Learning OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the novel students will be able to
1)
Define realism, satire, dialect, antihero,
unreliable narrator, irony (situational, dramatic, and verbal), episodic plot,
romanticism, dramatic foils, hyperbole, motif, picaresque novel, parable,
sarcasm, simile, metaphor, oxymoron, allegory, euphemism, bildungroman
2)
Pick out examples of symbols, irony and dialect
3)
Example the meaning of at least one major symbol
4)
Discuss how Huck is both an unreliable narrator
and an antihero
5)
Discuss how Huckleberry Finn, the novel, fits
both a bildungsroman and picaresque novel
6)
Give examples of and discuss the following
motifs in the book: superstition, parodies of previous literature (romantic
novels and Shakespeare), the adopting of personas (or reinventing self),
childhood games, religion, lies and cons, death, and perhaps one or two others
that I will bring up in class
7)
Be out to pick out and example five – ten
allusions
8)
Outline the plot according to the six elements
9)
Break up the book into three sections or three
movements (and briefly explain each movement)
10)
Break up the book into 9 episodes
11)
Give a list of characters in the book with a
brief description of each and their general purpose in the novel
12)
Compare and Contrast Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer
13)
Discuss the idea of and the historical reference
of Family Feuds
14)
Discuss the different types of conflict found in
Huckleberry Finn
15)
Discuss how Mark Twain uses allusions to back up
his major themes and develop his characters
16)
Keep a
list of Huckleberry Finns stories and pranks
17)
Discuss how Huckleberry Finn is honest in
dishonest world
18)
Briefly explain the following themes: Racism and
Slavery, Intellectual and Moral Education, The hypocrisy of society (appearance
vs. reality), conflict between the individual and society, the quest for freedom
(both freedom away from society and freedom within society), superstition vs
religion, death and rebirth, coming of age and the hero’s journey, the concept
of family, the role of the outsider, the nature and the significance of the
following traits: gullibility, ignorance, and naivety, tolerance vs.
prejudice.
HUCKLEBERRY FINN TEST
Each question is worth 10 points. 120 points total
1) Give
two examples of the occurrence of Moses in the book and briefly discuss how it
represents a main idea (or theme) of the novel.
2) Give
at least five examples of death (or the mentioning of death) and how these
examples fit the theme of DEATH and REBIRTH.
3) Give
three examples of scenes that fit the individual vs. society theme and explain
why they fit this theme.
4) List
the inciting event and the climax of the novel.
5) List
7 or 8 episodes and give four events from each.
6) For
the following characters list what they did or why they are important in the
novel.
King (the late Dauphin)
Duke of Bridgewater (or Bilgewater)
Ben Rogers
Judith Loftus
Colonel Sherburn
Harvey Wilks
7) List
three literary allusions in Huck Finn (please don’t use an author more than
once)
8) List
four ironies in the book.
9-12) Name the speaker of the
following quotes and briefly discuss the significance of the quote:
“Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped run
away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his
children—children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t
ever done me no harm”
SPEAKER:
SIGNIFICANCE:
“Is a cat a man? Well
den, dey ain’t no sense in a cat talkin’ like a man. Is a cow a man? Is a cow a cat? Well den she ain’t got no business to talk
like either one… Is a Frenchman a man?
Well den! Dad blame it, why doan’
he talk like a man?”
SPEAKER:
SIGNIFCANCE”
“I’d been selling an article that takes the tartar off the
teeth—an it does take it off, too, and generly the enamel along with it.”
SPEAKER:
SIGNIFICANCE:
“They call this a govment that can’t sell a free nigger till
he’s been in the state six months…
Here’s a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a
govment and thinks it is a govment, and yet’s got to set stock-still for six
whole months before it can take a-hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal,
white-shirted free nigger.”
SPEAKER:
SIGNIFICANCE:
