I need to give some explanation as to how I want you to attack this prompt. First, I want you to completely avoid first or second person. State facts, not opinions (and if they are opinions, make them facts). Second, I want you to go about proving Hucks ideal nature by using the literature we have read during the course so far(Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Henry James, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, TS Eliot Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings, Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Tennessee Williams (part one) Tennessee Williams (part two), Ralph Ellison, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Raymond Carver)
as your basis of what an ideal American is. Let me give you a few examples that are incorrect but that will get you thinking correctly. Perhaps you want to claim that Huck is notably religious, much like Mary Rowlandson, and therefore is ideal in his spirituality. Perhaps you want to claim that Huck is politically-engaged like Frederick Douglass and Phyllis Wheatley, and therefore he meets the standard for ideal because of his political consciousness. While my above examples are incorrect, you can see that I want you to take Huck and place him as a character in the larger context of American literature.

As always, it is not just your claims that matter but also your proof. You will need to stick closely to the texts and use them as your proof, so make sure to include relevant quotes in your paper. The closer you are to the text, the more likely you are to be right. I will also ask that you fully cite all sources, including the different sources from your book.

One other note, I am not concerned with whether you agree or disagree with the prompt. You can do either. But, I want you to stay formal with your paper by avoiding first person, avoiding writing about the paper itself (i.e.: In this paper), and simply dropping the prompt in as the thesis. The challenge of this paper is twofold. First, you need to decide on what the ideal American is and then define this for your reader. Second, you need to go to other texts to support yourself, showing how Huck embodies the qualities of others. Think of trying to show Huck as the culmination of all prior characters, and this may help you shape this paper accordingly.