NOTES FOR THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Background:
 Written between 1876 and 1883
 Set pre-Civil War
 Opening statement
 Ironic- suggests the serious intent of the novel
 Who should read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
 Use of dialect
 Frontier setting
 Historical time frame
 Theme that all human beings need a sense of freedom and
control over their own destinies
 Typically American
 Huck as narrator is funny without trying to be
 Literal minded, realist
 Possesses qualities necessary for life on the frontier
 Practical
 Usually shows good common sense
 Adaptable
 Shrewd, inventive
 Sympathetic to others

Several themes are introduced:

 Human beings have a quest for freedom
 Religion is only for the unthinking masses
 Nature is born and reborn
 Human beings struggle with loneliness and isolation
 Society often takes care of society, but forgets the individual that
makes up that society

Huck is fairly accepting of others

Chapter One

 If the reader did not meet him, “…that ain’t no matter” (2).
 Refers to Mark Twain as a person separate from himself, “That
book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly”
(2).
 First person point of view
 personal level
 intimacy
 confidentiality
 diction
 colloquial
 jargon, “sivilize…rough living in the house…dismal regular and
decent” (2).
 Huck did not like it
 Clothes made him “…sweat and sweat,” and “…feel all cramped
up.” “Widow rang the bell for supper(routine)” (2).
 Uses “grumble” instead of pray
 Too different; even the food was cooked differently
 Hypocrisy- snuff/smoking

Chapter Two

Tom and Jim

 Tom is a conformist
 Everything’s done by the book even if it’s illogical
 Only listens if it’s in the books
 Social satire- follow laws even though they don’t make any
sense
 Imitates what he reads
 Tom does not see Huck as respectable since he doesn’t have a
family
 Tom wants to tie Jim to a tree
 Huck doesn’t want to hurt others and doesn’t want to trick Jim
 Tom steals candles and leaves $.05
 Huck is uncomfortable with that
 Huck is sympathetic to Tommy Barnes wanting to go home
 Superstition:
 Jim and the witches
 Don’t know where Huck’s dad is
 Misunderstand ransom (11)
 Jim is a slave living with Miss Watson (Widow’s sister) and is
superstitious- likes to capitalize on superstitions
 Lack of religion
 Great imagination
 Vivid
 Exaggerates to entertain
 Funny
 Harmless
 gullible

Chapter Three

 Praying- contrast Widow and Miss Watson

Miss Watson- spiritual gifts
Bad place
Tom
Pap is assumed dead (13) Huck reason no woman died face down
Huck hasn’t seen Pap for over a year and doesn’t want to
Pap is always drunk, abusive, “He always used to whale me
when he was sober and could get his hands on me” (13).
Resigned from gang
Admires Tom, but fed up with Tom’s games “lies”
Can’t view it with imagination like Tom- literal
Lamp (15)

Chapter Four

School and Living With the Widow

 Superstitions
 Lack of education and religion
 Salt cellar (16)
 Spider (16)
 Foreshadow Pap
 Footprints in the snow identified by, “…cross in left boot
heel” (17) to keep off the devil.
 Huck goes to Judge Thatcher- smart- doesn’t want to lie
 Gives Judge the money so Pap won’t get it (17)
 Judge catches on and buys the $6,000.00 for $1.00
 Jim’s been capitalizing on his fame for being “rode” by witches
(18)
 Jim is a slave living with Miss Watson (the Widow’s sister); he is
superstitious which suggests a lack of education
 Gullible, vivid imagination
 Exaggerates to entertain
 Harmless and funny
 Jim and the hairball- foretells Pap’s actions (18)
 Pap’s in Huck’s room (19)
 Orders Huck to stop going to school
 Education and religion mean Huck’s trying to be better than
Pap

Chapter Five

 Pap’s 50- described as a primate (19) “…behind vines.”

 Body’s flesh crawl so white
 Sickly
 Rags
 Pap says Huck thinks he’s too good for his dad now (20)
 Threatens Huck not to go to school, “…pretty soon you’ll get
religion” (20).
 $ - example of Huck’s foresight
 Pap goes to Judge Thatcher
  Court- Widow is trying to adopt Huck- new judge (21)
 Borrowing his own $
 New judge tried to reform Pap- backfired

Chapter Six

 Huck is “thrashed” for going to school (23).

 Goes to “spite” Pap (23).
 Huck borrows money to avoid beatings- drunk- jail
 Pap captures Huck- takes him to old log hut
 Imprisoned
 Likes freedom of no rules, “cussin’”; “…couldn’t stand…
(beatings)” (24-25)
 Pap goes away for days- Hucks locked in
 Plans escape- wishes for Tom
 Pap’s views on government (26-28) bigot
 Pap’s very drunk- hallucinates
 Tries to kill Huck “Angel of Death” (29)

Chapter Seven: I Fool Pap and Get Away

 bizarre- Dad kidnaps own son

 Huck associates own dad with evils of society
 Pap’s brutality becomes the brutality of civilization
 Huck had gun turned on Pap
 fell asleep
 said he was protecting from intruder
 wood sales
 canoe came along
 hides it from Pap for his escape
 Pap = shoot intruder
 Pap and Huck got lumber to sell
 Huck took Pap’s supplies and left
 smashed door in, killed pig, put hair on axe
 dragged trail the other way
 common sense, shrewdness, imagination
 headed for Jackson’s island
 fell asleep, “Looked late…smelt late” (34).
 Tom would’ve messed up plan with romanticism
 Twain values common sense over romanticism
 skiff came along with a man in it- PAP
 current took him to Jackson’s Island
 Huck prefers to disappear with no emphasis on materials ($)
 Hid canoe
 Adaptability emphasized- Widow, Pap, island
 Prefers freedom of wilderness over restrictions of society
 Pap’s violence violates Huck’s belief that everyone should be kind
to everyone
 Freedom- loneliness

Chapter Eight: I Spare Miss Watson’s Jim

 Death and Rebirth

 Huck hears “boom” of cannon- symbolically dies
 took bread used to find carcasses with Quicksilver
 superstition of gentry class
 on boat: Pap, Judge, Bessie, Joe H., Tom, Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary
 Huck feels safe once they pass
 description of Huck (27)- lonesome, sits on river, even in the dark,
the sound of it cheers him up
 Huck spends three days/three nights- cleansing of old life
 exploring, berries
 born again with new sense of values
 Huck has a gun
 found a campfire still smoking
 hides stuff
 climbs tree
 hungry
 went to Illinois shore
 people there
 went back
 finds Jim and startles him
 Jim thinks Huck’s a real ghost
 not lonesome now
 Huck knows society says it’s not right to help Jim, but Huck
keeps quiet anyway
 rebirth begins with Jim
 acceptance foreshadows Huck’s later set of values
 defies society for friendship
 decision to help Jim
 compliment: Tom Sawyer couldn’t have gotten a plan so good
 Jim has run off
 Miss Watson was going to sell him downstream- too much
money to resist (43)
 was sorry Huck was killed
 tried for Illinois bank, bank’s too “bluff”- not sympathetic- Ohio
river is better
 birds- practical sign of rain (45) don’t catch ‘em= die
 Huck respects Jim’s superstitions
 swindled $
 Irony: Kidnapped with minimal effort to find
 dead- all out effort
 satire- society seems to value death over welfare of living
 $300 reward for Jim, but $200 for Huck’s murderer

Chapter Nine: The House of Death Floats By

 Huck hid canoe after Jim suggested it

 birds- superstition- embedded in common sense
 actions predict weather
 practical
 stayed in cave- rain- 10-12 days
 paddled around
 rather good place to live
 found raft (12x16) and frame house (2-story)
 dead man shot in back
  took a ton of stuff (50-51)
 hid Jim under quilt
 went back
 Jim- no one needs to know good luck signs because no one wants
to prevent good luck
 Jim and Huck- literal minded- fish hooks, $

Chapter Ten: What Comes of Handlin’ Snake-Skin

 Jim won’t talk about the dead man- bad luck

 ghosts, haunting
 bad luck- rattle snake bit Jim
 whiskey
 ate snake
 rattlers on wrist
 foot swelled (52)
 drunk
 Huck would have preferred the snake bite
 Hank Bunker looked at the moon and died
 huge catfish
 Huck heads to shore dressed as a girl
 wants information
 presents climax of motif of superstition
 Jim’s bitten by rattlesnake
 first time Huck is shown NOT using common sense
 Tom Sawyer-ish type trick
 deep regret=deep relationship with Jim
 Tom does not have regrets
 Jim- all bad things=bad luck- snake caused by Huck
 Remedies make Jim drunk enough to not feel pain
 journey to shore- first of many adventures pitting life on raft
against life on shore- society
 girl- another identity- first of many

Chapter Eleven: They’re After Us!

 opening- Huck goes to shore- Sarah Williams

 need to know if Jim’s escape was successful
 chapter 11 represents end of idyllic existence Jim and Huck have
been enjoying
 Jackson’s island was an interlude of Eden

 Paradise just won’t stay long

 Twain makes up a lot of adjectives

(2-3 words jumbled together) ch. 8-9

 Jim’s better at reading nature, so takes

on first father role for Huck

 Judith Loftus- wants to catch Jim
 Huck’s fantasies of disasters
 autobiographical

 escape from slave hunters

 everybody, except Huck, is contaminated by their connection with

slavery
 his trip is classic and is reprinted by itself
 theme- humans need to create new identities (masks) for certain
situations
 new identity for Huck; one of many to come

 ability to invent stories- good at story- not good at carrying it out

 new story

 concrete, believable

 no plans, “…trusts providence” (32).

 Huck has the ability; Tom is the planner

 does not fool woman- flight of mean master

 men are going to Jackson Island after Jim, “They’re after us.”

 Huck is with Jim- uses US

 End of first part of novel- now on to the Mississippi

Chapter Twelve: “Better Let Blame Well Alone” and

Chapter Thirteen: Honest Loot from the “Walter Scott”

 Begins second major part of novel- covers various adventures

down the Mississippi River
 mythic quality
 contentment
 wreck of Walter Scott- name satiric attach on romantic writer (Sir)
 Huck wishes for Tom- real life vs. fantasy- doesn’t realize real
danger
 board wreck to salvage stuff
 Jake Packard
 Bill plan to kill for informing (tries to save)
 Jim Turner
 Huck takes getaway boat
 sympathy in Huck gets him to tell lie to ferryman about rich
niece on wreck
 Huck totally accepts Jim- accepts everyone
 thinks the Widow would be proud of his helping
 “Rapscallions and deadbeats is the kind the widow and good
people takes most interest in” (56)
 borrowing euphemism for stealing

Chapter Fourteen: Was Solomon Wise?

 Interlude
 enjoys rewards from Walter Scott
 don’t underestimate Huck’s ability to learn from books
 reading of “dauphin” prepares us for Louis Charles (1788)- king
 satire on religion
 Jim is a slave= Christian, but doesn’t have meaning
 forcing slaves to practice Christianity contradicts the teachings of
Christianity
 Jim’s humanity vs. Solomon’s logic (59)
 Jim wins (more important)

Chapter Fifteen: Fooling Poor Old Jim

 fog= separation- emphasizes loneliness and importance of Jim’s

relationship with Huck CRUCIAL POINT
 Jim and Huck pass Cairo- mouth of Ohio River-
 abandon Jim’s escape on Ohio River
 doesn't make sense to head farther south
 second trick- decides to fool Jim- failed to recognize Jim’s devotion
to Huck
 “trash”
 realizes Jim’s humanity- maturing step- *basic kindness*
 values Jim
 moral education

Chapter Sixteen: The Rattlesnake-Skin Does its Work

 Huck has to pit own values against society’s

 horrified at Jim’s plan to escape and steal children
 Shocked at his own part
 goes against church, society, and state
 man vs. self
 irony- man has to buy children or steal them
 Huck decides to tell on Jim
 juxtaposed Huck telling vs. bounty hunters
 can't tell on Jim
 bad to help Jim
 big irony- dramatic- Jim suspects? Cold feet?
 hypocrisy- ethics are relative
 larger ironies
 Huck thinks he’s committing a sin by protecting Jim
 hunting a man but will not help sick man
 ingenuity- sees beyond men
 create stories that play upon petty, selfish, hunters
 men remove moral obligation with money
 Huck is troubled, not the men
 pass the mouth of the Ohio River- rattlesnake
 excuse? Sabbatical
 doesn’t realize he’s right and society’s wrong
 lost canoe so that they cannot go up the Ohio River- must stay
on Mississippi River
 destruction of raft by steamboat
 separated from Jim
 continue story?

Chapters Seventeen: The Grangerfords Take Me In

and Eighteen: Why Harney Rode Away for His Hat
 Grangerfords/Shepardsons (Hatfields and McCoy’s- 70’s burn each
others’ barns down)
 satirize
 against feuds
  senseless brutality
 needless manslaughter
 counter to common sense- Huck is the epitome of common
sense
 Romeo and Juliet
 people don’t know why they are fighting; 30 year feud
 concepts of honor- face to face- impersonal at first
 George Ja-x-on- new
 Buck- new friend
 Emmeline- ghoul
 satire against poetry
 romanticism- sickening
 Huck appreciated it at 14- what could she have been?
 soured on death and morbidity
 satirize poetry of Julia A. Moore- romantic
 Huck is impressed and content
 has own slave
 Huck’s reaction- revulsion and sickness at such a waste of human
life- sees through feud- common sense
 sees through superficiality
 smart- new identity- again- name
 spell name when he forgets
 literal- doesn’t catch joke about Moses and the candle
 evaluates waste of life
 irony-
 free on raft
 brotherhood vs. feud dramatic irony- brotherly love
 religion and hogs
 Jim’s hiding
 Huck finds him
 Grangerford house- tawdry, cheap objects
 brutality of Buck’s death contrast freedom/horror

Chapters Nineteen: The Duke and the Dauphin Come Aboard

and Twenty: What Royalty Did to Parkville

 two to three days go by- travelling by night, hiding by day

 finds canoes, berries
 Huck returns to the Ohio River- Cairo is gone
 Fog again, humor, freedom to be naked
 emphasizes serenity- language mirrors slow place- languor of life
 sights, sounds
 two men- Huck’s anxious to help- pity
 Duke and Dauphin decide to work together- Duke starts games-
Dauphin joins in
 Huck knows nothing but conmen
 fraud types- clever- dupe people
 success in analyzing society and taking advantage of its
ignorance
 protects Jim
 King (Dauphin) and Duke outdo each other for special treatment
 know how to take advantage; prints sign about Jim
 at first, Huck believes stories, but sees through them
 liars
 would sell Jim- believable story to protect
 help Duke and Dauphin get away
 shows knowledge of human nature
 audience is stupid and gullible (RJ)
 rogue- frontier humor- revival- confession- Duke does
print shop
 flees with money
 Huck does not inform audience because they wanted
to hear something evil
 Handbill- clever, shrewd of Duke
 Jim recognizes frauds
 dramatic irony- pirate scam
 characters:
 meet King- 70 year old, bald with whiskers, slouch hat, greasy,
ragged, temperance, revival, religion
 Duke- 30, same carpet bags, quack salesman, position selves
 rain in chapter 20- storm foreshadowing conflict, stormy times
 theatrical response- bedding
 river is not calm- storm bonds Huck and Jim- Duke and Dauphin
sleep
 plan campaign, theater
 printing
  preaching- pirate
 French
Themes Chapter 19
 Life on river and life on land are very different
 beauty, peace=river life
 first time ashore, men are running
 land produces lowlife/conmen
 things are not always as they appear
 Duke and Dauphin
 claim to be royalty, but are conmen
 Huck’s moral development
 literary techniques
 imagery- sights/sounds of water create mood
 symbolism- raft=freedom
 satire- royalty- “Yorrup”
 sunrise on water

Themes Chapter 20
 things are not always as they appear to be
 pirate story sounds like Huck’s purpose= different
 Life on river and life on land are very different
 Duke and Dauphin move onto raft
 freedom is threatened
 plan to move during the day
 Huck’s growth- did not stop tying up Jim
 Huck as narrator- camp narrator- ridicules absurd/extreme
 literary terms
 symbolism- storm coming- conflict
 imagery- vivid storm
 irony- Shakespeare for bumpkins
 $9 for fair day’s work (printers)
 satire on religion- preacher- gullible- crying- tone

Chapter Twenty-One: An Arkansaw Difficulty

 Duke and Dauphin practicing

 Richard III. sword fight
 rogues- frontier
 frontier human tradition- Shakespeare put together
 clever
 Huck recognizes danger
 “onkores” dance, soliloquy (Hamlet’s)
 circus- helps schemers
 raft going along- come to small town
 hang up handbills
 Huck doesn’t participate
 moral neutrality- change in episode with Wilks
 defrauded by scoundrels
 Shakespeare flops- rogues attract
 audience without, “ladies and children”
 vulgar, course, obscene
 man=base and depraved
 always one step ahead $465.00= imp.
 contempt for aspects of frontier life
 Boggs drunk
 games vs. serious
 daughter- he dies in front of
 man imitates death
 dislike for human race
 town=bums
 dislike for shiftless, worthless bums
 mud in streets
 livestock run freely
 houses are run down
 piggish town
 Colonel Sherburne is despicable- based on real event
 “damned human race”
 one powerful man is stronger than any mob
 characters:
 townspeople- hoglike, low lifes
 Boggs- harmless drunk vs. Sherburne- violent
 Sherburne appears as wealthy, cold-blooded, indifferent

Themes Chapter 21:

 some people have violent natures
 good, bad, ugly townspeople are horrible- compared to hogs
  circus nature of Bogg’s death
 literary devices:
 naïve narrator: King learning Hamlet=ridiculous
 Huck’s comment about being best- we know he’s awful
 narrator's voice isn’t Huck- “loafers” all the time
 satire- sarcastic tone- land dwellers
 how would they have treated Jim?
 Hamlet’s soliloquy is wrong
 Huck’s role as narrator?
 Twain’s voice?
 change from other characters?