The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn



The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Study Questions

Use these study questions as a guide for your daily reading. Reading quizzes will be based on these questions.

Chapter 1

1. What does Huck say happened in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and how do those events lead up to his present situation as we enter this novel?

2. How does Huck recognize hypocrisy on page 3 of the novel?

3. What conflict does Huck encounter, and how does he resolve it by the end of the chapter?

Chapter 2

4. What does Tom do to Jim on the way out that night? What does this tell you about Tom’s character?

5. Define satire. How does the discussion about the boys’ gang plan illustrate satire?

Chapter 3

6. Who is presumed to have drowned in this chapter? What is Huck’s final statement in reaction to this person’s supposed death?

7. What happens with the Robbery Club?

Chapter 4

8. What event causes Huck to think he is experiencing bad luck, and what does he do to try to counteract this bad luck?

Chapter 5

9. What can you judge about Pap from his dialect and his vocabulary in this chapter?

10. What does the new judge do to Pap? Describe whether this judge is successful (why or why not).

Chapter 6

11. What does Pap do to Huck in this chapter?

12. Explain what Twain illustrates through Pap’s drunken rambling on pages 46-48. Also explain the irony and the racism presented in this argument.

Chapter 7

13. Paraphrase how Huck escapes his imprisonment.

14. What is ironic about the way of life Huck imagines on Jackson’s Island? To what will this life be strikingly similar?

Chapter 8

15. How is Huck first tipped off that someone else is on the island?

16. What is Jim doing on this island? Why has he come there?

Chapter 9

17. Where do Huck and Jim relocate? What are the two reasons why this is important for them to do?

Chapter 10

18. Why and how is Jim injured in this chapter?

19. Why do you think Jim would be accepting toward this fate based on his earlier statements?

20. Why does Huck leave the island? How does he do so?

Chapter 11

21. Paraphrase what the lady says has happened, according to the town news.

22. How does this lady catch Huck’s lies?

23. What does she really think he is, and what story does he offer her?

Chapter 12

24. How is Huck able to persuade Jim to climb aboard the wrecked boat with him?

25. What do they find there?

26. What has happened to Huck and Jim by the end of the chapter?

Chapter 13

27. How do Huck and Jim escape the wrecked boat, the Walter Scott?

28. What does Huck’s decision to help the murderers say about his sense of morality?

29. How does Huck convince the man he meets on shore to go help the robbers?

Chapter 14

30. Though Huck and Jim seem to be good friends, what are two examples of racism we see in Huck’s thoughts in this chapter?

Chapter 15

31. Where are Huck and Jim headed according to the beginning of this chapter? What separates them and causes conflict here?

32. How does Huck trick Jim this time?

33. What does the aftermath of the events in this chapter say about both characters and their relationship?

Chapter 16

34. Explain Huck’s internal conflict on pages 152-53.

35. What dramatic irony do you find in Jim’s response on page 153 to what Huck is planning to do for him?

36. What craftiness does Huck use to keep the men away from Jim in this chapter, and what does this say about their relationship now?

37. What events cause things to go wrong for Huck and Jim at the end of chapter, and to what do they attribute their continual problems?

Chapter 17

38. Summarize what becomes of Huck in this chapter.

Chapter 18

39. What strikes you about Buck’s explanation of feuds to Huck? What irony or satire do you see in his remarks?

40. How might Twain be continuing his irony in the description of the scene at church?

41. Who is Jack, and how does he help Huck escape?

42. What is the result of the feud?

43. How has Huck contributed to the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud? What do his reactions say about his character?

44. Describe the intensity of Huck’s reaction to being reunited with Jim. Write down the line toward the end of the chapter which truly summarizes Huck’s feelings toward Jim and river life in general.

Chapter 19

45. Who do the men who join Huck and Jim claim to be?

46. What does Huck make of their story, and how does he ultimately rely on his father’s advice here?

Chapter 20

47. What story does Huck invent to convince the men that he and Jim are traveling legally?

48. What event do the characters come upon in the town in which they dock? How does the king take advantage of this scene?

49. What does the duke do to help Jim’s situation and the crew’s future travel?

Chapter 21

50. What do the king and the duke set up to do in the Arkansas town?

51. How does Huck seem to characterize, or think of, the southern people here?

52. What is the difficulty that takes place in Arkansas in this chapter? How do the people initially and finally react to it?

Chapter 22

53. Why does the lynching bee ultimately fail here?

54. What is the result of the first play the men stage in Arkansas, and how do they attempt to combat it?

Chapter 23

55. What finally happens with the king and the duke’s show?

56. What message does Twain seem to be making about kings in Huck’s long quote from pages 264-65?

57. To what does Jim confess at the end of this chapter? What does this confession say about his character? How does Huck respond to this confession and how does it show his changing attitudes?

Chapter 24

58. Why is Jim dressed up as a sick Arab?

59. How do the king and the duke come to take on a new identity in this chapter, and whose identity do they take on?

Chapter 25

60. Describe the differences in the reactions between Huck and the people gathered at the late Peter Wilks’ home.

61. How does the “Nonesuch” end up helping the king and duke in this chapter?

62. Why does the duke suggest giving the inheritance to the girls? Explain whether this is a good plan.

63. Who doesn’t believe the king and duke, and why doesn’t this character believe them?

Chapter 26

64. How is Huck nearly caught by the “hare-lip” sister?

65. How (specifically) do we see Huck’s good conscience revealed in this chapter?

66. Explain the differences in the beliefs of the king and the duke toward the money and estate left to them.

Chapter 27

67. Where does Huck hide the gold?

68. What two decisions by the king and the duke cause Huck a great deal of internal pain and conflict?

69. How does Huck escape suspicion when the king questions him on his recent actions?

Chapter 28

70. What is Mary Jane upset about at the beginning of the chapter? What might Twain be trying to illustrate through her character and her behavior here?

71. Write down Huck’s quote about truth on page 320-21. Paraphrase and explain why he says this/what he means here.

72. What are some of the witty points of the choice Huck makes to insure his plans success?

Chapter 29

73. What happens to spoil Huck’s plan to catch the king and the duke?

74. How is Huck able to free himself from captivity?

75. Note Huck’s final quotes from this chapter. Why does he say this?

Chapter 30

76. Which character finally admits to hiding the money in the coffin and why?

Chapter 31

77. What happens to Jim in this chapter?

78. With what dilemma does Huck wrestle in terms of guilt? What are his choices, and what path does he choose?

79. How does the duke try to fool Huck at the end of the chapter, and how does Huck detect his lies?

Chapter 32

80. Whose identity does Huck take on when he arrives at the Phelps house?

Chapter 33

81. How does Tom Sawyer pull a trick on the Phelps family and take on a new identity?

82. Why and how have the duke and king been caught?

83. What further indication of Huck’s moral conscience or awareness do you find on the last page of this chapter?

Chapter 34

84. What two clues lead Tom to deduce where Jim is hidden?

85. What difficulty does Huck have in understanding why Tom is willing to help free Jim?

86. How are Huck and Tom able to trick the slave to believe that Jim didn’t know them?

Chapter 35

87. With what type of getaway or escape plan is Tom obsessed in this chapter? Where does he get the idea that it must be this way?

88. What does Huck’s giving in to the rules seem to say in terms of Twain’s satire?

Chapter 36

89. Summarize what takes place in this chapter (2-3 sentences).

Chapter 37

90. How are Huck and Tom able to trick Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas about all the missing items from their house?

Chapter 38

91. Summarize what takes place in this chapter (2-3 sentences).

Chapter 39

92. Why has Tom written the false letters? What effect have they had on the family (the first one)?

Chapter 40

93. How does Huck get in trouble, and how does he escape it?

94. How is Tom Sawyer injured in the escape, and what do Huck and Tom agree to do to save him?

Chapter 41

95. Who catches Huck and returns him home, and what is Huck’s explanation?

96. Describe Huck’s feelings at the end of this chapter.

Chapter 42

97. Why don’t the townspeople hang Jim?

98. What is surprising about Tom’s reaction to Jim’s current status in this chapter? Note his specific quote.

Chapter 43

99. What does Tom tell Huck he would have done if the “evasion” worked correctly?

100. What does Tom give Jim, and what is Jim’s reaction?

101. What does Huck find out about Pap and his money?

102. Finally, what does Huck vow to do by the last paragraph of the book and why?

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