1. Sketch Twain’s development of a major symbol in Huck Finn. You need to show enough evidence to make the person, place or thing transcend its literal self and become something more. Be clear about what the symbolic meaning is.
2. There remains controversy about this often-banned book, much of it centering on the issue of the book’s portrayal of African-Americans. Can the book be great even though it so frequently uses words such as “nigger?” Is the picture of blacks in general, and Jim in particular, finally too unflattering? Can we judge the attitudes of these characters apart from the racism of their society?
For this paper, you must examine this issue of racism in the novel. Is the book too tainted to work as a novel? What evidence can you show to support your position?
3. A major difference between Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer is that Tom Sawyer is written in the third person, while Huckleberry Finn has a first-person narrator. This change to a first person point of view is often cited as the key to the greatness of Huckleberry Finn. So… how is the novel enhanced by its coming to us through Huck? What conflicts and themes are made more interesting? Support your claims with examples and textual evidence.
4. In Huck Finn ideas are often developed or emphasized through contrasts between characters and/or settings. In a paper choose two characters or settings and contrast them with the goal of drawing larger conclusions about specific themes and conflicts. For example, in class we contrasted life on the river to life on shore and drew some conclusion about the impact of society on Huck.
5. How might this novel be a satirical response to the struggles and failures of Reconstruction? To address this idea, you might do a little research and present your take on Reconstruction in your introduction. Use the rest of the paper to analyze the world of Huck and Jim and how it might reflect a vision of the the antebellum nadir we've talked about in class.
Timeline:
o Choose Topic
o Find Supporting Evidence and Quotations in the Text
o Exploratory Writing
o Develop Thesis and Outline
o Write First Draft (to be collected and graded)
o Revise Draft