THE STORY SO FAR…The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

CHAPTER 1 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Huck and Tom find $6000 each Huck lives with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson

because they are going to “civilize” him Hypocritical: Widow Douglas disapproves of smoking

but she smokes snuff The adults are too strict; Huck wants to be free

Huck accidently kills a spider Superstition: bad luck will occur (foreshadowing)

Huck sneaks out from Widow Douglas’s house Onomatopoeia: me-yow me-yow

STUDY QUESTIONS 1

1. Summarize briefly Huck’s review of the end of Tom Sawyer’s story.

2. Who is actually more irritating to Huck than the widow?

3. What omen does Huck receive that the adventures beginning may be bad or dangerous?

4. Why doesn’t Huck care about “Moses and the Bulrushers”?

5. Why does Huck decide he wants to go to the bad place?

CHAPTER 2

Tom plays a joke on Jim, Miss Watson’s slave Puts Jim’s hat on a tree Superstition: Jim blames it on witches

Tom creates “Tom Sawyer’s Gang” Tom is bossy, leader, violent (child but acts like an

adult) Tom is imaginative, dreamer vs Huck is realistic

Huck offers Miss Watson as family (sacrifice) if he tells the gang’s secrets Huck does not like Miss Watson much

STUDY QUESTIONS 2

1. Who does Huck offer as his “family” that may be killed if he should reveal the secret of the gang?

2. What does it mean to “ransom” captives?3. How does Jim account for his hat being hung

on a tree limb and the nickel being left on the table?

CHAPTER 3 Miss Watson is strict with Huck but Widow Douglas is

more caring Huck prefers Widow Douglas’s Providence Huck wants to go to hell to be away from Miss Watson

and to be with Tom Huck does not understand prayer/ religion

Religion does not help him to live everyday life (not realistic)

Superstition: Huck walks under a ladder Townspeople believe that Pap drowned but Huck does not

believe it Huck has good instinct

The Tom Sawyer Gang resign because nothing happens

STUDY QUESTIONS 3

1. Whose idea of Providence does Huck prefer?2. What has become of Huck’s father?3. What happens to the gang of robbers?

CHAPTER 4

Huck finds a footprint Foreshadowing: looks like Pap’s boot tracks Huck is intelligent: “sells” his money to Judge

Thatcher Jim tells Huck a fortune with a hairball

Superstition Symbolism: black angel and white angel

Huck comes home and finds Pap in his room

STUDY QUESTIONS 4

1. Why does Huck want Judge Thatcher to take all his money?

2. What is a hairball and what properties does it have?

3. What does Jim say that the hairball tells him?4. What does Huck find when he returns to his

room?

CHAPTER 5

Pap is dirty, hairy, and pale white A drunkard (alcoholic) Needs money to buy more drinks Huck dislikes Pap

The new judge wants Huck to live with Pap The law cannot/does not protect the weak and

innocentThe new judge tries to reform/change Pap

Pap pretends he is changed (superficial, fake) Takes advantage of a good-doer for money

STUDY QUESTIONS 5

1. What has Huck’s father come for?2. What is Pap’s “new life,” and how long does

it last?3. What kind of man is Huck’s father? What

would he be called today? How does Huck react to him?

CHAPTER 6Pap wants Huck to quit school

Does not want his son to be better than him Connection to race Kidnaps Huck and takes him upriver

Pap’s beatings are too much and Huck decides to escape

Pap gets extremely drunk and blames the government (gov’t) for his problems Racism: Angry at the positive treatment of

African Americans Foreshadowing: calls Huck the “Angel of Death”

CHAPTER 7

Huck finds a drifting canoe Huck is resourceful

Huck escapes Takes food and supplies and puts them in the

canoe Fakes his own death by killing a wild pig and

using its blood -> does not want people to look for him

Show’s Huck’s intelligenceGoes to Jackson’s Island

CHAPTER 8

Huck realizes that people are looking for his dead body Superstition: fill a loaf of bread with quicksilver

(poison) to find a drowned body Hypocrisy of the townspeople

Huck finds Jim Jim ran away because Miss Watson is planning

sell him for $800 Racism/ Slavery

CHAPTER 9

There is a large storm Jim’s prediction in chapter 8 comes true Religion vs. Superstition

Huck and Jim find a house floating and a dead body inside Jim won’t let Huck see the body Jim as an adult figure

Compare to Pap, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, Townspeople

STUDY QUESTIONS 5-9

1. Why does Pap yell at Huck for becoming civilized?

2. What was Huck’s plan to escape from his father?

3. What purpose does Huck’s death serve?4. Why is Jim on Jackson’s island?

CHAPTER 10

Jim tells Huck that it is bad luck to touch a snake Superstition

Huck plays a prank on Jim Jim gets bitten by a snake and is sick for days Huck feels bad, grows compassion towards Jim Huck realizes the danger of defying superstition

and Jim’s knowledgeHuck disguises as a girl to hear of the town

news

CHAPTER 11

Huck introduces himself as “Sarah Williams from Hookerville”

Hears news about his “death” Jim is suspected of murdering Huck $300

reward Pap is suspected of murdering Huck $200

reward Men are going to hunt Jim to get the money

Huck and Jim leave Jackson Island

CHAPTER 12Huck and Jim continue down the river

Peaceful and easygoing Symbolism: weather and nature

The two find a steamboat caught on a rock from a storm and decide to explore Two men on the ship have tied down another man

and are threatening him Compare to Tom’s pretend gang of robbers

When Huck tries to prevent the men from escaping, Jim finds that the raft has floated away Huck and Jim are scared but still trying to do good

CHAPTER 13

Huck and Jim find the raft again Steals provisions from the gang

Begins to storm “I begun to worry about the men… I begun to

think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be in such a fix” (p72).

Huck creates an elaborate story to tell the watchman about the steamboat Steamboat is named the Walter Scott Ferryman hurries to the rescue for a “reward”

CHAPTER 14

Huck and Jim share knowledge Friendship, partnership “Well, he was right; he was most always right;

he had an uncommon level head, for a nigger” (p76).

“I read considerable to Jim about kings, and dukes, and earls and such” (p76).

Huck and Jim decide that they do not take stock in King Sollermun’s (Solomon) wisdom King Solomon is supposed to be the wisest man

alive (bible) They (kings) just sit around, whack heads off,

keeps harems “A harem’s a bo’d’n-house, I reck’n” (p77).

STUDY QUESTIONS 10-14

1. What is in the two story house that floats by Jackson’s Island?

2. Why does Huck dress as a girl to go ashore? What does he find out?

3. What is the name of the ship in which Huck and Jim find murderers?

4. What do we learn about Jim from his talking about “King Sollermun”?

CHAPTER 15

Huck and Jim are going towards Cairo, Illinois where they can go up the Ohio River to the free states

Bad weather: fog separates Huck and JimWhen they find each other, Jim is extremely

happy to see Huck again but Huck plays a prank on Jim

Huck pretends that their separation was a dream and confuses Jim

When Huck tells the truth, Jim says that cruel tricks are like “trash” and it should make friends ashamed

“It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger – but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither” (87).

CHAPTER 16

“Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom” (88).

“Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free – and who was to blame for it? Why, me” (88).

Huck’s internal conflict: struggles with his shame of helping a slave escape

Huck decides to turn Jim in but changes his mind when Jim calls him his “bes’ fren’” (90)

Huck lies to slave hunters so that Jim would not be found What do the slave hunters and the townspeople

have in common? Is Huck a moral or an immoral person?

Huck and Jim discover that they passed Cairo in the fog

A steamboat wrecks the raft and the two are separated again

CHAPTER 17

Huck arrives at an impressive house owned by the Grangerford family

Grangerfords are hospitable to Huck once they check that he is not a member of the Shepherdson family

The Grangerfords have a son named Buck Similar age, close friends Wants to kill a Shepherdson

CHAPTER 18

Colonel Grangerford: gentleman, aristocrat, kind What does he represent?

Easy person in the Grangerford family has his/her own slave

Grangerfords and Shepherdsons are feuding Killing one another No one remembers the reason

The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons go to church and learn about brotherly love Everyone is carrying a gun

Huck finds Jim hiding behind some trees with their raft

Miss Sophia Grangerford and young Harney Shepherdson run away together The two families shoot at one another People die including Buck

Huck and Jim run away “It made me so sick” (116) “there warn’t no home like a raft” (117) Twain shows the foolishness of humans

STUDY QUESTIONS 15-18

1. What trick does Huck play on Jim?2. Why doesn’t Huck turn Jim in?3. Describe the difference between Huck and

the slave hunters.4. Why did Twain include this adventure with

the Grangerfords?

CHAPTER 19Huck helps two men who are chased by men on

horses with dogs What does this show you about Huck? Huck and Jim could have been in the same situation

if the townspeople found them on Jackson Island or if the slave hunters found Jim (chapter 16)

The older man (70years old) was selling fake toothpaste and the younger man (30years old) was collecting money to support prohibition although he was drinking secretly. The men trick the townspeople for money The townspeople are foolish and gullible for falling

for their tricks

The two con men decide to work togetherThe younger man says that he is the Duke of

Bridgewater Duke: high class, just below the king

The older man then says that he is the Dauphin, the King of France

Huck knows that the men are liars but do not say anything Why?

CHAPTER 20

The duke and the king ask if Jim is a runaway slave Huck pretends that Jim is his slave Why does he lie?

The duke and king take Jim and Huck’s beds How do the duke and king treat people?

Huck and Jim have to be lookouts but Jim takes over when Huck is too sleepy Jim takes care of Huck and protects him Friendship, parent figure

In Pokeville, Huck and the king go to a religious meeting where the people are praying and singing so hard that they were “just wild and crazy” As Huck and Jim go further south, the people

they meet are more wild, savage, intense, prejudiced

They cannot see the truth because of their stubborn beliefs and prejudice

SITUATIONAL IRONY

The duke has an idea on how to travel without interruptions: he makes a sign with a picture of a runaway slave and “$200 reward,” then ties Jim with ropes so they can pretend that they caught him for the reward money

Situational irony: What is expected to happen and what actually happens do not match Jim is actually a real runaway slave Jim has to pretend to be caught to be free There is actually a reward for Jim

CHAPTER 21

The duke and the king practice their Shakespearean play “Shakspearean Revival” Mark Twain also alludes to Romeo and Juliet

during the Grangerford vs Sheperdson feud The duke and the king do not know

Shakespeare well What kind of people watch/read Shakespeare?

The town they are in is run down, neglected, and caving in Shakespeare represents Romanticism while the

run down town represents reality

Colonel Sherburn shoots a drunk man named Boggs in front of Boggs’s daughter Boggs: ordinary man, rude, without manners,

ignorant Col. Sherburn: high class, civilized gentleman,

unfair power, law, without sympathy Townspeople: watch Boggs’ death, superficial,

without morals, cowardice

Somebody argues that Sherburn should be lynched and everyone agrees Mob mentality: people act differently in a group

because they do not want to go against the crowd The townspeople become violent Sherburn says that the people are cowards

because they would not be brave without the mobHuck goes to see a circus

People enjoy seeing a drunk man trying to hold on to a bucking horse -> cruel, selfish, violent

Huck is scared to see the danger