Huckleberry Finn
Reading Schedule, Literary Terms,
and Optional Reading Questions
Important Literary Terms –
Reading Schedule –
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Please finish reading the following chapters
BEFORE CLASS on the date listed. Page count is
approximate; read the whole chapter!
Conflict – Person vs. Person, Society, Self
Irony, Humor and Satire
Regionalism and Dialect
Bildings Roman
Mon 11/30
Essential Questions –
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What does a person do if his or her moral code (sense of right and wrong)
contradicts society’s moral code? Does a person follow one’s own morals
no matter the consequences?
What is Twain’s message about America, slavery, and morality? How does he
develop this message through the relationship between Huck and Jim and
through Huck’s moral choices throughout the novel?
Objectives –
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Understand how Mark Twain uses the bildings roman form to show both
Huck’s and America’s coming of age.
Analyze how Twain uses humor and satire to emphasize America’s moral
shortcomings.
Infer how the historical context of the Civil War and Reconstruction
periods influences the themes of Huckleberry Finn.
Infer how the characteristics of Realism and Regionalism influence the style
and themes.
Chapters 1-7
1.
Describe the appearance, actions, personality, and moral
character of each of the following characters: Huck Finn, Tom
Sawyer, Jim, Miss Watson, and Widow Douglas.
2.
What is the difference between Huck and Tom? Between Miss
Watson and Widow Douglas? Why doesn’t Huck get along
with Miss Watson and Widow Douglas?
3.
What does Huck think about religion – specifically the good
place, the bad place, and prayer?
4.
Give at least two examples of superstition in this section of the
novel.
5.
How does the physical description of Huck’s father in Chapter
5 also serve to describe his character?
6.
What does Huck’s father criticize about the “govment”? What
does Twain want the reader to feel about these issues?
Chapters 8-14
7.
Do you think that Jim’s character is any different in chapters 8
and 9 than in chapter 2? If so, in what ways?
8.
How would you characterize Mrs. Loftus? Why do you think
she isn’t harsher on Huck when she discovers he is lying to
her?
9.
What does Huck’s insistence on boarding the wrecked
steamboat tell us about Huck?
10. Why does Huck stop and try to save murderers, and how does
this reflect on his character?
11. Why do you think Jim is so vehement in his dislike of King
Solomon? What does Jim’s stand satirize about a slave society?
Intro
Tues 12/1
Free Reading Day Chap. 1-3
Wed 12/2
Chap. 4-7 (16 pgs.) due
Thur 12/5
Free Reading Day
Fri 12/4
Chap. 8-11 (19 pgs) due
Skip Chap. 12-14
In Class Chap. 15-16 (12 pages)
Skip Chap. 17-30
Mon 12/7
Chap. 31-33 (20 pgs) due
Skip Chap. 34-39
Tues 12/8
Chap. 40-The Last (17 pgs) due
Thurs 12/10
Unit Test
Chapters 15-16
12. What trick does Huck play on Jim?
13. Does the reader’s attitude toward Jim change as a result of his
responses to Huck’s trick on him? What does his response
make you think of Huck’s pranks?
14. What is Huck’s response to Jim’s plan to steal his children after
he reaches freedom? How does this response help to satirize a
slave society?
15. Why doesn’t Huck turn in Jim?
16. What is the principle conflict in Huck’s mind about Jim?
17. With Huck and Jim below Cairo and the raft destroyed, where
do you think the plot can go from here?
Chapters 31-36
18. Why is it important that Huck says, “All right, then, I’ll go to
hell”?
19. Why does Huck assume Tom Sawyer’s identity?
20. What happens when Tom appears on the scene?
21. What is the difference between Tom’s plan for freeing Jim and
Huck’s plan?
22. How does Huck change when Tom comes?
Chapters 38-The Last
23. Tom’s plan is actually cruel. Why?
24. What more do we learn about Tom in these chapters?
25. How does Huck appear to be superior to Tom?
26. What happens to Jim? Huck? Tom?
27. What is left undecided at the end of the novel?