Mark+Twain+-5th+Hour

=The Standard Early Years and History = Mark Twain was born in 1835 on November 30th in Florida, Missouri. He moved to Hannibal when he was 4 years old and based the town St. Petersburg off of it. His name actually isn't Mark Twain, it's Samuel Langhorne Clemens, which really doesn't sound as good. His name comes from his youth when he worked with riverboats. At first, he aspired to go to South America and make a lot of money on cocoa but he couldn't find a ship so he settled with steamboats instead.From 1857-59, Sammy (his unofficial nickname given to him by a recent student studying Mark Twain) was an apprentice riverboat pilot. Sammy found a "deep" connection with the Mississippi river, which can be shown by the fact that in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, all of the good feelings mostly come from the river. Also, the name "Mark Twain" means 2 fathoms deep, or 12 feet. After being an apprentice, Sammy was promoted to captain, which lasted roughly 1 year and then the U.S changed forever. The Civil War broke out. During the Civil War, Sammy fought like a roaring war hero. He joined a few Confederates and spent a whole couple of weeks being "hunted like a rat" recalls Mark Twain at the experience. As a valiant soldier, Sammy ditched the army and fled to Nevada and California. This situation is similar to when Huck leaves the widow's place and escapes to the outdoors. Sammy's first county-wide famous writing was //The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County//, which was a humorous short story. By 1873, Sammy relinquished his first novel, //The Gilded Age// co-written with Charles Dudley Warner, which described the ridiculousness of politics after the Civil War. Even though, he criticized the Gilded Age, he didn't stop it from ruining his new life of luxury. As such a powerful writer, Sammy had much success and began to reap the benefits. He became very wealthy and was able to construct an enormous Gothic style house in Connecticut. Even though Sammy was rich, he wasn't that rich. After making some poor choices with his money, Sammy's grand house was in debt and eventually it built up to $100,000 or 2 million in today's money. He resolved to get rid of his debt and in the 1890s, was mostly in Europe giving speeches. When Sammy came back, the Gilded Age was ending and America was beginning to make itself prominent outside of the country.Sammy recognized the challenge of the situation America faced as it tried to make different countries Democratic. He quoted to the Chicago Tribune that "a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater." That concludes the early years of Mark Twain or, as his newlyfound nickname proposes, Sammy.

=**The Messages Behind Huck Finn**= There are many messages behind Huck Finn about society. Most of these are political or social critiques aimed at a specific group of people. To make the information more organized, I have devised a list. ~Royal government: Mark Twain bashes the corrupt leaders of a royal government through the duke and the king. Huck makes a comment about about how he knows that the duke and the king are frauds but doesn't see the difference between them and real royalty. ~Illiteracy: Mark Twain uses Huck's father to make fun of the idea of "action, not books". Huck's father represents a typical woodsman who is against learning and in the book, Mark Twain uses exaggeration to show how ridiculous this concept is by making Huck's dad go on a rant about how Huck shouldn't learn how to read because he can't. ~Slavery: The most prominent issue presented in the book is slavery. Mark Twain was an anti racist even though he put the n-word in the book. Mark Twain shows that African Americans are the same as white people. The only character who was truly moral, was Jim. Even though his dialect didn't seem intelligent, that was how African American slaves talked in that time period. In fact, Jim was very intelligent for the minimal schooling he had, it wasn't his fault that he wasn't taught proper English. ~Reformers: Mark Twain used Judge Thatcher to "play the part" as a reformer. The judge lets Pap in on the basis that Pap teared up and said he would never drink again, the judge ends up looking like a fool because the next day, Pap gets drunk. ~Drunkenness: Mark Twain made a statement against drinking and violence through Pap's actions. When Pap gets drunk, he beats Huck. This act of domestic violence is clearly despised by Mark Twain from Huck running away to the fact that alcohol makes people violent. ~Mobs: In a section of the book, Mark Twain has a mob go after a sheriff for shooting a harmless drunk. Mark Twain uses the sheriff to convey his thoughts on mobs, and how cowardly it is to be part of one. The sheriff says that none of the mob members would have the courage to stand up against him alone, and after his speech, the mob disperses. ~Family Feuds: Mark Twain makes a profound statement on how ridiculous family feuds are. He places Huck and Jim in the middle of one and Huck is treated very well as a guest and beleives the family to be one of the nicest he's ever met. Then, a little battle comes along and Huck's friend was killed for no reason. =The Crazily Intense Effect Huck Finn has/had on Society= After the book was published, controversy was already beginning to brew. The Concord Massachusets Library banned it because of it's "tawdry subject matter" and "the coarse, ignorant language in which it was narrated." People were obviously angered at the critisisms that many people in that time participated in. Many critics were very critical of Huck Finn and said very nice things about it such as "the veriest trash ... more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people." The author of //Little Women,// Louisa May Alcott, said that "If Mr. Clemens [Twain's original name] cannot think of something better to tell our pure-minded lads and lasses he had best stop writing for them." This was followed by the New York Library claiming that "Huck not only itched but scratched, and that he said sweat when he should have said perspiration." Twain took a lot of heat from his haters, but he just laughed it off. Still, even today, this book is on the top ten books that are banned in the U.S because of the n-word. Although Sammy isn't racist, he's a just a realist.

=Mark Twain and Flobots= As a Flobots fan, I beleive that Mark Twain would have enjoyed their music. He has constantly fought social injustices and so do Flobots.Even though they may disagree on a few things, if Mark Twain was around today, he would have loved it!

=Citation= ~ Blount, Roy. "Mark Twain: America's Original Superstar - TIME." //Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com//. 3 Jul. 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. []. ~ Times, New York. "Mark Twain Biography." //UNet Users' Home Pages//. Contemporary Authors Online, 22 Apr. 1910. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. []. ~ Johnson, Claudia Durst. //Understanding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: a Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents//. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. Print. ~ Jones, Baudelaire. "Racism and the Enduring Controversy of Huckleberry Finn - Society - Social Issues." //Article Directory - Free Expert Article Directory - GoArticles.com//. 12 Sept. 2007. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. [].

~My brain

~ Joe. "Google Image Result for Http://www.conspirazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/mark-twain.jpg."// Google//. 5 Oct. 2009. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. [twain&usg=__4Wc1nmAXYfAQWxEi3ldnyneV6Z8=&sa=X&ei=7VZdTcL6JoGClAfCut25Cw&ved=0CE4Q9QEwBw|http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:]//www.conspirazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/mark-twain.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.conspirazzi.com/?p=423&h=400&w=322&sz=26&tbnid=_Q5ay1f7M1XCaM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=100&prev=/images?q=mark+twain&zoom=1&q=mark twain&usg=//__4Wc1nmAXYfAQWxEi3ldnyneV6Z8=&sa=X&ei=7VZdTcL6JoGClAfCut25Cw&ved=0CE4Q9QEwBw.

~Mr., Humphrey. "Period 1 - Huck Finn Controversy." Morgan County School District Re-3//. 23 Feb. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. .