7 Chapter 6 Tom and Huck

Chapter 6 Tom and Huck "You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus." —Mark Twain In the summers, Mark, Livy, and the girls went to Quarry Farm, Livy's sister's house in Elmira, New York. After a breakfast of steak and coffee, Mark would disappear to a little hilltop study where he would write and smoke some forty cigars a day. Usually he worked straight through lunch, his pen streaming across the page. Even after typewriters came into use in the 1870s, Mark Twain preferred to write in longhand.

Mark spent the summers of 1874 and 1875 writing what would become his most popular book: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer is based on the young Sam Clemens himself— Tom's about twelve, and full of ideas and mischief. Tom lives in a river town very much like Hannibal in the years before the Civil War. He does what he likes and avoids doing what he doesn't.

In one of the book's most famous scenes, Tom makes the chore of whitewashing a fence look like so much fun that his friends beg him to let them help. Some even pay for the opportunity! Mark wrote: Tom resumed his whitewashing and answered carelessly: "Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a

chance to whitewash a fence every day?" That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a touch here and there—criticised the effect again—Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little." The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was an instant hit with children, but adults read it, too. It is still popular with people of all ages today. In the summer of 1876, Mark began a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This time, Tom's friend Huckleberry Finn was the main character. Huck was ragged and uneducated, but he had a good heart. However, what Mark thought would be another funny boys' adventure story became something much deeper and more serious. Mark put Huck on a raft, floating down the Mississippi with a runaway slave named Jim.

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RECONSTRUCTION THE PERIOD AFTER THE CIVIL WAR WAS KNOWN AS RECONSTRUCTION. THE NATION FACED THE DIFFICULT TASKS OF REBUILDING (RECONSTRUCTING) THE SOUTH, WHERE MOST OF THE FIGHTING HAD TAKEN PLACE, AND REUNITING THE COUNTRY. NEARLY FOUR MILLION FORMER SLAVES WERE BEGINNING LIVES AS FREE PEOPLE, BUT MANY HAD LITTLE OR NO MONEY AND COULDN'T READ OR WRITE. UNTIL 1877 SOLDIERS FROM THE NORTH WERE STATIONED IN THE SOUTH TO PROTECT BLACKS AND ENSURE THEY WERE ABLE TO VOTE AND HOLD POLITICAL OFFICE. AFTER NORTHERN SOLDIERS LEFT, HOWEVER, SOUTHERN WHITES, STILL FURIOUS AT LOSING THE WAR AND UNABLE TO ACCEPT BLACKS AS EQUALS, FORMED SECRET SOCIETIES LIKE THE KU KLUX KLAN. DISGUISED IN WHITE HOODS AND ROBES, KLAN MEMBERS THREATENED, BEAT, AND SOMETIMES KILLED BLACKS TO KEEP THEM FROM VOTING AND ASSERTING THEIR RIGHTS. WHITES SOON