Huck Finn Literature Circle # 1

Chapters 1-8

Summarizer (5-7 minutes)

Share your assessment of the major events of chapter 1-8. Make sure you clearly outline each chapter—consider Historical/Biographical school as you discuss

Group members may add to the summary, but be RESPECTFUL

This is a good time to clarify any confusion you may have had while reading these chapters

Discussion director should make sure everyone stays on task.

Illustrator (5 minutes)

Share your illustration with your group and explain why you chose what you did. Make sure you are detailed.

Other group members should ask questions and make connections to what the summarizer said

Discussion Director (7-10 minutes)

Begin asking and discussing your questions. Make sure you facilitate the discussion so it lasts the full time period. Make sure you invite everyone to participate in the discussion; don’t monopolize the conversation. Get it going and then allow others to comment.

Illuminator (7-10 minutes)

Share your passages and insights. Make sure you tell your group the page number.

This is a good time to discuss the passages, add to the discussion as the illuminator shares (discussion director, you should be exceptionally perceptive in adding your thoughts here)

Word Watcher (5-7 minutes)

Share the words and their significance with particular attention paid to historical/biographical significance—

If you do not have a word watcher, you should work together as a group to find important words in the passage to record.

Connector (7-10 minutes) Share your connections to the text and

encourage your group to add their own thoughts to your connections.

Read the Spike Lee version of the Hat Scene and discuss these three questionsHow does this scene change your

perception?What point of view do we see in this revised

version? Why is it important to look at multiple

perspectives?

Next Lit Circle (11/2) chapters 9-20

Discussion director will be the illuminator

Illuminator will be the illustrator

Illustrator will be the connector

Connector will be the summarizer

Summarizer will be the discussion director

Discussion director will be the illuminator

Illuminator will be the illustrator

Illustrator will be the connector

Connector will be the summarizer

Summarizer will be the Word Watcher

Word Watcher will be the discussion director

The Adventures of Huck Finn

Chapters 1-8

Narrator

Huck Finn or Mark Twain? HUCK! Do not confuse the two. Huck is

ignorant and innocent, Mark Twain, the author is very aware.

HUCK Vs. TWAIN

Huck is too innocent and ignorant to understand what’s wrong with his society and what’s right about his own rebellious behavior.

Twain and Huck do NOT share the same voice. Twain teaches lessons through Huck. You have to look beneath the surface.

Twain had come to believe not only that slavery was a horrendous wrong, but that white Americans owed black Americans some form of reparations for it. That is one of the lessons he teaches

HUCK IS AN OUTCAST IN SEARCH OF HIS IDENTITY

Who does he live with? Widow Douglas and Miss Watson not his

own father. What happens when he doesn’t have

family to offer as “ransom”? almost kicked out of band of robbers

Who does he admire? Tom (his YOUNGER friend) because he

has no one to look up to.

JIM—The REAL hero of the novel

He seems gullible but remember, the story is being told by a KID (12 years old!!!!!!) Jim breaks free from the stereotype uses the incident with the hat to gain fame!—SPIKE

LEE’s Hat Scene by Ralph Wiley (African American Screen writer and satirist) “ part of Twain's genius in this book is letting the reader

see things that Huck doesn't see, making Huck an endearing and engaging but ultimately unreliable narrator. In Wiley's script, the juxtaposition of the visual message the viewer gets, on the one hand, and the comically limited version of that reality that Huck (the narrator) communicates, on the other, captured that dramatic irony.”

P. 18 uses a nasty hairball to make money—only works w/money!

TO UNDERSTAND JIM you must read between the lines.

As you continue to read, look at Jim as the hero of the novel. Look at him as the protector of Huck. Look beyond what Huck says and see Jim for who he really is.

HUCK & TOM= REALISM vs ROMANTICISM

book written at the end of the Romantic period (look at your timeline)

Romantic= imagination, individualism, creativity; Tom is optimistic and idealistic and BUT he tends to follow the rules and “do the right thing” according to Huck

Realism= practical decisions and trouble imagining gang events with TOM but HUCK does like adventure so he does have some romantic qualities

HUCK’s Internal conflict

Society vs. Individual morals Miss Watson tries to teach Huck about Moses

but Huck “takes no stock in dead people,” and looks to the future proving that he acts by his own opinions rather than society’s.

Huck’s first RESOLUTION: decides to stop praying b/c he didn’t get what he wanted. Decides that helping others doesn’t help you any and there is no reason to do it.

PAP: Symbol of EVIL and CORRUPTION Greedy

Racist—he kidnaps his own son! Just because he wants the $6,000 (that’s love for ya)

Child abuser Beats Huck. Twain loved children and anyone

who was not nice to children was ridiculed in his books.

Racist Pap is angry about a black man going to school. So why would Pap act this way?

He’s JEALOUS!

Alcoholic Criminal

Why does Huck need a Father Figure?

Who can become the Father Figure?

Jim as the Father Figure

Historically: why is this a radical move on the part of Mark Twain?

Biographically: what does this reveal to you about Mark Twain?

Superstition Motif

Who believes in superstitions? PapHuckJim

What does this reveal to you about the historical time period?

What does this reveal about Twain?

Huck Finn

The research project

Topic Selection

You will be writing a lit crit paper on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Choose a school to align yourself withDecide on an argumentative question that is

aligned with that schoolBegin researching as you read to develop the

most effective paper

Suggested schools

Historical/Biographical—with this school you would research the author’s background and the historical context. Really consider the roles these things play to develop your argumentative question. Remember, it’s not a report on Mark Twain or the Civil War, or Slavery, but it evaluates the influences of these things on the text and the reader. Sources: MUST HAVE 5

Textbook (English, US History etc) Class notes (mine, US History etc) Novels

Suggested School

Moral/philosophical—with this school you would research the moral issues involved with Huck Finn. For example, you might focus on the censorship of Huck Finn, or the issues of race. Sources: Must have 5

Class notes (Mine, US History, etc) Novel

Suggested Schools

Archetypal—with this school you would research the symbolism and the patterns seen in the text and how it affects/enhances meaningSources: Must have 5

Class Notes (Mine, Psychology etc) Jungian books Novel

Suggested Schools

Feminist—with this school you would research the female role in comparison to the male roles in the novel. Sources: Must have 5

Novel Class Notes (mine)

Suggested Schools

Marxist—with this school you would research the class system (slavery and race) and the role of the government (pre-civil war politics) Sources: Must have 5

Class notes (mine, US History, Civics etc) Textbook (mine, US History, Civics etc) Novel

Suggested Schools

Reader Response—with this school you would focus on your own reaction as well as the reaction of other readers and critics and what elicits that reaction, particularly the backgrounds of the audience in questionSources: Must have 5

Literature circle Notes (classmates/interviews) Novel

Requirements

Must be argumentative Must be 5-7 pages of WRITING (not

including the works cited page) Must incorporate in-text citations Must be turned in to www.turnitin.com Choose your own due date—caveats to

this etc.

Questions?

Write them on the note card. Tonight: start preliminary research and begin to focus in on a school of thought