As Joshua will be reading Huck Finn over the break ,today I provided instruction on the novel to assist analysis in the reading. After discussing some biographical information about Mark Twain , I placed on the board a chart : Society& Convention // Huck's unique perspective. I discussed how the society Twain portrays in the novel is one that hypocritically embraces both religion and slavery and we studied Twain's satiric depiction of Christianity . I noted how Huck's rejection of these traditional norms along with the author's use of dialect make the novel distinctively an American novel, perhaps the first real American novel that featured common people. As Huck grapples with society's norms in the face of his own developing morality we examined how the conflict bewtween Man and Society and Man vs himself (an internal debate of conscience) are catalysts for Huck's character transformation. I also noted the symbolic significance of settings -town or land vs the river and the raft. We will continue with this analysis tomorrow.