SFR - Slavery and Freedom Lesson

Samuel Longhorn Clemens (1835-1910), who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, is one of the most famous American authors. William Faulkner even called him the "Father of American Literature." He is noted for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, many humorous short stories, and his witty and satirical commentary on just about every aspect of American life.

Twain grew up in Missouri, in a port town on the Mississippi River. He became a steam boat pilot and observed life on the Mississippi River, which inspired many of his writings. His hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, also inspired the fictional town of St. Petersburg in his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Twain's ability to capture the people, dialects, and customs of Missouri in his works make them classics that endure in popularity and importance today.  

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was first published in the United States in February of 1885. According to Ernest Hemingway, it is the "one book" from which "all modern American literature came," and it is considered a great work of art and satire by many readers and critics. The novel is told from the first-person perspective of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huck Finn, as he grows up, experiences racism, and seeks freedom. Twain did more, however, than bring to life a picture of an average American boy; he also presented the cruel environment of the South in a brutal and raw manner. By allowing Huck to tell his own story, Twain's fiction addresses some of America's most controversial topics during the time leading up to the Civil War. The themes addressed in the novel are timeless and can teach us all a lesson about how to treat one another.

In addition to receiving critical acclaim, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most popular and widely taught novels in the United States. Review the following introduction to Huck Finn, by Crash Course.

While this book is quite popular, it is also one of the most controversial novels. Huck Finn is a work that appears frequently on two lists - the top 100 books college freshmen are expected to have read and the most frequently banned books. The issues of race and racism presented in the novel are a large part of the reason why it is so frequently banned. Another reason is the frequent use of what is sometimes called the N-word.

Before you begin the novel itself, take some time to consider these issues. First, listen to the video presentation linked below. It discusses a version of the novel published in Alabama in 2011 that replaced the n-word with the word "slave." Does this substitution make the book more accessible to a wider audience, or does it change the book itself so much that it loses its impact?

Reading Assignment

Next, please read the article, "Why Huck Finn Belongs in Classrooms," which offers an African-American professor's case for the use of the novel in classrooms today. Is this argument convincing? When you have finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, revisit these resources and determine whether you think the novel in its original form should remain in classrooms or not.

"Why Huck Finn Belongs in Classrooms" Text Link Links to an external site.

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