Huckleberry Finn Focus Questions

Focus Question #1
Several of the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn want to force Huck to
become their vision of what he should be. Choose one person from your Character Influence
Chart and, using examples from the text, show how that person tried to control Hucks view
of the world. Then, again using examples from the text to support your answer, tell how
Huck responded to the views of others.
Focus Question #2
Using Chapter 16 from the book, the excerpt from the Fugitive Slave Law, and your charts to
guide your thinking, describe a situation from your own life or one that you have read or
heard about when a decision made had moral, financial and/or legal consequences.
Focus Question #3
In a conflict between individuals, groups of people or countries are the costs of winning the
battle ever too high to justify continuing the fight? Use examples from the Hatfields and the
McCoys, West Coast vs. East Coast Rappers, and the battle between in Grangerfords and the
Shepardsons in Chapter 18 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as evidence to support your
opinion.
Focus Question #4
Several times in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck stands by passively and allows
other characters to act in ways that he knows are wrong or foolish. At the end of Chapter 19,
Huck says, If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along
with his kind of people is to let them have their own way. Tell about a time in the book that
Huck did this and describe the consequences of Hucks passivity.

Focus Question #5
Chapter 23 is a turning point in the book. In this chapter Huck finds Jim lamenting that he
may never get to see his family again. Huck has the following thought: I do believe he
cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn. It dont seem natural, but I
reckon its so.
In this thoughtshot, what does Huck reveal about his perception of people of color in the past
and how that perception has been changed by his relationship with Jim?

Focus Question #6
Many of the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tell lies to get themselves out
of trouble or to avoid conflicts. Some people would say that Mark Twain is sharing his views
about lying with the readers through the actions of Huck, the duke and the king. Is it ever all
right to tell lies in order to avoid conflict? What would Mark Twain say? What would you
say? Use specific examples from the text to support your answers.