River/Shore Project Thomas Hart Benton Huck Finn - 1936

Before We Begin… Let us recall the elements of setting: Place Time Weather Conditions Social Conditions Types of setting include: Physical Setting Geographical Setting Cultural Setting Historical Setting

Setting is Important Because… 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. 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 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 … 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…? 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 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 Huck and Jim move south DOWN the Mississippi Slaves were afraid to be sold DOWN the river The further one traveled south, the worse slavery became. Think about what landforms or climate exist down low or up high 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…? 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 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…. A project is coming.