Facts+about+the+Book

__ ** //Adventures of Huckleberry Finn//, first published in America in January 1885, has always been in trouble. According to Ernest Hemingway, it was the "one book" from which "all modern American literature" came, and contemporary critics and scholars have treated it as one of the greatest American works of art. Of all MT's novels, it was also the one that sold best at its initial appearance. On the other hand, it was condemned by many reviewers in MT's time as coarse and by many commentators in our time as racist. In 1885 it was banished from the shelves of the Concord Public Library, an act that attracted a lot of publicity and discussion in the press. It is still frequently in the news, as various schools and school systems across the country either ban it from or restore it to their classrooms. The texts and illustrations below attempt to capture both the novel's achievement and some aspects of its controversiality__.__
 * __Facts About The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

=** Random Facts: **=


 
 * Full title** · The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  **Author** · Mark Twain (pseudonym for Samuel Clemens)  **Type of work** · Novel  **Genre** · Picaresque novel (episodic, colorful story often in the form of a quest or journey); satire of popular adventure and romance novels; bildungsroman (novel of education or moral development)  **Language** · English; frequently makes use of Southern and black dialects of the time <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Time and place written** · 1876 – 1883 ; Hartford, Connecticut, and Elmira, New York <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Date of first publication** · 1884  <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Publisher** · Charles L. Webster & Co. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Narrator** · Huckleberry Finn <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Point of view** · Huck's point of view, although Twain occasionally indulges in digressions in which he shows off his own ironic wit <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Tone** · Frequently ironic or mocking, particularly concerning adventure -novels and romances; also contemplative, as Huck seeks to decipher the world around him; sometimes boyish and exuberant <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Tense** · Immediate past <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Setting (time)** · Before the Civil War; roughly 1835–1845 ; Twain said the novel was set forty to fifty years before the time of its publication <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Setting (place)** · The Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri; various locations along the river through Arkansas <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Protagonist** · Huck Finn <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Major conflict** · At the beginning of the novel, Huck struggles against society and its attempts to civilize him, represented by the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and other adults. Later, this conflict gains greater focus in Huck's dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands, or to protect and help his friend instead. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Rising action** · Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas attempt to civilize Huck until Pap reappears in town, demands Huck's money, and kidnaps Huck. Huck escapes society by faking his own death and retreating to Jackson's Island, where he meets Jim and sets out on the river with him. Huck gradually begins to question the rules society has taught him, as when, in order to protect Jim, he lies and makes up a story to scare off some men searching for escaped slaves. Although Huck and Jim live a relatively peaceful life on the raft, they are ultimately unable to escape the evils and hypocrisies of the outside world. The most notable representatives of these outside evils are the con men the duke and the dauphin, who engage in a series of increasingly serious scams that culminate in their sale of Jim, who ends up at the Phelps farm. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Climax** · Huck considers but then decides against writing Miss Watson to tell her the Phelps family is holding Jim, following his conscience rather than the prevailing morality of the day. Instead, Tom and Huck try to free Jim, and Tom is shot in the leg during the attempt. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Falling action** · When Aunt Polly arrives at the Phelps farm and correctly identifies Tom and Huck, Tom reveals that Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will. Afterward, Tom recovers from his wound, while Huck decides he is done with civilized society and makes plans to travel to the West. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Themes** · Racism and slavery; intellectual and moral education; the hypocrisy of “civilized” society <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Motifs** · Childhood; lies and cons; superstitions and folk beliefs; parodies of popular romance novels <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Symbols** · The Mississippi River, Raft, Bible, Spoons, Candles, Sawdust; Chains,whisky bottle and snake skin. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; TEXT-ALIGN: center">**Foreshadowing** · Twain uses parallels and juxtapositions more so than explicit foreshadowing, especially in his frequent comparisons between Huck's plight and eventual escape and Jim's plight and eventual escape

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