Data Sheet : Huck Finn

Title: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Author: Samuel Langhorne Clemens or Mark Twain

Date of Publication: 1884 (Great Britain) 1885 (USA) Genre:Bildungsroman, Picaresque, Adventure/Drama

Historical information about the period of publication: Twain, although he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from 1876-1883, based the plot in the pre-Civil War era. During the slave era, there was much political unrest in the country. The Mason-Dixon line drew the line between the free states and the slave states. Many slaves attempted to escape by entering the free states as escapees. There were laws at first, like the Fugitive Slave Act, which were passed by the federal government for returning slaves to their owners. The intricate Underground Railroad also helped escaped slaves.

Characteristics of the genre: The bildungsroman novel, also known as a novel of education or coming-of-age novel, contains the conflicts and struggle of characters developing from childhood to maturity. The picaresque novel, an early form of the first-person narrative, is usually episodic in structure with the episodes often arranged as a journey. The narrative focuses on one character, who has to deal with authoritarian masters and unlucky fates but who usually manages to escape these miserable situations by using his or her wit. Huck Finn, with the help of his cunning friend Tom Sawyer, help Jim escape imprisonment in the shack.

Biographical information about the author: Clemens writes under the pen name Mark Twain, and much of the substance for his novels comes from real life experiences. After he was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. Only 80 miles from St. Louis, he grew up near the Mississippi river and large forests. His father was a strict disciplinarian and lawyer, and his mother was an emotional, humorous southern belle. After his father died when he was 12, Twain became an apprentice printer and then a printer in Hannibal and New York. He also became a riverboat pilot (which landed him is pen name) after he agreed to pay $500 to be trained by a famous riverboat pilot. He learned about many towns along the Mississippi, the same knowledge that went into his novels. During the Civil War, his adherence was slightly influenced by his southern heritage, and he joined a Confederate cavalry division. His brother Orion convinced him to take a trip to the West, and this journey became the subject of his book Roughing It. In 1865, his literary success began in the Gilded Age at the publication of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." He married Olivia and had enough money to build a house in Hartford, Connecticut. Late, though, Twain's fortune collapsed, his family fell into sickness, and he had gone into debt. At this time, Twain began to write with more fervor for the next 10 years, which awarded him with much critical acclaim. He spoke publicly until his death in 1910. His birth and death was punctuated by the passing of Halley's Comet. Twain's works include The Innocents Abroad, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Pudd'nhead Wilson.

Plot summary: Since readers have heard of Huck in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck decides to tell his own story. First, Huck prefers the easy life of the outdoors to the civilized life of the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, although he does