Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Huckleberry Finn: The Boy Behind Jasper

4 Comments

I knew two things about Jasper as I started writing his story back in 2013: His mama had taught him “to scrub like a regular girl” and he’d be based on Mark Twain’s beloved Huckleberry Finn.

It didn’t take much to work a washboard into Jasper’s story, but modeling my boy after America’s most well-known character was a little different. I spent time with Huck, re-reading his Adventures, and pored over Steve Bramucci’s Master of Fine Arts thesis, Huck’s Legacy: The Complex Nature of the Humorous First-Person Storyteller. Steve writes that “Huckster” characters (those who share traits with Twain’s iconic Huck) usually hold these characteristics in common:

  • a colloquial tone
  • a sense of humor
  • a “conspiratorial bond with the reader”
  • “inherently trustable,” though prone to lying
  • an ability to “speak to issues of social injustice”
  • enough self awareness “to recognize that they are going against the grain, then do it just the same”

This list became my framework as I wrote Jasper’s story. If I’ve done my job right, you’ll find these elements in Jasper’s character. And if I’ve done my job especially well, he’ll feel as familiar as Huck and entirely like his own self — that washboard-using fellow, Jasper Johnson.

I’ve written more about Jasper’s connection to Huck (and my love for Twain’s character) over at the Nerdy Book Club. I’d love to have you join me there!

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Filed Under: books and reading, Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine, the writing life

Comments

  1. Sarah M says

    February 8, 2017 at 7:47 am

    I can totally see it! You worked those aspects into him well.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      February 8, 2017 at 10:29 am

      Thank you, Sarah.

      Reply
  2. Joanne R. Fritz says

    February 9, 2017 at 11:39 am

    You definitely did your job right, Caroline. I noticed Jasper’s tendency to lie, yet I still trusted him completely. Well done!

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      February 11, 2017 at 7:59 am

      Happy to hear it.

      Reply

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