Lesson Title: Moral Courage vs. Mob Violence: Conscience vs. Popularity: Discourse vs. Action

 

By: Maria Inglefield

 

Burning Question:

Can modern student readers of the Boggs/Sherburn sections of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* process and understand Twain’s stand on the general human condition concerning human weakness and the preservation of a public self? Because of their tendency to feel “center stage” and vulnerable during adolescence, are teenagers both more able to see vanity and fear in themselves and be young enough to promote social change? Would foreknowledge of human foibles prompt teens to attempt to establish a culture of bravery over bravado and make their natural idealism work to foster change through their own cliques and social networks?

 

*“An Arkansaw Difficulty”--chapter 21, “Why the Lynching Bee Failed”--chapter 22

 

Objective/Introduction:

This lesson exposes students to an ugly side of humanity that is difficult to face. Students should be able to read this section of the novel as a plea for courage and self-control in the face of a most base human character flaw. Depending which lesson extensions each teacher chooses to employ or how far discussion proceeds, the lesson will impact each student and classroom community differently. Students should be able to process these issues in their own writing with a spirit of effective feedback, respect, and camaraderie. Students should be prepared as much as possible for any difficult written material or images they will see in this lesson. 

 

Context:

The reader should have completed chapters 21 and 22 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Students, having seen the growth in Huck’s character in previous chapters, should note the focus of this part of the novel is not on Huck Finn (except as observer and bystander). Serving us a hefty dose of lecture and unveiled opinion on the human condition, Twain uses these chapters to teach the reader that humans can be easily sold on brutality and vengeance, specifically referring to mob action and the human compulsion to follow the herd rather than risk chastisement or harsh judgment by peers.

 

Materials:

·   Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Puffin Classics). London: Puffin, 2008.

·   Pencil/Pen and Paper

·   For additional materials, please see the “resources” section at the end of this lesson plan.

 

Time Span:

variable

 

Procedures:

·         Part 1 – Text Work

a.      Students read chapters 21 and 22 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

b.      Teacher leads discussion on the following chronological events in the two chapters.

                           i.       The town of Bricksville (the name is revealed in chapter 28) is a horrid place. Inhabited by an inordinate number of poor, lazy thugs and bullies, streets full of black mud and abused animals, the town itself is precipitously placed on the edge of the riverbank and may be annihilated by the river at any time. Welcome comments: Are students aware of any such communities? Why did Twain use this town as a backdrop for his commentary of the evils of man and the Southern code of violence? Does this unsteady turf set the stage for unrest and battle? What is“liminal” space? How do people treat animals in this town? What does that say about the people living there?

                         ii.       Boggs enters as the town drunkard and is presented as a harmless blowhard. He haphazardly verbally harasses people and invades their physical space at times, but this time chooses to “mess with the wrong guy.” Welcome comments: Share a story when you overstepped a line, even after you were warned not to do so. What consequences do bullies usually face? Is bullying a problem at your school or within your family? Do you endure “trash talk”?

                       iii.       Sherburn gives Boggs a warning to cease the harassment; one o’clock is the time given for Boggs to capitulate. When Boggs does not stop, he is shot twice by Sherburn and falls to the street. He dies shortly thereafter. The crowd re-enacts his death as a grisly stage play that serves to incite the inhabitants of the town. Welcome comments: Do you think Boggs deserved this punishment? Have you ever spread a rumor or repeated gossip that started a chain of events you were then unable to stop? Why do people cluster around a wreck? What do you make of the use of the bible under Boggs’ head and over his chest?

                       iv.       As the ire of the citizenry is provoked, it is “sung out” that Sherburn be lynched. Clothes-lines are gathered by the frenzied bystanders. Brewing and yelling around the palings of Sherburn’s residence, tearing the fence down, the town riots and clamors for vengeance. Sherburn steps out and stares down the crowd. They deflate. Welcome comments: What does a flash to anger feel like in your body? Compare the feeling of exhilaration to a feeling of let-down. Why do the townspeople demand justice outside the law?

 

                         v.       Sherburn delivers his railing diatribe, defining what makes a real man, Southern temperament as compared to Northern temperament, bravery, lynching in the night, pilfered courage, all at the crowd he has diffused and lambasted. As he finishes, he cocks his gun. Welcome comments: What is the difference between bravery and bravado? Courage and calling out? Have you ever gotten “the look” from a parent or authority figure that made you comply? Sherburn clearly thinks the crowd is pathetic, but he just shot and killed a man. Does that make him heroic? Have you seen this sort of scene in any other book or movie?

                       vi.       The chapter goes on with Huck attending the circus and the King and the Duke’s show going off with lackluster attendance. Huck finds the circus compelling, dwelling on the drunken horse riding “plant” duping the attendees and, he assumes, the Ringmaster. Welcome comments: Huck watches the mob and watches the circus. How are both American entertainments? How does the crowd react to being tricked at the circus? If the “plant” was not allowed to ride, would another riot have ensued? Why did Twain juxtapose a possible lynching with a circus scene?

 

·         Part 2 –Grounding Connections

a.       Class reads Twain’s, “The United States of Lyncherdom” (1901). http://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enam482e/lyncherdom.html

b.      Students discuss the essay and then free write about the following quotations taken from that essay.

It must be that the increase (in lynching) comes of the inborn human instinct to imitate—that and man’s commonest weakness, his aversion to being unpleasantly conspicuous, pointed at, shunned, as being on the unpopular side. Its other name is moral cowardice, and is the commanding feature of the make-up of 9,999 men in the 10,000….

 

It has been supposed—and said – that the people at a lynching enjoy the spectacle and are glad of a chance to see it. It cannot be true: all experience is against it. The people in the South are made like the people in the North- the vast majority of whom are right-hearted and compassionate, and would be cruelly pained by such a spectacle- and would attend it, and let on to be pleased with it, if the public approval seemed to require it. We are made like that, and we cannot help it….

 

Why does it lift no hand or voice in protest? Only because it would be unpopular to do it, I think; each man is afraid of his neighbor’s disapproval – a thing which, to the general run of the race, is more dreaded than wounds and death. When there is to be a lynching the people hitch up and come miles to see it, bringing their wives and children. Really to see it?  No- they come only because they are afraid to stay at home, lest it be noticed and offensively commented upon….

Then perhaps the remedy for lynchings comes to this: station a brave man in each affected community to encourage, support, and bring to light the deep disapproval of lynching hidden in the secret places of its heart- for it is there, beyond question. Then those communities will find something better to imitate- of course, being human, they must imitate something. Where shall these brave men be found? That is indeed a difficulty; there are not three hundred of them in the earth.         

c.       Students share their writing with peers in small groups. Each small group elects one piece to share with the whole class.

d.      Access the Utah History to Go website for the “Klansmen at a Funeral and a Terrible Lynching” article, written by W. Paul Reeve and Jeffrey D. Nichols, History Blazer, September 1995. It tells the story of Robert Marshall, an itinerant black miner lynched in Price, UT in 1925 by the Ku Klux Klan. http://historytogo.utah.gov

e.       View video, or listen to just the audio recording, of Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit.” Give lyric sheet to accompany discussion. Billie Holiday/Lady Day ended each of her performances with this song for many years. Ask students what it would feel like to revisit a song and memory so painful, so often. www.stlyrics.com

f.       Distribute the poem “Copperheads,” by E. M. Schorb (found on poets.org) to students. Read aloud. Pair this with a discussion of the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. An excerpt from the book by Leslie M. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 can be found on (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html. This shows that lynching was not just a Southern phenomenon.

g.      Give students biographical information about the first African-American poet laureate, Robert Hayden. Read his poem “Night, Death, Mississippi.” There are follow-up talking points and questions about the author and many of his poems at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/lesson2.html.

h.      Access with students the “Without Sanctuary” website: http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/  This site comes with its own warning about disturbing images, but prepare students as much as possible for what they are about to see. The written and audio content the teacher has provided thus far should help, but these images are shocking. Leave plenty of time for discussion of different victims, highlighting people of different races and ethnicities. This site leaves the viewer with a clear picture of the deviltry of people even temporarily ruled by mob fervor.

 

·   Part 3 – Possibilities for Change (more writing opportunities)

a. Process the following quotation from George Bernard Shaw (http://www.answers.com/topic/mark-twain)

“Mark Twain and I are in very much the same position. We have to put things in such a way as to make people who would otherwise hang us, believe that we are joking.”

      Twain uses satire and the voice of a child as a mouthpiece to get away with scathing social commentary in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. How does his delivery work on your feelings about humanity. Does he leave the reader with hope? Most of the characters in his novel are repellant, and Twain is candid about their flaws. Who are the positive characters in the novel? Give evidence from the text to support your argument.

b. As the novel progresses, Huck sees Jim as a sage instructor, first capable of pain, then capable of hurt/disappointment, and lastly capable of love. In Chapter 23, when “Jim Gets Homesick,” Huck decides that Jim loves his black family the same as white people love their own family members. Huck’s ability to change is one of the positive aspects that pulls readers through the novel. When have you had to change your mind about someone you had pre-conceived notions about? Can you think of a person you could support, an underdog, a social victim, someone who you know could use a social connection? How would you go about helping that person?

c.  Using the internet, access nobelprize.org to view the recipients of this award since its beginning. Teacher picks a name to distribute to each student to research and present to the class. The youngest award winner was only 25 years old!     

 

Extensions: This is not an exhaustive list of activities, but it does serve as a place to start.

Rationale:

         As teenagers grow and develop into adults, they are keenly aware of their status in a group and struggle to maintain or raise their status with their peers and important adults. I assert that how they are perceived by others can almost supplant how they see themselves, and they are at a particular risk for going along with a crowd, even if the endeavor jeopardizes their safety or well-being. They need to be aware of the power of their own individual personality and that of others’ to be able to stand strong in the face of adversity, animosity and perplexing social situations that can be life-changing and relentlessly paced (leaving almost no time to make judgment). They also need o be able to take responsibility for their own actions. I think the exposure to the utter depravity of humans at their worst gives us the foreknowledge we need as people to try to find new ways to solve problems without resorting to violence.   

  

Resources:  (In addition to the resources listed above)

·  A lesson plan from Mark Twain’s Mississippi on “Ida B. Wells and the Anti-Lynching Movement” http://dig.lib.niu.edu/twain/twainlessonfour.html

·  Roy Blount, Jr. wrote an article for Time in which he discusses Twain’s essay on Lyncherdom: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1820166-3,00.html

·  http://www.americanlynching.com/ is the web site in support of a documentary American Lynching.

·  From the Mark Twain Museum is a lesson plan “One Man Against the Crowd” http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/media/One%20Man.pdf