The Advantures of Huckleberry Finn



The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter Questions

I. Discover Moses and the Bulrushers

1. How is Huck forced to live when he is with the Widow Douglas?

2. Describe Miss Watson.

3. What is the significance of Twain’s allusion to the biblical story of Moses?

4. What event does Huck regard as a sign of bad luck? What insight does this give us into his character?

5. Whom does Huck meet up with at the end of Chapter One?

6. What does Twain accomplish by using Huck as his narrator?

II. Our Gang’s Dark Oath

1. According to Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, how did his hat end up on a tree above him?

2. Why might some consider the novel’s first depiction of Jim to be a degrading one?

3. What is “Tom Sawyer’s Gang”?

4. What information is revealed concerning Huck’s father?

5. What indication is there that the gang isn’t fully prepared to follow the oath?

III. We Ambuscade the A-rabs

1. What different effects do the widow and Miss Watson have when discussing religion with Huck?

2. What rumor does Huck hear concerning his father?

3. What happens when the Gang goes to rob a crowd of Spaniards and A-rabs rumored by Tom to be in the area?

4. What contrast is established between Tom and Huck?

5. How might one interpret the character of Tom Sawyer as Twain’s attempt to satirize Romanticism?

IV. The Hair-ball Oracle

1. Why does Huck frantically sell his property to Judge Thatcher? What does this tell us about his character?

2. What types of predictions does Jim make with the help of his hair-ball oracle? What similarities between Huck and Jim are established in this episode?

V. Pap Starts in on a New Life

1. How is Huck’s pap contrasted with Jim in the first part of this chapter? Why is this significant?

2. Why does Huck’s father want him to quit school?

3. What effect does the new judge have on Huck’s father?

4. Does Huck’s pap successfully reform himself?

VI. Pap Struggles with the Death Angel

1. What are Huck’s thoughts concerning his life in the woods with his pap?

2. What is the irony in Pap’s fury about the educated black?

3. What two hallucinations does Huck’s pap have in this chapter?

VII. I Fool Pap and Get Away

1. What exciting object does Huck find in the river?

2. When does Huck get an opportunity to escape from the cabin?

3. How does Huck make it appear that he has been abducted or maybe even murdered?

4. What do Huck’s actions in this chapter reveal about his character?

VIII. I Spare Miss Watson’s Jim

1. What is the purpose of the canon shots Huck hears the morning after he escapes?

2. Identify some of the people involved in the hunt for Huck’s body?

3. Does Huck seem to be concerned about the people looking for his body?

4. According to Huck, what’s the best thing to do when you are lonesome?

5. What sign does Huck find indicating he’s not alone on the island?

6. Whom does Huck discover when he searches near the campfire?

7. What does Jim think he is seeing when he first runs into Huck?

8. What explanation does Jim give for being on the island? What plans did Miss Watson have for him?

9. Why and in what context does Huck use the phrase “lowdown Abolitionist”?

10. According to Jim, what is the significance of having hairy arms and a hairy breast?

11. How did Jim lose the fourteen dollars he once had?

IX. The House of Death Floats By

1. What does Jim suggest he and Huck use as a shelter from heavy rains?

2. What do the two characters do with the well-built raft they find while combing the river for useful goods?

3. As Huck and Jim investigate a two-story house floating by, what shocking discovery do they make?

X. What Comes of Handlin’ Snake-skin

1. In Jim’s opinion what comes of handlin’ snakeskin and talking about dead people?

2. How does Huck’s prank against Jim backfire?

3. What disguise does Huck use when he decides to go into town? What is the purpose of his trip?

XI. They’re After Us

1. According to the woman Huck visits in town, what two characters are suspected of killing Huck?

2. What reward is being offered for Jim’s capture?

3. What news given by the woman makes Huck fearful that Jim is about to be caught?

4. What first makes the woman suspicious of Huck’s real identity?

5. What trick does the woman play on Huck before revealing she knows he is a boy?

6. Name one piece of advice Mrs. Judith Loftus gives to Huck before he leaves.

7. What does the scene with Mrs. Loftus reveal about Huck’s character?

8. What do Huck and Jim set about doing upon Huck’s return? Why is it significant that Huck uses the pronoun “us”?

XII. “Better Let Blame Well Alone”

1. What does Huck see in the midst of a thunder and lighting storm that perks his interest?

2. How does Huck persuade Jim that they should board the wrecked steamboat?

3. What sinister plot does Huck overhear while he tries to hide from the men on the steamboat?

4. What plan does Huck develop to thwart the men’s murderous plans?

5. What unfortunate news does Jim give to Huck concerning their raft?

XIII. Honest Look from the “Walter Scott”

1. What joke is Twain making by naming the sinking boat “Walter Scott”? (If you don’t know about him, look him up on the Internet.)

2. After he and Jim have taken their boat, what surprising thoughts does Huck have concerning the murderers on the steamboat?

3. Why does Huck tell a boat watchman that Jim Hornback’s niece is stranded on the wrecked Walter Scott? What does this reveal about his character?

4. What does Huck discover when he sees the wreck again?

XIV. Was Soloman Wise?

1. What biblical king do Huck and Jim argue about?

2. What similarities between Huck and Jim are revealed during the course of their arguments?

XV. Fooling Poor Old Jim

1. Where do Huck and Jim intend to go?

2. How does Huck become separated from Jim?

3. What prank does Huck play on Jim when he finds him again?

4. What important lesson does Huck learn from Jim’s reaction once Jim realizes he’s been tricked?

5. What is the significance of Jim referring to Huck as “trash”?

XVI. The Rattlesnake-Skin Does Its Work

1. Why does Huck’s conscience begin to bother him concerning Jim’s running away?

2. What decision does he make to help ease his worries?

3. Why does he begin to reevaluate this decision?

4. When given an opportunity to reveal the truth about Jim, how does Huck react?

5. How does Huck persuade the two men he meets not to go check out his raft?

6. How does Huck benefit from this situation?

7. What three bad-luck situations do Jim and Huck blame on the rattlesnake-skin?

8. How do Huck and Jim become separated?

XVII. The Grangerfords Take Me in

1. How does Huck trick Buck Grangerford into helping him remember his fake name?

2. Explain the irony in Twain’s allusions to Pilgrim’s Progress and Friendship’s Offering. (Look up Pilgrim’s Progress on the Internet.)

3. Notice Huck’s detailed description of the physical setting of the Grangerford home. What details suggest that this family is not everything they appear to be?

4. What does Huck attempt to do for “poor Emmeline,” the deceased daughter of the Grangerfords? What does this reveal about his character?

XVIII. Why Harney Rode Away for His Hat

1. The Grangerfords are enemies with what other important family in the area?

2. How do these families behave towards one another?

3. What is the irony of the preacher’s sermon?

4. How does Huck become reunited with Jim?

5. What realization concerning Miss Sophia, the Grangerfords’ 20 year old daughter, has the family in an outrage?

6. What is Huck’s reaction to the fighting he witnesses that day? What does this reveal about his character?

7. How is the way Huck handles Buck’s body reminiscent of a gesture made earlier by Jim?

8. In Huck’s opinion, what home compares to no other?

XIX. The Duke and Dauphin Come Aboard

1. Note the descriptive passages about the river that occupy the first few pages of this chapter. What is their purpose?

2. Reread the long sentence beginning “The first thing to see....” How does the manner in which the sentence is written imitate what it describes?

3. Why were the young man and the baldheaded man being chased?

4. According to the young man, what is the secret of his birth?

5. What inspires the baldheaded man to claim he is the “late Dauphin”?

6. Why doesn’t Huck reveal his belief that the two men are frauds?

XX. What Royalty Did to Parkville

1. What famous Shakespeare scenes do the duke and king plan on acting out as a means of making some quick cash?

2. How does the king manipulate a religious gathering into giving him a handsome sum of money?

3. What plan does the duke arrange that enables the group to travel during the day?

XXI. An Arkansas Difficulty

1. What famous soliloquy does the duke try to piece together from memory, but seriously botch up in the process?

2. What seems to be the townspeople’s opinion of Boggs?

3. What happens when Boggs challenges Colonel Sherburn?

XXII. Why the Lynching Bee Failed

1. Why does the townspeople’s plot to lynch Colonel Sherburn fail?

2. What explanation does the duke offer for the failure of the Shakespeare show?

XXIII. The Orneriness of Kings

1. Why does the group need to make a speedy escape from Bricksville, Arkansas?

2. What does Huck mean when he tells Jim the king and duke aren’t different “from the real kind”?

3. Why is Jim so sorrowful for the way he punished his daughter one time?

XXIV. The King Turns Parson

1. What plan do the duke and king put together based on the story of Peter Wilks they hear?

XXV. All Full of Tears and Flapdoodle

1. What do the king and duke get out of pretending to be Harvey and William Wilks?

2. How does Dr. Robinson threaten the success of the scam?

XXVI. l Steal the King’s Plunder

1. What does Huck decide to do as a result of the guilt he feels over the king and duke’s scam?

XXVII. Dead Peter Has His Gold

1. In a panic, where does Huck hide the money he has taken from the king and duke?

2. Based upon Huck’s testimony, who do the king and duke think is responsible for taking the money?

XXVIII. Overreaching Don’t Pay

1. How does Huck plan on ridding himself of the king and duke?

XXIX. I Light Out in the Storm

1. Whose arrival in town threatens the king and duke’s plans?

2. What types of tests are used to discover the real William and Harvey Wilks?

3. Why do the townspeople decide to dig up the body of Peter Wilks?

4. When does Huck find an opportunity to escape?

XXX. The Gold Saves the Thieves

1. Who takes the blame for hiding the money in the coffin? Why?

XXXI. You Can’t Pray a Lie

1. When all of their other schemes fail, what do the king and duke do to make money?

2. In Huck’s opinion, why is he unable to pray when he makes the attempt?

3. When Huck realizes he needs “to decide, forever, between two things,” what crucial decision does he make?

4. Explain why this is arguably the most important scene in the entire novel.

XXXII. I Have a New Name

1. Mrs. Phelps mistakes Huck for whom?

XXXIII. The Pitiful Ending of Royalty

1. When Huck tells Tom his plans to steal Jim, what is Tom’s reaction?

2. What joke does Tom play when he first arrives at the Phelps’ house?

3. What identity does Tom assume?

4. What has happened to the king and duke when Huck sees them next?

5. What is surprising about Huck’s reaction to this development? What does this reveal about his character?

XXXIV. We Cheer Up Jim

1. Why doesn’t Tom like Huck’s plan for stealing Jim?

2. What plan does Tom propose to get Jim out of the shack?

XXXV. Dark, Deep-Laid Plans

1. What quality evident in all of Tom’s plans recalls the Sunday-school picnic incident at the beginning of the book?

XXXVI. Trying to Help Jim

1. Why do you think some readers are offended by Jim’s portrayal in this section of the novel?

2. Now that Tom is back in the picture, what seems to be happening to Huck?

XXXVII. Jim Gets His Witch Pie

1. How do the two boys convince Aunt Sally that objects aren’t missing like she had originally thought?

XXXVIII. “Here a Captive Heart Busted”

1. What suggestion of Tom’s does Jim refuse to go along with?

XXXIX. Tom Writes Nonnamous Letters

1. What purpose do the “nonnamous” letters serve?

XL. A Mixed-up and Splendid Rescue

1. What injury does Tom receive during the rescue mission?

2. In an attempt to behave in a Tom Sawyer-like fashion, what idea does Jim suggest in response to Tom’s injury?

XLII. Why They Didn’t Hang Jim

1. What sacrifice does Jim make to help save Tom?

2. What does Tom reveal to Aunt Sally when he wakes in his right mind?

3. What is Tom’s reaction when he learns Jim has been recaptured? What effect does this revelation have on your opinion of Tom’s character?

4. What did Miss Watson wish for Jim, according to her will?

5. Who arrives and establishes the real identities of Huck and Tom?

Chapter the Last

1. What revelation concerning the dead man in the floating house does Jim make?

2. What do the novel’s final lines reveal about Huck’s feelings towards his adventures?

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