The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

[Pages:12]The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Activity Pack Student Edition

Pre-reading

All references come from the Prestwck House Litereary Touchstone Edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, copyright, 2005.

Objective: Recognizing the controversial aspects of the novel at the time of publication and today.

Activity I:

Read the following articles, written in 1885, of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn discussing the decision of the Concord Library to remove the book from the shelves of the library. Based on these articles, complete the 1885 CONTROVERSY CHART. The complete text of these articles is available online.

From The New York Herald, March 18, 1885:

The sage censors of the Concord public library have unanimously reached the conclusion that "Huckleberry Finn" is not the sort of reading matter for the knowledge seekers of a town which boasts the only "summer school of philosophy" in the universe. They have accordingly banished it from the shelves of that institution.

The reasons which moved them to this action are weighty and to the point. One of the Library Committee, while not prepared to hazard the opinion that the book is "absolutely immoral in its tone," does not hesitate to declare that to him "it seems to contain but very little humor." Another committeeman perused the volume with great care and discovered that it was "couched in the language of a rough, ignorant dialect" and that "all through its pages there is a systematic use of bad grammar and an employment of inelegant expressions." The third member voted the book "flippant" and "trash of the veriest sort." They all united in the verdict that "it deals with a series of experiences that are certainly not elevating," and voted that it could not be tolerated in the public library.

From the Hartford Courant, April 4, 1885:

The Boston Advertiser attacks Mark Twain as venomously and persistently as if his recent suit against a Boston publishing house had been brought against itself; and it ventures into declaration which would have hard work to prove. For example, it says that there is "something very suggestive in the eagerness and unanimity with which library committees and newspapers throughout the country have followed the precedent established by the Concord library in condemning Mark Twain's last book." but it omits to mention the libraries or to list the newspapers.

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Indeed, some of the leading newspapers of the country have taken the liberty to laugh at the Concord folks for their conduct, and the libraries that have rejected the volume are, we venture to say, few and far between. They must all be of the class that the Concord library belongs to; for one of the trustees of that library, when interviewed on the matter, said that no fiction was permitted on the Concord shelves. Of course, "Huckleberry Finn" isn't a true story. It is fiction, and so it's barred by this Concord limitation. The discovery that they had bought a biography in good faith and had got something that was not true may be the cause of the discontent, although the life of Huck Finn is not the only biography that partakes of the nature of fiction, and the Concord library would be further depleted if all biographies that are not true were cast from it.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 1885:

The action of the Concord Public Library in excluding Mark Twain's new book, "Huckleberry Finn," on the grounds that it is flippant and irreverent, is obscure. The managers of this library evidently look on this book as written for boys, whereas we venture to say that upon nine boys out of ten much of the humor, as well as the pathos, would be lost. The more general knowledge one has the better he is fitted to appreciate this book, which is a remarkably careful sketch of life along the Mississippi river forty years ago. If one has lived in the South he can appreciate the art with which the dialect is managed, exactly as he can in Joel Chandler Harris' "Uncle Remus," or in Craddock's Tennessee mountain tales. If he has not he will be forced to take it on trust. So with the characters. They are peculiarly Southern, but only those who have lived south of Mason and Dixon's line can thoroughly appreciate the fidelity to nature with which they have been drawn when the boy under 16 reads a book he wants adventure and plenty of it. He doesn't want any moral thrown in or even implied; the elaborate jokes worked out with so much art, which are Mark Twain's specialty, are wasted upon him. All the character sketches go for nothing with this eager reader, who demands a story. To be sure, here is a story in the astonishing series of adventures of "Huck" Finn and the runaway negro, but it is so overlaid with this embroidery of jokes, sketches and sarcasm, that the story really forms the least part of it Take the whole latter part of the book, which is given up to the ludicrous attempt to free the negro, Jim, from his imprisonment on the Arkansas plantation. This is a well-sustained travesty of the escapes of great criminals, and can only be fully appreciated by one who has read what it ridicules.

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1885 CONTROVERSY CHART

Question Why did the Concord library decide to remove this book from its shelves?

Answer

How many libraries across the country have joined the Concord library in its decision?

What adjective might you use to describe the action of the Concord library?

List three reasons the newspapers might recommend this book.

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Activity II:

1. This story is still controversial today as can be seen in the following twentieth century excerpts from newspaper articles. The full text of these articles can be found on the Internet.

City Middle School Drops `Huck Finn' by Chris Grosso, YDN Staff Reporter

Eighth graders at New Haven's West Hills Middle School will not finish reading a great American novel this year.

New Haven Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo had decided to pull Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn from the middle school's eighth grade reading list after African-American students and parents said they found the book offensive after reading part of it in English classes. "I won't let this school be torn apart," Mayo told a meeting of West Hills students and parents Thursday night. "This is not censorship. It's a curriculum issue."

School officials said they will leave the book in the school library, and added that there are no plans to change the curriculum at any of the city's five other middle schools.

The dispute "has gone out of control and it's become a very divisive thing," Mayo said. "It's not about this book anymore; it's about other issues."

The other issues include disputes between parents mostly divided by color over the appropriateness of the novel in an eighth grade classroom.

The controversy "has polarized the races," Board of Education member Janette Parker said last night. "One of the things we try to provide is mutual respect and understanding for all ethnic groups."

Since school officials will not remove the book from the library, the action can not be challenged under the First Amendment, officials from New Haven school and the American Civil Liberties Union said.

African-American children have lost their self-confidence because of national controversies over affirmative action and the success of conservative books claiming racial inequities in intelligence like "The Bell Curve," Parker said. Reading a story laden with racial slurs just adds to the feelings of loss, she said.

Twain's novel tells the story of a young white boy, Huckleberry Finn, traveling down the Mississippi River with an escaped black slave, Jim. Critics generally regard the novel as a satire of the antebellum South and of slavery.

But many African-American parents in the city object to the extensive use of racial slurs, including the word "nigger," with appears more than 200 times.

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Huck Finn's Fate to Be Decided by Jamie Backett, Chronicle South Bar Bureau

A group in east San Jose is to decide tomorrow night whether "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" should be removed from required reading lists in 11 area high schools in response to objections raised by African American parents. The parents cite the classic MarkTrain novel's liberal use of racial stereotypes and racial epithets ? it uses the "n" word more than 200 times ? which they say is damaging to their children. In one four-page passage, the word appears 15 times, the parents say. Although supporters of the novel defend it as an indictment of racism in the 19th century United States, the African-American Parent Coalition argues that their children already are bombarded with racial slurs that erode their self-esteem and affect their performance in school. "The word `nigger' has meaning for African American people that no one else can really get inside of." said Chester Stevens, a founder of the coalition, noting the word's association with lynchings, segregation and slavery. The coalition wants the book removed from required reading lists in the 11 high schools or replaced with an alternate version that deletes racially offensive language.... Other argue against any restrictions on the novel. "Restricting access to any material through the classroom is censorship," said Jean Hessbuerg, California director for People for the American Way, which has been tracking attempts to ban books since 1982. "What people forget is that we can't take away parts of history as if they didn't happen."... "I can tell you why I was in favor of putting it on the list in the first place," she said, describing Twain as a "master of satire" whose work has been used as a model by other American authors. The novel chronicles the adventures of Huck and the runaway slave Jim as they travel south on the Mississippi River. Huck, an uneducated teenager, is forced to confront his feelings about slavery and racism as he develops a deepening friendship and respect for Jim.

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2. The issue discussed in these articles is whether or not the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn belongs in today's classrooms. Based on these articles, first write a letter to the African-American Parent Coalition, outlining why you think the novel should be studied. Then, assume the other position and write a letter to the Superintendent of Schools discussing why you think the book should be removed from the curriculum.

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Pre-reading

Objective: Visualizing life on the Mississippi River in the nineteenth century. Activity: Read the following paragraph about steamboats and look at the attached pictures of steamboats typical of the kind Mark Twain worked on and wrote about. You can also use the Internet to find other illustrations of steamboats of the nineteenth century. A steamboat is defined as a boat that is powered by steam. Steamboats found on the Mississippi River were generally shallow draft boats with a sidewheel for propulsion. From the early 1800's into the early 1900's, steamboats were a popular means of transporting passengers and freight from one city to another. The early steam boats were powered by burning wood, while later boats burned coal in huge boilers to generate steam. There were some very luxurious steamboats built, much like the luxury ocean liners of the era, but most steamboats were working boats manned by rough captains. The work on a steamboat was hard and dangerous. Before the Civil War, manual labor on steamboats was provided by immigrants because slaves were considered too valuable to risk on this type of work. Freed slaves, called roustabouts, did most of the loading and unloading of freight after the Civil War. Some steamboats were showboats traveling from city to city providing entertainment, although this was a minor part of steamboat business. Slowly, as the railroad expanded, the use of steamboats to move freight and passengers began to decline. Think about the following questions as you view the pictures. What feelings or emotions do these pictures of steamboats evoke in you? How would you describe the mood of life on the river? What sounds do you think passengers on a steamboat might hear? How would it smell? Write a definition poem, a diamante, or a cinquain about steamboats on the Mississippi River before the Civil War. For instructions on writing a poem, see the appendix.

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Appendix III

Writing Poems 1. Definition Poem

Start with an abstract word. Then give images of that word. Definition poems can begin as follows: Happiness is

or A delinquent's life is The lines that follow define the abstraction by giving specific, detailed examples or images.

2. Cinquain ? a poem 5 lines long that does not rhyme. line 1 has two syllables line 2 has four line 3 has six line 4 has eight line 5 has two again My dog The best, I think Of course, you may have one. Mine has to be cuter than yours She's mine

Appendix - 7

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