There's Nothing Funny about Huck Finn

Note: I took this down briefly yesterday, but have decided to put it back here with a few edits. My apologies for anything that might have been offensive to the man whose shoes I'm not successfully filling. No disrespect was intended because I'm really poking fun at my own inner beast here. Please laugh with me--or at least at me.

Okay, so today was so daunting that I must write about it. Keep in mind that I'm substitute teaching for the guy who is the favorite teacher of almost every kid in school. He's unorthodox, fun, inspiring, wise, interesting... I, on the other hand, am very structured and controlling in my classroom. That's not to say I'm not "fun." I pale in comparison, however.

I'm spending my days bending as far from my left brain philosophy as I can so as not to disrupt the ebb and flow of the creative classroom I'll leave behind in my short-lived legacy in Room 19. But that bitchy little control freak that lives inside of me wants there to be order. She demands that time given to read or create character profiles be used wisely. "And if it's not," she cackles, "I will assume I'm not giving enough homework." Who the hell just said that?? Geeeez!

Well then fine. I'm not fun. I'm not fun at all. I expect my students to want to use the time I give them to complete the work so that their after school time is their own. Lord knows that enough of them have practice, and jobs, and family obligations that keep them busy right up to the time that they need to be laying their heads on a pillow so they can do it all again tomorrow.

My Modern American Literature students have had the introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, complete with the slavery discussion. We talked about Mark Twain, the South with its customs and norms from the late 1800's, and naughty little boys like Huckleberry. Then I read the first chapter to them. When I asked the class what kind of a kid Huck Finn is, they got that he's bored. They understood that he didn't want to be schooled by Miss Watson. They knew he is an adventurous kind. What they didn't get is that our narrator is hilarious.

"Is Huck Finn a funny guy?" I ask with eyebrows raised hopefully.

Blank stares from all but one student who exclaims, "Huck Finn is hilarious!" My spirits lift! If one kid can get it then surely the others are just having a hunger fade for a moment.

"Great! Why do you think he's funny?"

I get the vague teenage reply about "he just is" because he says things funny. Well, Cody is right, Huck says things in a humorous way. Several minutes of squirming through this conversation brings us to the bell. We all go to lunch frustrated by the humor.

That was yesterday. Today, I'm on a mission to bring this point home. Sarcasm. I have to make them understand plain sarcastic humor. We review what we learned about Huck from our first short chapter, with special cheers to the kid's bankroll. We know he's an adventurous type based on how he came to his wealth. And I gotta think we are a little in awe of a kid having so much money. It's all good and I've got the students verbalizing some generalities about the novel. Time to move on to that humor bit I insist they get.

I tread lightly on my feet. "We talked a little bit before the bell yesterday about Huck Finn's humor level," I say. "Can anyone find an example in the first chapter of where we see his humor come into play?" Those blank stares and downward fidgeting looks take hold of the classroom. "Please look in the first chapter," I plead. I sit quietly, remembering the inservice advice of letting kids have enough time to answer or finish projects. (Apparently, we as teachers don't understand the time concept. As a result, we hurry students into answers that are not well thought out).

A full minute ticks by as they thumb through all four pages of the first chapter without success. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

"Okay. Let me give you one example." I play this up to my best potential. I describe (and act out) the scene where the spider is crawling on him. (For those who don't remember, Huck accidentally sends the spider into the flame of his candle which panics him since killing spiders is bad luck. He does 3 spins and crosses himself at each turn). The kids laugh (unkindly) at my idiocy, but not at the Mark Twain humor that is Huck Finn. Even when I further explain his reputation for being adventurous and boyish, and the silliness of a superstitious dance to ward off the evil of accidentally killing a spider, they disdainfully protest.

"That's not funny."

"Okay, but it's silly, isn't it?"

"Not if they believed it at the time."

"Okay. Can you see how silly a young boy would look doing a dance like that?"

"Not really."

The girl who has been making sure I know she thinks I'm stupid says, "There's NOTHING funny about Huck Finn."

I assure her that there is. She protests again for attention. She's winning. I'm pissed now. I tell her (in my best teacher voice, of course) that if she doesn't find anything funny in Huck Finn, then she will miss some great entertainment from the book, as well as lose some of its of meaning. (It's the overtones of hearing the story through such young eyes, isn't it??) She volleys back with a long dissertation about how she can read a whole book and understand everything she's read.

I think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has the rental car reservation, but arrives at the desk to find that there is no car for him. After a back-and-forth with the woman at the desk where Jerry tries to tell the woman what a 'reservation' is, she replies that she KNOWS what a reservation is. Jerry responds with one of my all-time favorite Seinfeldisms, "I don't think ya do!"

I'm trying not to roll my eyes at the book snob. I finally decide that I must avoid an all out war with these children. I'm not hitting my mark here. I give up the fight, but not without one last firing of my mighty teacher cannon. "I want you to find one funny (or sarcastic if you are having problems with the terminology) example from chapter one and hand it in before you leave for lunch today."

With that, I made the reading assignment and proceeded to shut up and go about my own work. Suddenly, the Teacher vs. Me mentality disappeared as one by one, hands were raised to see if "this" or "that" was a sarcastic piece of humor. In the end, they all turned in a sheet of paper with an example on it. I'm not grading them, but it's good to know that in some small way I won that battle.

Maybe tomorrow Huck will make us laugh with something better than a funny little commentary on how he would rather go to hell (the bad place where Tom Sawyer will surely be) than heaven (the good place where they play harp all day).

Now I remember why I don't teach full-time.