1. Realism, Mark Twain & Huck Finn

2. REALISM This followed Romanticism
the focus was an ideal person and reaching one’s potential (almost god-like)
Society was changing rapidly –
Civil War, 13th and 14th amendments
Labor Union, Suffrage
Inventions

3. REALISM 1865-1910 Representation of reality
Real people, real life
Complex, detailed characters with real problems
Ethical/moral choices, consequences
Realistic thoughts, behaviors and emotions
Dialect, regionalism
Criticism of culture/society

4. Samuel Longhorne Clemens
“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

5. TWAIN Samuel Longhorne Clemens – b. 1835- d. 1910
Educated up to the age of 12 – similar to young Huckleberry
Grew up in Hannibal, Missouri – inspiration for St. Petersburg
Worked as a typesetter & journalist, steamboat pilot
“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” 1865
Very sad personal life
Wasted most all of his money in poor investments
Toured Europe for the last years of his life to pay off his debts

6. TWAIN The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1884 – his own printing house
Became known as the First American Novel --- Father of American Lit.
People either loved it or hated it
Banned for language, racism and corrupting children
Praised for style, diction, humor, satire

7. reception
I am greatly troubled by what you say. I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' & 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, & it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave.[28]

8. What is Twain’s message?
I am greatly troubled by what you say. I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' & 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, & it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave.[28]
On the half sheet of paper, quickly explain your take on this. Note form is okay.
What is Twain’s message?
What can you predict about the novel based on this comment? What can you predict about Twain based on this comment?