October 17 2014 Literature Circle 7th grade #2
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Click here for this material as a pdf file: 2 Huck handout 2
You can’t get around Mark Twain’s use of the N-word. Here is an interesting article about how one teacher approached the topic in her classroom.
Rebecca_poulson@hotmail.com 747-3448
This week, read chapters 17-30, and write a paragraph, based on the discussion or your own ideas. Mark parts (by noting page numbers in your notebook) that stand out.
Discussion: today we shared our research into:
Mark Twain’s biography and dates
Jim Crow laws
The Civil War (overview, dates)
history of banning of the book
log rafts and steamboats – economy of the Mississippi River in 1840
slavery in the American south before the Civil War
a map of the Mississippi River from around this time – it can be a print out or in a book or hand drawn – from Hannibal, Missouri to the Louisiana border
the picaresque novel – what it is, some examples
what kind of clothes did people wear in that place and time (Mississippi River around 1840)
public education in this place and time
Then we went briefly over the action so far, though I thought we had 20 minutes more than we really did.
Things in the book, some things we talked about:
What a bloody cataclysm the Civil War was, and the assassination of Lincoln, how the Civil War and the abolition of slavery might have affected Mark Twain’s view of antebellum (pre-Civil War) south of his youth
1840 a time of westward growth for the US
How some people were ok with slavery
Tom’s fantasies – Tom is considered “smart” and seems to be rich compared to others in the town, but seems kind of dangerous
Huck’s intelligence – he is a very skilled liar, and faking his own death is expertly done, but considers himself less intelligent than Tom Sawyer
being free on the river – how easy it must have been to “borrow” food, easy to live
The author does not seem to think much of Christians trying to reform others
Already twice Huck’s been nearly killed
Rank some of the characters on a scale of good to evil – is his father just a loser? or evil? the robbers? Miss Watson?
How the woman he tries to fool into thinking he’s a girl sees through it, but then makes up her own story for him
Already Huck’s played several mean tricks on Jim
Huck’s and Jim’s superstitions
The book is a picaresque novel, where the action is a series of adventures as the hero moves through space and time. One thing we might write about, after we finish reading the book, is how a particular adventure fits into the book.
For the middle third of the book, all of the above and:
Are some parts just for humor, to lighten it up, and not part of the overall thrust of the book?
Death – tally up the people Huck sees die, and the deaths that occur he doesn’t witness
Lies
Foolishness
Evil and cruelty
Conscience/morality – how Huck is developing, or is he.
Goodness
The places, societies, worlds? of each adventure
How does this section compare to the first
Women
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