Аналитическое и домашнее чтение mark twain

“THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN”

Chapters 1-15

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to analyse the principal characters of a literary work and the nature of their relationship. You will also explain the psychological value of separate episodes.

1. REPRODUCE THE PIECE OF INFORMATION AND FORMULATE ITS PURPOSE:

"Huckleberry Finn" is a finer book than "Tom Sawyer", showing a more mature point of view. Here Twain returned to his first idea of having the chief actor tell the story. Huck's speech is saltier than Tom's, his mind is freer from romance. Huck is midway between the town-bred Tom and Negro Jim, full of primitive superstition. The school of life has taught him scepticism & a tenacious grasp on reality. But it has not turned him into a cynic.

2 (a). Prove that you remember the details of the chapters you've read by pointing out the correct choice among those offered. Add a sentence or two to each point: "It happened before/after/because of..." or: "So..." or: "That is why...", etc.

1. Tom proved his honesty early by: a) leaving five cents for the borrowed candle; b)telling Jim about the joke he had played on him; c)returning what the gang stole.

2. Jim became a celebrity when he: a) found treasure; b) joined Tom's pirates; c) told everybody how the witches rode him.

3. Miss Watson's comments on religion and Providence: a) persuaded Huck to remain with the Widow Douglas; b) influenced his Pap to reform; c) were unattractive to Huck.

4. Huck's father forbade the boy's: a) smoking; b) going to school; c) wearing shabby clothes.

5. Huck failed to convince Mrs.Loftus that he was a girl because he: a) walked like a boy; b) had fixed his hair poorly; c) brought the needle to the thread.

(b) Make up five similar sets of choices for your partner to choose the only correct one from those offered.

3. FILL IN THE BLANKS TO MAKE A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS (to be done at home!!!):

Adopted by the kind-hearted Widow Douglas, Huck Finn desperately resists respectability. He can't fall into the habits of ...……. It is a great relief to him to join Tom Sawyer at night. Tom is organizing "a band of robbers", and at first Huck is nearly ruled out because ...…….Being deprived of a normal childhood, Huck finds himself unable to share whole-heartedly the childlike vision of the fantasy world. Instead of …..... promised by Tom, he sees nothing but ......... . He takes oriental tales for granted, but after experimenting with an oil lamp he comes to the conclusion that............. . Before being taken away by Pap who …………, Huck discovered that he ………… . To avoid his father's abuse and being "sivilized" by Widow Douglas, Huck escapes to Jackson's Island. There he meets ……… They both make up their minds to ……… . Escaping from pursuit down the river, Huck and Jim come across .................... . Having safely drifted away, they find their raft a few miles down the river, and Huck sends a rescue party to the steamboat. Looking through the things the gang stole off the wreck, they discover ................. among them, and spend their time discussing ….......... . As the journey goes on, they lose each other in a dense fog, and when Huck catches up with the raft again, ............... .

4. Though being foils, Tom and Huck, the romantic and the realist, go hand in hand together.

1. HOW DOES THE JUXTAPOSITION OF THE TWO CHARACTERS REVEAL HUCK’S ATTITUDE TO LIFE? HOW DOES HUCK REACT TO TOM’S IDEAS? Explain what each of them values in the other.

2. What trait(s) of character does Huck show that make(s) him appear before his reader as a boy who was denied entrance into the world of childhood? (Provide details to illustrate your explanations).

5. Huck would be incomplete without Jim, who is almost as notable a creation as Huck himself. As the book progresses, we’ll certainly come to know Jim better - to know and love him. At first he seems to us merely a simple, unlettered person, beset by superstitions and his enslaved position. What facets of Jim's character do we see in the given chapters?

6. In any novel, the reader may find some PLOT-INCIDENTS, which push the story forward, and CHARACTER-INCIDENTS, which do not influence the development of the plot but show a character in development, and are important psychologically (="add tissue to character"). Find vivid instances of episodes of both kinds. How can the very last episode in chapter 15 be classified? Explain.

7. In "Huck Finn", as in any other book, it is very important through whose eyes and mind the reader is receiving the story. In this case, of course, it is the first-person narrator /Huck/. What advantages and disadvantages did the author have in adopting this point of view? How might the first part of the book have been different if it had been told by Tom or Jim? What would either of the two have laid stress upon? How would it have sounded?

!!!

Make use of the following pieces of criticism: Walter Besant. “My Favourite Novelist and His Best Book.” (pp.241-245) Van Wyck Brooks. The Ordeal of Mark Twain. (pp.258-261) James T.Farrell. “Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and the Era He Lived In.” (pp.277-280) T.S.Eliot. Introduction. (p.287-292) Walter Blair. “Huck and Tom.” (pp.303-307)