title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Annotated)
author:  Mark Twain 
description: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, prominently known by his penname Mark Twain, was a famous American author and humorist. His most famous works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and its sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter being called The Great American Novel. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting for Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. He worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his brothers newspaper Orion Clemens, prior to which he did apprenticeship with a printer. He later worked as a pilot of a riverboat before he moved west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. His humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, published in 1865 and based on a story he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp California, where he had spent time as a miner, brought international fame and attention and was even translated to Classic Greek. He was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. The wit and satire of Twain, both in prose and speech, earned praise from critics and peers. Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, though he lost most of it by investing in ventures, notably the Paige Compositor. The failure of this mechanical typesetter was attributed to its complexity and imprecision. These financial difficulties led him to seek protection from his creditors via bankruptcy and succeeded in overcoming his financial problems with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. A gentleman by nature, Twain decided to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, though he had no legal responsibility to do so. Twain was born shortly after the visit of Halleys Comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it, too. He died the day after the comet returned. He was lauded as the greatest American humorist of his age, and William Faulkner called Twain the father of American literature.
zlib_text: Advanced Placement in
  English Literature and Composition
  Teaching Unit
  Individual Learning Packet
  Adventures of 
  Huckleberry Finn
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  by Mark Twain
  Written by Jill Geissler
  Copyright © 2006 by Prestwick House Inc., P. O. Box 658, Clayton, DE 19938. 
  1-800-932-4593. www.prestwickhouse.com Permission to copy this unit for classroom use is 
  extended to purchaser for his or her personal use. This material, in whole or part, may not be 
  copied for resale.
  ISBN-10  1-58049-028-X
  ISBN-13  978-1-58049-028-3
  Reorder No. 301376
  
  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  Objectives
  By the end of this unit, the student will be able to:
  1. 
  analyze the characters of Huck and Jim and their relationship to each other.
  2. 
  explain the impact of the ﬁ rst-person protagonist narrator on the story.
  3. 
  discuss the techniques Twain uses to create suspense.
  4. 
  discuss Twain’s use of humor, satire, and occasional pathos.
  5. 
  examine, identify, and discuss the use of imagery and ﬁ g