The Adventures of Huck Finn
- The Adventures of Huck Finn is available online. If you have lost yout book, you can read it here.
- If the dialect in Huck Finn is making the book too difficult to understand, try downloading an audio version and following along in your book while you listen to the audio. If that site doesn't work, try this one. Both are free.
- Do you need more help to identify irony? Check out this link from The Oatmeal.
- Check out theColbert Report's satire about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Or watchJohn Daily's show on the same issue.
Huck Finn on Film
- There are several of these which help to recap the book. I recommend them if you're having trouble with the book. Flocabulary also does a great video about the book. And of course, there's always video sparknotes.
- There are several full length movies based on this book. This one was first, but this one is the best.
Huck Finn Study Questions
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Chapters 1-3 Identifying Facts
What doesn't Huck like about the Widow Douglas?
What does Jim think has happened to him as a result of the trick that Tom plays on him?
How does Huck know that the drowned body that is found is not his Pap?
When Tom's gang raids the "Spanish merchants and rich Arabs" what is it that they actually do?
Where does Miss Watson take Huck to pray?
Interpreting Meanings
How would you compare the characters of the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson? Who seems to be presented in a more favorable light? Why do you think so?
How does Huck respond to Miss Watson's admonitions to pray? What does this tell us about Huck?
How would you characterize Huck's self-image at this point in the novel? Do you think it is accurate?
What is the setting of the novel? Why is the time period in which it is set important?
How would you contrast the characters of Huck and Tom?
Chapters 4-7 Identifying Facts
How does Huck know that his father has returned?
2. What does Huck do with his money? Why?
3. Why do the Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher fail in their petition to become Huck's guardians?
4. Where does Huck's father take him? Why?
5. How does Huck escape from his father?
Interpreting Meanings6. How does Twain satirize "do-gooders" in his description of Pap's "reform"? How is the new judge different from Judge Thatcher and the Widow Douglas?
7. How does Huck like life with his father? Why does he decide to run away?
8. How does the physical description of Huck's father in Chapter 5 also serve to describe his character?
9. What does Huck's father criticize about the "govment"? What does Twain want the reader to feel about these issues?
10. Why does Huck think about Tom when he is working out his escape?
Chapters 8-11 Identifying Facts
Why has Jim run away from Miss Watson?
What does Jim discover in the house that is floating down the river?
What prank does Huck play on Jim, and how does it backfire?
What does Huck learn about Jim from his visit to Mrs. Loftus?
How does Mrs. Loftus figure out that Huck is not a girl?
Interpreting Meanings
How does Huck feel about not turning Jim in? Why do you think he feels that way?
How would you characterize Jim's predic-tions in these chapters? Does the reader get
any sense of which ones will come true and which will not?
Do you think that Jim's character is any different in chapters 8 and 9 than in Chapter 2? If so, in what ways?
How would you characterize Mrs. Loftus? Why do you think she isn't harsher on Huck when she discovers he is lying to her?
10. Much of the humor of Huckleberry Finn, as well as the serious satire, comes from Huck's being unaware of the comic implications of what he says. What Huck takes seriously, Twain often means to be comic. Find one or two instances of this in these chapters, and explain the difference between what Huck says and what Twain means.
Chapters 12-14 Identifying Facts
How do Huck and Jim avoid being seen while they are floating down the river?
Whom do Huck and Jim discover on the wrecked steamboat?
Why can't Huck and Jim escape from the boat? How do they finally get away?
What happens to the steamboat?
Where does Huck get his information about dukes and kings?
Interpreting Meanings
What does Huck's insistence on boarding the wrecked steamboat tell us about Huck?
What is the name of the steamboat? Why do you think Twain might have given her that name?
Why does Huck stop and try to save the murderers, and how does this reflect on his character?
How accurate is Huck's information about dukes and kings? Why?
10. Why do you think Jim is so vehement in his dislike of King Solomon? What does Jim's stand tell us about him?
Chapters 15-16 Identifying Facts
What is Huck and Jim's plan to reach safe territory?
What is Jim doing when Huck rejoins him after they are lost in the fog?
What is Jim's response to Huck's trick?
How does Huck convince the men looking for runaway slaves not to search the raft?
How do Huck and Jim know that they have passed Cairo?
Interpreting Meanings
What is the principal conflict in Huck's mind about Jim?
Does the reader's attitude toward Jim change as a result of his response to Huck's trick on him? How does his response make you think of Huck's pranks?
What is Huck's response to Jim's plans to steal his children after he reaches freedom? How does this response help to satirize a slave society?
How is the steamboat portrayed at the end of Chapter 16? What is the attitude of steam-boatmen toward raftsmen?
10. With Huck and Jim below Cairo and the raft destroyed, where do you think the plot can go from here?
Chapters 17-18 Identifying Facts
After Huck forgets his name, how does he trick Buck into revealing it?
What theme was Emmeline Grangerford most interested in?
How does Huck rediscover Jim?
What happened to the raft?
Why does Huck feel responsible for the carnage following Sophia's elopement?
Interpreting Meanings
What do the furnishings of the Grangerford house tell us about the inhabitants?
What do you think Twain is satirizing in his description of Emmeline Grangerford's poetry?
In Huck's description of the church service and later the hogs that sleep under the church
floor, do you think Twain is satirizing religion itself or the way some people practice religion?
Would you say that the Grangerfords are basically good or bad people? Why do they end up the way they do?
10. At the end of Chapter 18, Huck says, "You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft." How would you compare life on shore and life on the raft so far?
Chapters 19-20 Identifying Facts
What theory does Jim come up with regarding the origin of the stars?
How does Huck meet the men who later identify themselves as the duke and the king?
What had the duke and the king been doing before they met Huck?
How does the king dupe the people at the camp meeting?
How does the duke arrange for them to float by day?
Interpreting Meanings
How do Huck and Jim dress on the raft? What do you think clothes might be associated with in this novel?
Why do you think Huck helps the duke and the king when he first meets them?
Huck knows the duke and king are frauds from the beginning. Why does he pretend that he thinks they are the real thing?
What characteristics do the people at the camp meeting display? Do you think Twain approves of their behavior?
10. Do you think that the duke and the king will play a continuing role in the novel? Why? What narrative problem does their appearance solve?
Chapters 21-23 Identifying Facts
What kind of show do the king and duke plan at first?
What does Sherburn do to Boggs?
How is the first performance by the duke and king received?
What is the people's response to the "Royal Nonesuch"?
What does Jim tell Huck about his daughter Elizabeth?
Interpreting Meanings
How would you describe the town where Huck and Jim land? What are the inhabitants like?
What is Sherburn's attitude toward the men attempting to lynch him? What do you think Twain's attitude is?
Why do you think Twain includes a description of the circus here? How would you compare the circus to the entertainment provided by the duke and king?
How do the duke and king entice people to see the "Royal Nonesuch"? What do you think Twain is implying about human nature with this?
10. What connection does Huck see between the duke and king and real royalty? What do you think Twain's opinion is?
Chapters 24-26 Identifying Facts
What arrangement does the duke make so that Jim doesn't have to be tied up all day?
How does the king learn about the Wilks family?
Why is the king worried that the gold is $415 short? How do they solve the problem?
Why does Dr. Robinson think that the king is a fraud?
What makes Huck determined to steal the gold back from the duke and king?
Interpreting Meanings
How do clothes change the king? How do clothes change Jim? What would you say the thematic role of clothes might be in these chapters?
At the end of Chapter 24, Huck describes the welcome the townspeople give the duke and king, and says, "It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race." Why do you think Huck's response to this is so strong? How does what the duke and king are doing differ from what they've done before?
Why do the duke and king give "their" part of the inheritance to the girls?
What qualities do the Wilks girls have that allow them to be duped so easily? How does Mary Jane's response to Joanna's grilling of Huck help emphasize this?
10. How would you compare these townspeople with the inhabitants of the townspeople in the last episode? Are they better, worse, or about the same?
Chapters 27-29 Identifying Facts
Where does Huck hide the money? Who comes in right after he has finished?
What causes the disturbance during the funeral?
Who does Huck blame for stealing the duke and king's money?
Why does Hines claim that the duke and king are frauds?
What is Levi Bell's plan for deciding who the real Harvey and William Wilks are?
Interpreting Meanings
How does Huck feel about Mary Jane in these chapters? What do you think it is about her that he responds to most deeply?
How would you describe the funeral in Chapter 27? How does it help to characterize the town?
Where is Jim during this entire episode? Why didn't Twain involve him more?
At one point while the townspeople are trying to decide who the real Wilks brothers are, Huck says "anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a seen" that the duke and king are frauds. Do you think this characterization of the townspeople is accurate? Why or why not?
10. What does Huck's easy escape from Hines say about Hines's character?
Chapters 30-32 Identifying Facts
Who does the duke think hid the money in the coffin?
How do the duke and king prosper in the days following their escape?
Who sells Jim out?
Briefly describe the Phelps farm.
Who does Mrs. Phelps think Huck is?
Interpreting Meanings
How do the duke and king behave toward each other in these, chapters? How would you compare this with their behavior in earlier chapters?
Briefly describe Huck's crisis of conscience that leads up to his decision to write to Miss Watson. How does Twain use irony here to make his satirical points?
Why does Huck decide to "go to hell"?
What is Huck's understanding of Providence in Chapter 32? Would Miss Watson agree with it?
How does Twain use irony in the discussion between Huck and Mrs. Phelps about the steamboat accident that Huck makes up?
Chapters 33-35 Identifying Facts
What does Tom think Huck is at first?
Describe how Tom shocks Aunt Sally.
Who does Tom pretend to be?
Explain how Tom figures out where Jim is.
How do Huck and Tom overcome the difficulty that they can't take thirty-seven years to free Jim?
Interpreting Meanings
What accounts for Huck's surprise that Tom will help him steal Jim?
Why do you think Huck tries to help the duke and king when he finds out that the townspeople know about them?
How does Huck respond to the duke and king being tarred and feathered? Is his response at all surprising? Does it remind you of anything earlier in the novel? Explain.
Why does Huck prefer Tom's plan for freeing Jim to his own?
10. After Tom tells Huck that it's all right for them to steal, Huck steals a watermelon. Tom is angered by this and insists that Huck pay for the watermelon. Why does Tom respond this way, and what does this scene tell us about the differences between Huck and Tom?
Chapters 36-39 Identifying Facts
What do Huck and Tom use for light while they are digging?
Describe what Tom does when he can't climb the lightning rod.
Who does Aunt Sally blame for the missing shirt?
What does Tom want Jim to water his plant with?
What effect do the warnings have on the family?
Interpreting Meanings
How would you compare Huck's and Tom's attitudes toward the escape?
What characteristics does Aunt Sally have that enable the boys to take advantage of her?
What is the irony in the way that Tom and Huck get the grindstone into the hut?
Is there any evidence that Jim is really suffering during all of this? Does Huck's response to Jim's plight seem reasonable to you?
10. When Tom devises a coat of arms for Jim, what evidence is there that his knowledge of these things is really quite superficial?
Chapters 40-43 Identifying Facts
What effect has the last warning letter had on the Phelpses?
How does Tom get hurt?
Why doesn't Huck sneak out at night to visit Tom?
Who clarifies the identities of Tom and Huck?
What has happened to Huck's father?
Interpreting Meanings
What does Jim's behavior in these chapters say about his character?
What narrative purpose does the doctor's refusal to share a canoe with Huck serve?
What effect does the doctor's speech in support of Jim have? Is this as great an effect as it should be?
How believable is the deus ex machina (literally, the "god from a machine," a theatrical term referring to a sudden and unexpected solution to a seemingly insoluble problem) through which Jim is freed? Explain.
10. Where is Huck going at the end of the novel? What does this imply about the society in which he lives, and his place in it?
Huck in Song
Many artists have been inspired by this book. Listen to Rush or Crash Test Dummies. There are many others who have been inspired as well, including Tom Petty, Youth of A Nation, Jimmy Buffet, and Bruce Springsteen, but I can't find online copies of their songs. Sorry.
Concordance
A concordance is a source that lists all the references to a specific word within a text.. and thanks to the internet, we now have hyper concordances. So, if you're reading along and you get the feeling that something might be important, and wonder when else it's referenced in the book, but don't want to reread the book, you use a concordance.
To use the one linked here, go to Authors and scroll down until you get to American Authors, then select Twain, (you might want to notice all the other authors listed here-- super useful for future studies or for those of you who might want to compare an aspect of Huck to an aspect of another text). Select the title. Type in the word under "query"...enter.
This is a great tool for looking for patterns. You might save this website to use with future books... it saves you time and makes you look smart (not that you need any help looking smart :))
Twain's Thoughts on Thanksgiving
Here's what Mark Twain wrote about Thanksgiving:
- "The observance of Thanksgiving Day--as a function--has become general of late years. The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural. Two-thirds of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm."
- Following the Equator
- "Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for--annually, not oftener--if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments."
- Mark Twain's Autobiography
- "THANKSGIVING DAY. Let us all give humble, hearty, and sincere thanks now, but the turkeys. In the island of Fiji they do not use turkeys; they use plumbers. It does not become you and me to sneer at Fiji."
-The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
- "No one ever seems to think of the Deity's side of it; apparently no one concerns himself to inquire how much or how little He has had to be thankful for during the same period; apparently no one has had good feeling enough to wish He might have a Thanksgiving day too. There is nothing right about this."
- A Thanksgiving Sentiment
What Others Said About Twain
"The first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs."
-- William Faulkner
"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called "Huckleberry Finn." all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
-- Ernest Hemingway
"The mark of how good '"Huckleberry Finn" has to be is that one can compare it to a number of our best modern American novels and it stands up page for page, awkward here, sensational there - absolutely the equal of one of those rare incredible first novels that come along once or twice in a decade."
-- Norman Mailer
"I believe that Mark Twain had a clearer vision of life, that he came nearer to its elementals and was less deceived by its false appearances, than any other American who has ever presumed to manufacture generalizations, not excepting Emerson. I believe that he was the true father of our national literature, the first genuinely American artist of the royal blood."
-- H.L. Mencken
Follow this link to read reviews of the book when it first came out. HF Reviews.
Read as Time Magazine compares Twain to some contemporary stars.
Do you agree with these people? Why or why not?
The N Word
Does the word do more harm than good?
60 Minutes episode about a new version of the book that replaces "nigg*r" with "slave"
Crazy Things for Real Twain Fans
Would you like a Mark Twain screen saver?
To watch Ken Burns movie about Mark Twain (in 24 parts, but still good)?
Play a Mark Twain trivia game?
Visit the Huck Finn web page?
Check out this interactive scrap book?
John Henry
You can follow your nose to watch the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th parts of this story after you watch the first part.
Obituary
Read the attached letter to the editor that Twain wrote. What does it tell you about him? What kind of obituary do you think he's looking for? Either comment or attempt to write an obituary that would make him proud!
A Way to Search the Text
Are you finding yourself wondering exactly where in the book the hair ball was mentioned? Or maybe you're thinking about our conversations about race and want to look for a pattern in how certain words such as black, white, or n--- are used? Check out this site where you can type in specific words or phrases and the computer will search the whole book and tell you where they show up.
Black Face
If you miss the day we learn about this, you must get notes from a friend and watch this clip.
