateau for the setting of a novel, what would the local color be? Setting Dialect Traditions/Customs Beliefs Values Clothes

Corn Pone on the Plateau Create a newspaper ad that warns students against examples of Corn Pone opinions at Skyline Use the models of newspaper ads to help you format your ad In your ad, you must… Identify a Corn Pone Opinion at Skyline (or on the Plateau) Use elements of local color to draw in your reader Demonstrate an understanding of Twain’s beliefs about Corn Pone opinions and humanity

Creativity and visual presentation (5 points) This assignment will be worth 20 points and you will be graded on the following criteria: Creativity and visual presentation (5 points) Incorporation of local color (5 points) Identification of a Corn Pone Opinion (5 points) Analysis of why the Corn Pone Opinion is problematic (5 points)

The Destruction of Taste Buds at Skyline HS. HARD FACTS! Thousands of students flock to local sandwich joint every day at lunch…. Students at Skyline High School have been brainwashed into thinking that the only thing they want for lunch is a Jimmy John’s sandwich. This is certainly a catastrophe! Students brave the elements, mainly the wet and the cold, to hop into their Range Rovers and jettison down the hill to the over-priced sub shop. They race out of school and fight for coveted seats in friends’ cars. The competition is ripping apart friendships and destroying camaraderie amongst classmates!! The subs are bland and uninviting, but still the students flock! Why?! The pressure of peers has caused a lobotomy of sorts in their brains. They are unable to think for themselves and are drawn to the stale bread and wilting lettuce like moths to a flame. The madness has got to stop! Don’t be fooled, friends – trust your taste buds and stay away from Jimmy John’s . How about a pizza today instead?   This message brought to you by the Skyline Counsel Against Corn Pone.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Sequel to Tom Sawyer Very different book Written in dialect Focused on place and shaped by the physical form of the river Language in context 219

Themes Racism and slavery Intellectual, moral, and religious education Differences, benefits bildungsroman: a novel of maturation and development Hypocrisy of civilized society Natural world

Huckleberry Finn & Censorship: First published in 1884. Controversial from the start. 1885, Concord Public Library banned it. Twain on March 18, 1885: "The Committee of the Public Library of Concord, Mass., have given us a rattling tip-top puff which will go into every paper in the country. They have expelled Huck from their library as 'trash and suitable only for the slums.' That will sell 25,000 copies for us sure." 1902, Brooklyn Public Library banned The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with the statement that "Huck not only itched but he scratched," and that he said "sweat" when he should have said "perspiration."

Today: One of the most challenged books in the U.S. Debate has centered around the language: objected to on social grounds. Use of the racial epithet “nigger.” Yielding to public pressure, some textbook publishers have substituted "slave" or "servant" for the term that Mark Twain uses in the book. Alabama publisher in March of 2011 changed the term to “slave” In an attempt to avoid controversy, CBS produced a made-for-TV adaptation of the book in 1955 that lacked a single mention of slavery and did not have an African-American portray the character of Jim. 1998: parents in Tempe, Ariz., sued the local high school over the book's inclusion on a required reading list. The case went as far as a federal appeals court; the parents lost.

Homework Tonight, please read chapter 1 of Huck Finn. Come prepared tomorrow to discuss!