River/Shore Project

Topic: Education/Learning

Brooke AdamsAnna FarelloAnalise FernandezMegan FreiburgerHannah GarzaAudrey HillJordan Mullins

Uni-T

Twain’s portrayal of Huck’s educational journey shows that civilization is not

always the best teacher.

Thesis StatementAlthough society plagues Huck’s

conscience with false ideas of morality, the

river engenders an authentic sense of right and wrong,

which leads to Huck abandoning the customs of the

Southern shore.

Significant DifferencesRiver Shore

• Freedom and truth can be equated with the experiences Huck and Jim encounter while meandering down the River.

• It is only when Huck is on the river that he has clarity and an open perspective.

• The heavy, oppressiveness that restricts civilization can be severed on the raft.

• Twain evokes transcendentalism by equating nature with truth. Huck’s sound, undamaged heart that ultimately guides Huck to unlearn and defeat his “moral conscience” that had thus far confused and conflicted Huck.

• Huck’s conscience is largely a product of his culture and era.

• What he learns on the shore is influenced by the hypocrisy of the southern institutions.

• As an adolescent, Twain creates a character that is the perfect target to absorb all that society preaches is “good and just.”

• Lies, dishonesty, and duplicity are abound on the shore.

“I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscience up and says, every time ‘But you knowed he was running for his freedom, add you could ‘a’ paddled ashore and told somebody….What did that [Miss Watson] do to you that you could treat her so mean? Why, she tried to learn you her book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to be good to you every way she knowed how. That’s what she done’” (92).

EXAMPLE #1

Example #2

• “I see it warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a nigger to argue”(85).

• “‘It ain’t no use to try to learn you anything, Huck’”(238).

“ Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad– I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I what’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and it ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?

Quote #3

Thesis StatementAlthough society plagues Huck’s

conscience with false ideas of morality, the

river engenders an authentic sense of right and wrong,

which leads to Huck abandoning the customs of the

Southern shore.