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The
PBS/Ken Burns production Mark Twain has a
support
site with class activities (some of which we will use),
a
chronology of Twain's life, and many other useful
materials. |
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Go
here to read "A True Story: Repeated Word for Word as I
Heard It," Twain's recounting of the story "Aunt Rachel,"
who worked for him, told about her experiences in slavery
and just after regaining her freedom. (Notice that she is
living in New Bern when she is reunited with her son.) You
can see the manuscript at the University of Virginia's
Etext Center. |
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Paul P.
Reuben's PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A
Research and Reference Guide is an excellent web
resource in American literature. The page on
Mark Twain includes useful study questions for
Huckleberry Finn as well as links to more web
resources. |
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PBS
included The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in its
Culture Shock series last year. The accompanying Web site
has many resources for studying the history of censorship of
this work:
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An excellent
introduction to the various controversies the
novel has engendered, as well as to the varying
reactions literary critics have had to it. |
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Information about the Culture Shock video that deals
with Huck Finn and its controversies,
Born to Trouble: Adventures of Huck Finn. |
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An
article (originally from NCTE's publication
English Journal) about a controversy that
erupted in Cherry Hill, NJ, when a group of African
American students objected to reading the novel in
class. Instead of fighting each other, teachers and
parents cooperated, with support and resources
provided by the school authorities, to produce a
carefully planned curriculum that teaches the novel
and the controversies. (A description of the
curriculum is included.) |
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The Culture Shock
Teaching Guide, which is based on the Cherry
Hill curriculum. If you plan to teach English or
language arts to anyone remotely old enough to read
this novel, bookmark this site. |
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A thought-provoking
essay (originally a talk) by Clemens scholar
Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Dr. Fishkin discusses both
the reasons Huck Finn is a great novel and
the reasons it engenders controversy. This
essay is assigned for this course--everyone is
expected to read it! |
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"Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn: Text,
Illustrations, and Early Reviews," at UVA, gives access
to the original illustrations for Huckleberry Finn
and various versions of the text. |
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The
Huckleberry Finn part of
"Mark Twain in His Times," another extensive UVA
resource, will allow you to
search the text, read
contemporary reviews, and look at a century (1885-19850
of
illustrations of Jim. The last of these is
particularly interesting. |
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This
brief description of a unit on the novel in a book about
using American literature to teach values raises some
interesting questions. (Of course, it is Jim, not Huck, who
decides not to tell Huck his father is dead.) |
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Here's a
"Teacher
CyberGuide" designed to help secondary teachers in
California use the novel as part of a unit on slavery and
emancipation. See what you think of it. |
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Another
California teachers' guide uses the novel to examine
issues related to censorship. |
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Here's a
public domain text of Huckleberry Finn. You
can load a chapter and then use Edit, Find in your browser
to search for particular words and passages. (However, if
you quote or cite any passages in a paper, you should locate
them in a more reliable critical text.) |
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This
attack on lynching, published anonymously in 1869 but
now attributed to Clemens, is interesting for its attitudes
not only to the offensive word the novel uses for Jim but
also toward the "chivalry" of the "high-toned gentleman" of
the South. (Offensive language is used, but not condoned,
in the attack.) |
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The
Mark
Twain site at About.com has excellent resources. |
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The
American Collection Educators' Site on Mark Twain is an
NCTE resource with many useful links (reviewed by a team of
educators), including the following:
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This
ClassicNote on Huckleberry Finn
includes a 50-item self-scoring multiple-choice
self-test. If you like to use published study
notes, look here before you buy. |
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Also on
the NCTE site is a
lesson plan that deals with characters and language in
Huckleberry Finn. You might like to try this as a
weekly writing. [The lesson plan page was unavailable when
this page was last updated, but it may reappear.] |
Internet Resources for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn