Reaction to the Trial

Through the trial, the prosecution and defense argued to an extreme about Mark Twain's intent when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main argument being "Was Twain a Racist?"  Both sides constructed and embellished arguements to convince the jury of the  verdict they wanted to hear. They had to write opening and closing statements and create questions for the cross examination. All this preparation was to be the starting ground do r making their beliefs in the trial the verdict of the jury.

As the literary expert, my role was to know Twain's true intent and to know the ins and outs of his satirical mind. This was not an easy task as most believed. I had to research every cross examination of the book, find examples of other satire that had been misinterpreted, and prove to the jury that it was a factual error that almost every reader was making. During my questioning, we used quotes from. The main source of evidence, TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn. I feel as if we had gone more in depth with our quotes we could have gotten through to the jury better than we did. Many of the passages were in Jim's dialect and were difficult to understand and not to mention read. At times I felt myself believing the prosecution because of their formalness and many sources they seemed more credible than we did. But I knew what this was just a false belief and it wouldn't stop me from proving Mark Twain innocent.

The verdict was no surprise to me. I knew that the defense had a strong case although i did feel that the prosecution carried the trial through very professionally. I feel as if some of the jury members may have been a little biased by what Mr. Provenzano had at sated about the satire in the book and how the prosecution had only one this trial once in all his years teaching this unit. They had prior knowledge about the book and their opinions may have be formed before the trial even occured. I thought that we did a good job convincing the jury of Mark Twain's innocence. Listening to Dana's closing statement at the end made me worry for my lawyers. She presented it so well i thought they were going to win over the jury in that instant. Thankfully my lawyers stayed strong and delivered their closing statement with equal force. I feel that the defense won not because of the jury's previous knowledge on the book but also on how the lawyers delivered the case.

Literary Expert Importance

Zoie Uznis

Mr. Provenzano

Honors American Literature

2-13-12

Any expert is a necessity to a trial. Whether it is an expert on crime, body language, medical, or even a psychology expert. Depending on the defendant the experts in need will vary. In the case of the Mark Twain trial the want for a Literary Expert is a definite necessity. As the Literary Expert on the defense the expert must know the ins and outs of all of Twain’s real points of view. They must be able to examine and find Twain’s true meaning in his satirical points. Without the proper translation of this satire the reader will be instantly put into the opposite light of Twain’s intentions. A Literary Expert must be the eye inside of Twain’s mind.

One of the main points of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was Mark Twain’s use of satire. Satire is a literary form that vices ridicule with the purpose of social criticism, using wit as its weapon. Twain uses this satire to add a comedic view to Huck Finn but it is mostly looked on as racist remarks towards people with African American decent. Without the proper knowledge of Twain’s satire the reader will almost always confuse these two points. A Literary Expert who knows of Twain’s true intent knows that the satire is actually not meant as racism, but as a comedy that is lost in a broken dialect. Satire is meant to poke fun at social aspects and at the time Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn slavery and racism are what racial profiling is today. Although actors and actress’s on shows like Saturday Night Live are called racist it is the same as Twain’s views. It is just a satirical point on the same subject that has been morphed into racism.

Without a Literary Expert there would be no proof towards Twain’s satire. The prosecution would show his points as racist and not the true view he was trying to prove. By showing the satire twain’s true intents will be shown and his racist views will be abolished from the jury’s minds at once. None of this is possible however without the Literary Expert. They are the only truly reliable sources on the points brought up on Twain’s use of satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The expert knows the inside of Twain’s mind like the back of their hand. By using Twain’s satire the Literary Expert shows his innocence. Without the Literary Expert Mark twain cannot be proven not guilty.