As we will soon be concluding our study of "Huck Finn", Olivia first worked on generating full sentences identifying themes in the novel. We explored :1. Life's experiences developing character and 2. Rules and conventions failure to create moral virtue. Next, we analyzed the novel's ongoing satire of literary Romanticism. We looked at the first novel we studied, Hawthorne's "
The Scarlet Letter" and noted direct parodies of that novel in Tom Sawyer's elaborate escape plan. Likewise, we noted the satiric allusion to Lord Byron's poem we read earlier this year"The Prisoner of Chillon". With this emphasis I again referenced how and why "Huck Finn" is often described as the 'great American novel" or even the "first American novel" due to its outright rejection of unrealistic Romanticism and its use of common people as its main characters. Last, I mentioned how the actor, Hal Holbrook, for years put on one man shows called"Mark Twain Tonight" wherein he portrayed Twain and recited many of Twain' s favorite stories. We looked at a small portion of one performance and for homework I assigned viewing the rest of the ten minute clip as well as reading the next two chapters of the novel.