On January 5th, Mr. Deziel’s Junior English Honors Classes embarked on a trip to the astonishing Mark Twain House in Hartford. The much anticipated trip tied in with the class’s reading of Twain’s most revered novel, Huckleberry Finn.  The house and the accompanying museum included many artifacts relating to Twain and his writing, along with much of his personal life.

The house was adorned with many custom fixtures, lighting and wallpaper that made it seem extravagant, even today, despite Twain only living there for 17 years. “If I should win Powerball, I’m buying the place,” said Head of the Trip, Mr. Deziel. Being able to view the house greatly helped students understand the author, and his process. “I wanted the students to have the opportunity to ‘step back in time’ so-to-speak, get a feel for the era, for the man, and hopefully to hear about what a staunch family man he was, [as] to him that was everything.” Deziel put it. 

Aside from the grand house, the trip also included an hour-long lecture about Twain and his life. Deziel said the lecture included a lot of revisionist history about Twain and his life as an abolitionist. Deziel said “The lecture wasn’t what I signed up for, as the Brits would say, ‘It wasn’t what was written on the tin.’” Throughout the speech, the speaker painted Twain as a crazed mad-man who enjoyed watching minorities struggle. “It was supposed to be about the text and the role of the Mississippi River, and to put it nicely, it missed the target,”. This came before the trip into Twain’s house that showed quite the opposite. 

Aside from the controversial lecture, the trip was a rousing success for students at ameliorating their understanding of the book: “This trip was pretty much perfect, and that’s a direct reflection on the students and the three other supervisors of the trip,” said Deziel, “I couldn’t have scripted it any better.” Mr. Deziel and his honors classes have two further trips planned: one to Naugatuck Valley Community College and to The Norman Rockwell museum.