Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 1
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
From what point of view is all of the action being described? That is, who reports
to us all that takes place?
2.
Does this point of view about the action permit the reader to understand more than
the reporter? For instance, can Twain’s attitude be detected behind the comments
about the Widow’s “grumble” with bowed head at meal time?
3.
The Widow Douglas treats Huck as her son, with the intention of “civilizing”
him; how does Huck understand the term “civilize” at this point in his life?
4.
Why is Huck’s superstition about spiders and bad luck important to know?
Ospalek 2000 page 1
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 2
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
As Tom and Huck slip away from the house, which boy is the more conservative
(i.e. cautious and reserved)?
2.
Does Tom’s desire to “play something on” Jim point up any contrast between the
characters of the two boys? What does Huck’s reluctance say about him?
3.
What is the source of Tom Sawyer’s knowledge about pirates and robbers? What
respect does he have for these authorities?
4.
What evidence is there that Mark Twain is mock-serious in this description of the
robber gang?
Ospalek 2000 page 2
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 3
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Huck admits to having very little education, but does this mean that he does very
little careful thinking?
2.
What further comments regarding religion is Huck (Twain?) making here?
3.
Why does Twain use Don Quixote as a reference in this chapter?
4.
How are Tom and Huck different in this chapter?
Ospalek 2000 page 3
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 4
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Although Huck does not have the same imagination as Tom Sawyer, what quality
of mind does he show in responding to a real-life situation, the discovery of Pap’s
presence?
2.
Huck says “he knowed” what a potato would do for a counterfeit coin, but “had
forgot it”; what does this speech reveal about his personality?
Ospalek 2000 page 4
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 5
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What does Huck’s encounter with his father reveal about Huck?
2.
What skills does Huck display when answering Pap’s questions?
3.
Do you think Huck would have been able to advise the new judge about the
possibility of reforming Pap? Why/why not?
4.
Huck reports all the experiment at reform without comment. Is Twain keeping
silent? Explain.
Ospalek 2000 page 5
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 6
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Huck escapes being beaten by Pap by running away. What does his decision to
attend school reveal about his character?
2.
In describing the pleasures of this primitive life, and commenting on the
disadvantages of civilized life, what does Huck mean by “sivilized” life?
3.
Is Pap in any way a “sivilized” man? If so, what has he learned from
“sivilization”?
Ospalek 2000 page 6
4.
As Pap attacks the government, Huck merely reports his speech, and yet we can
see that Twain is ridiculing him. On what grounds his Pap being ridiculed? How
do you know that he is being ridiculed?
5.
On more than one occasion later in the novel, Huck speaks out against whiskey.
What real-life experience probably accounts for this attitude? That is, what has he
observed that prompts such a view?
Ospalek 2000 page 7
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 7
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Even after the severe treatment at the hands of Pap, what is Huck’s first thought
when he brings in a drift-canoe to shore?
2.
Huck admires Tom Sawyer’s ability to “throw in some fancy touches” when
engaged in adventure, but what essential difference is there between the occasion
when Huck makes arrangements for concealing his escape and the occasions
when Tom uses the “fancy touches” Huck admires?
3.
As Huck lies in his canoe enjoying the beauty of the sky, he overhears a
conversation on shore; what contrast between nature and the civilized world is
established by the conversation he overhears?
Ospalek 2000 page 8
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 8
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Huck “knowed enough” to station himself where a loaf of bread would float in to
shore—is his remark in any way self-deprecating (in other words, does he make
fun of himself)?
2.
How does he account for the bread “finding” him?
3.
As Huck describes the firing of the cannon, what is revealed of his sense of
humor?
Ospalek 2000 page 9
4.
What does Huck’s decision to discover who else occupies the island show of his
courage?
Ospalek 2000 page 10
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 9
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Does Jim permit Huck to look at the dead man in the floating house?
2.
What does Jim’s behavior in the floating house indicate further of the relationship
between the two? Is the dead man’s identity revealed to you if not to Huck?
3.
How is the relationship between Huck and Jim progressing? Does their fugitive
condition account for their kinship of mind?
Ospalek 2000 page 11
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 10
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
How does Jim conclude that the occupants of the floating house had been thieves?
2.
In what ways is Huck’s trick with the dead snake reminiscent of Tom Sawyer?
4.
Is there any evidence that Mark Twain is ridiculing superstition in the story of the
man that died from looking over his shoulder?
Ospalek 2000 page 12
5.
Is Huck speaking like Huckleberry Finn or like Mark Twain when he says that “if
this woman had been in such a little town two days, she could tell me all I wanted
to know”?
Ospalek 2000 page 13
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 11
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
When Mrs. Loftus says that people think Jim to be Huck’s murderer, how does
Huck react?
2.
Why is this reaction different from his reaction a moment earlier when he learns
that some people suspect Pap?
3.
When Huck asks if the hunters of Jim couldn’t see better in the daylight, does he
simply ask a question or does he have any deeper motive?
4.
At what point does Mrs. Loftus become suspicious that Huck is not a girl?
Ospalek 2000 page 14
5.
Huck’s behavior in this chapter provides a number of examples of his deep
concern for Jim’s welfare. What are some of these examples, and how would
you characterize his feelings for Jim?
6.
What does the word “us” in Huck’s warning to Jim that “they are after us”
reveal of the relationship between the two?
Ospalek 2000 page 15
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 12
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Huck reflects his background and training as he talks about stealing chickens,
watermelons, and the like; what has he learned from Pap and what from the
Widow Douglas?
2.
When Packard says, “It ain’t good morals” to murder Jim Turner, Huck merely
reports the conversation. But Mark Twain has made the remark ironic in this context.
Does irony allow the reader to understand something more about the evil of these men
than Huck understands?
3.
In what kind of “bad fix” does Huck intend to place the three evil men? Does he
intend to let them drown?
Ospalek 2000 page 16
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 13
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What motivates Huck to find a means for rescuing the three men on the wreck?
2.
Where does Huck get information to make his fabricated story to the ferryboat
captain more convincing? Is there earlier evidence of this same sharp awareness
on Huck’s part?
3.
How does Huck play upon the ego of the captain to make him take an interest in
the wreck? Is this approach successful?
Ospalek 2000 page 17
4. Does Huck run any risk in trying to help the men aboard the wreck? What kind of
risk does the captain run?
5. What further evidence is there in this chapter that the Widow Douglas has
influenced Huck’s character?
6. How does Huck’s final expression of his attitude about the fate of the men on the
wreck compare with an earlier attitude he held about Pap?
Ospalek 2000 page 18
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 14
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
When Huck says Jim had “an uncommon level head for a nigger,” what conflict
or contrast is implied between fact, or experience, and opinion—especially public
opinion? Or between the “natural” and the “civilized” way of looking at Jim?
2.
Where does Huck learn about kings and about the French language? Is his
knowledge, presented here in preparation for later action, brought in as a natural part of
the action? Or, does Twain seem to you to be forcing this information into the novel?
Ospalek 2000 page 19
3.
Several clear examples of Jim’s compassionate nature occur in this chapter. What
are some of them?
Ospalek 2000 page 20
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 15
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Huck’s attitude toward hardships, reflected in his description of them, reveals
much about his character. What is shown, for example, in his comments about colliding
with islands as he drifted?
2.
On some occasions Huck lies in Huckleberry fashion; other times he lies in Tom
Sawyer fashion. In what fashion does he lie to Jim in this chapter? What is the difference
between the two kinds of lying?
Ospalek 2000 page 21
3.
In earlier chapters, the expression of a superstitious belief by Huck or Jim has
foreshadowed difficult or unpleasant events; as Jim “’terprets” his “dream,” are there
foreboding of evil days to come? What characterizes them?
Ospalek 2000 page 22
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 16
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Why did Huck feel “trembly and feverish” to hear Jim talk about being free?
2.
In this chapter, is Huck thinking of Jim as a person or as a slave?
3.
When Huck decides to “tell” on Jim, he says, “All my troubles was gone”; do you
think he is right? Why?
4.
What “took all the tuck” out of Huck Finn as he set off to tell on Jim? Do you
think that Jim guessed what Huck was going to do?
Ospalek 2000 page 23
5.
Does Huck ever say that there is smallpox on board the raft?
6.
What does Huck’s ability as a liar show of his perception about people?
7.
What two kinds of conscience are struggling for mastery of Huck as he decides to
give up trying to do “right”?
Ospalek 2000 page 24
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 17
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Does Huck really miss the point to Buck’s riddle? What does his reaction to the
riddle show of his worldliness as compared to Buck’s?
2.
What contradictions are there in the natures of the Grangerfords?
3.
Huck reports objectively what he sees at the Grangerford’s; is Mark Twain,
however, implicitly judging the household?
4.
What evidence is there that Mark Twain is ridiculing sentimentality? Is the
description of Emmeline’s method of rhyming a clue to his attitude?
Ospalek 2000 page 25
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 18
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What does Huck admire about Colonel Grangerford?
2.
How do the Shepherdsons compare with the Grangerfords in wealth, character,
and behavior? Is there a “gentlemanly” code of behavior observed by both
families in the carrying on of the feud?
3.
Buck sounds as enthusiastic about he feud as Tom Sawyer about his gang of
robbers. If Twain wishes to show the foolishness of the feud, what does he gain
by having Buck, a young boy, discuss it?
4.
In the interview between Huck and Sophia and again between Huck and Jack,
what does one learn of Huck’s perceptiveness?
Ospalek 2000 page 26
5.
In this chapter, what do you learn specifically of the subordinate relationship of
African/African-American slaves to white masters prior to the Civil War?
6.
How does Huck react to the news that Sophia and Harney are safely across the
river?
7.
Does Huck’s conscience flare up again regarding the renewed violence of the
feud?
8.
How does Jim react upon seeking Huck again? How does this reaction contrast
with the relationship between the two aristocratic families?
9.
How does life among the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons—the “civilized” people
on shore—compare with life on board the raft?
10.
Can you find any evidence that Huck has done any grieving at his separation from
Jim?
Ospalek 2000 page 27
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 19
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
As Jim and Huck discuss the voices and noises coming out of the fog, what
contrast is apparent in their separate views of life?
Jim is much more superstitious in that he talks of ghosts and spirits. Huck is
much more of a realist in that he notes that spirits usually wouldn’t swear.
2.
How does Twain go about acquainting the reader with the true nature of the Duke
and King? How old are the two men?
3.
Is the Duke skilled enough as a “con” man to trick the King?
4.
What simple explanation does Huck give for the fact that he and Jim agree to the
Duke’s demands for service?
5.
Does Huck show any particular insight into adult behavior in his appraisal of the
King’s jealousy?
Ospalek 2000 page 28
6.
Why doesn’t Huck “let on” that he knows the Duke and the King are frauds?
7.
In a sense, the raft is Huck’s home, or even his “country”; what is essential for
happiness there?
Ospalek 2000 page 29
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 20
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
How does Huck convince the Duke and King that Jim is not a runaway slave?
2.
During the storm at night, what does Jim’s behavior show of his general
thoughtfulness and good humor?
3.
When the Duke assigns the King the role of Juliet, is he trying to even the score
for losing the best bed to the King and being called “Bilgewater”?
4.
What is Jim’s attitude toward Kings?
Ospalek 2000 page 30
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 21
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Which of the two “frauds” is better educated? What distinguishes the Duke’s
speaking manner from the King’s?
2.
Describe life aboard the raft for Huck and Jim with the Duke and King aboard.
3.
What is the reaction of the crowd to Sherburn’s appearance as he threatens
Boggs? What does this reaction emphasize about Sherburn’s character?
Ospalek 2000 page 31
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 22
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
From the reaction of the African-Americans to the whooping mob as it moves
toward Sherburn’s house and from the statements that Sherbern makes about
previous actions of the mob, what do you know of the behavior of these Arkansas
people?
2.
As Colonel Sherburn faces down an entire mob, he demonstrates that he is the
manliest man in town; what irony is there to this fact?
3.
Is it characteristic of Huck that he is “all of a tremble” to see the danger to the
“drunken man” hanging onto the horse’s neck?
Ospalek 2000 page 32
4.
What effect does Twain achieve by this sudden transition to comedy?
5.
What trick of advertising does the Duke use to attract the townspeople to the
theater?
Ospalek 2000 page 33
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 23
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
A view of history is seen through Huck’s eyes, as he is reading about kings for the
first time. What leads him to call kings “a mighty ornery lot”?
2.
How would you sum up Twain’s view of kings and royalty? Does the fact that
Huck equates the two frauds with kings and dukes generally indicate something of
Mark Twain’s view?
3.
Why is Jim unable to sleep following the conversation about kings?
Ospalek 2000 page 34
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 24
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What is ironic about the identity that the King assumes?
2.
What device does the King use to draw information from the young man bound
for New Orleans?
3.
Notice that Huck says that the behavior of the King and the Duke “was enough to
make a body ashamed of the human race” (p. 157). How does this show a change
in Huck from the beginning of the novel?
Ospalek 2000 page 35
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 25
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What judgements does Huck make about the behavior of the two frauds at the
coffin of Peter Wilks?
2.
Does Huck know the difference between honest and dishonest people well enough
to see that good folks would not have counted the money?
3.
What irony is there in the fact that the townspeople believe the Duke and King in
preference to their doctor?
Ospalek 2000 page 36
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 26
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What affects Huck’s conscience as he thinks about what the king is doing?
2.
Huck has proven that he can be a pretty good liar. Why does he get tripped up so
often while talking to Joanna?
3.
What evidence is there that Huck is growing up? (Hint: the answer is in relation to
Mary Jane.)
4.
How does the king rationalize the robbery of the young girls?
Ospalek 2000 page 37
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 27
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
How does Huck feel about being around dead people? Why do you think this is?
2.
Does Huck want the money for himself? How is this like the beginning of the
novel?
3.
How does Huck characterize the undertaker?
4.
Where does Huck show humor at the wake?
5.
What new understanding as to the horrors of slavery does Huck gain?
Ospalek 2000 page 38
7. Even though Huck learns this, what evidence is there that he still doesn’t see
slaves as equals?
Ospalek 2000 page 39
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 28
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What conclusion about the truth vs. lying does Huck come to while talking to
Mary Jane?
2.
Huck shows compassion for Jim again in this chapter. How?
3.
Why is Huck so adamant about having Mary Jane leave for Mr. Lothrop’s before
breakfast?
4.
What does Huck mean when he says, “Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me
she’d take a job that was more nearer her size” ?
5.
Why is it appropriate that Huck calls the imaginary sickness the “pluribus unum
mumps”? (Hint: look at a dollar bill.)
6.
At the end of the chapter, Huck compares himself to Tom Sawyer. What does he
say is different between him and Tom? Which do you think is better in this situation?
Ospalek 2000 page 40
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 29
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What causes the investigation of the king and the duke?
2.
What comment does Huck make regarding whether it was the king or the old man
that was telling the truth?
3.
The lawyer tells Huck that he “reckon[s] [Huck] ain’t used to lying, it don’t seem
to come handy” (196). Throughout the novel, it seemed as though Huck was pretty good
at lying. Why is it different now?
4.
What does Huck mean when he says that Mary Jane had the most “sand”?
Ospalek 2000 page 41
6.
What causes the townspeople to dig up Peter Wilks’ body?
Ospalek 2000 page 42
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 30
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What happens between the king and the duke once they are back aboard the raft?
2.
What do you think Twain’s message is about dishonesty?
3.
Do the king and the duke get anything for their dishonest efforts?
Ospalek 2000 page 43
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 31
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
How successful are the king and the duke at their scheming at the beginning of
the chapter?
2.
This is by far the most important chapter in the development of Huck and his
feelings about slavery. Why does Huck have such a difficult time praying for forgiveness
for helping Jim escape?
3.
Why can’t he immediately send the letter he wrote?
4.
The climax of a novel is the point where the main character is posed with a
conflict and he/she comes to a decision. What, then, is the climax of The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn?
Ospalek 2000 page 44
5.
Why does Huck want to get to Jim before he tells on the king and the duke?
Ospalek 2000 page 45
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 32
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Why is it interesting that the title of chapter 32 is “I Have a New Name”?
2.
What is Huck’s reaction to walking across the plantation? Why does this happen?
3.
When asked if anybody was hurt when the boat ran aground, Huck claims, “No,”
but then says that an African-American was killed. Explain this.
4.
Who do the Phelps’ think Huck is?
Ospalek 2000 page 46
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 33
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What is the difference between Tom’s wanting to free Jim and Huck’s?
2.
Is Tom more like Huck or more like the king and the duke? Why?
3.
What is Huck’s reaction when he sees the duke and the king? What does this say
about his character?
4.
How is the treatment of the duke and the king fitting or ironic?
Ospalek 2000 page 47
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 34
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Why is Tom’s plan “better” according to the boys?
2.
Will Huck’s plan work? Why doesn’t Tom want to use it?
Ospalek 2000 page 48
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 35
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Why is Tom disappointed when they go to release Jim?
2.
What is Tom’s point in mentioning “Casanova…Benvenuto Chelleeny” and
others?
3.
What is a primary difference between Tom and Huck regarding reality?
Ospalek 2000 page 49
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 36
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What is the purpose of Huck saying that Jim “couldn’t see no sense in [the plan],
but he allowed that we was white folks and knowed better than him”?
2.
What, do you think, is Tom’s reason for elongating the escape?
3.
Earlier in the novel, one of the desperate men on board the Walter Scott says, “It
ain’t good sense, it ain’t good morals” to murder Jim Turner; in this chapter, Tom says,
“It ain’t right, and it ain’t moral” to dig Jim out of prison with anything but case knives.
What does Twain apparently intend by such ironic uses of the word moral? When Huck
says he “don’t care shucks for the morality of it, nohow,” the contrast between means and
ends is emphasized. Which of the two boys is more concerned with means, which more
with ends?
Ospalek 2000 page 50
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 37
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What do you make of Silas Phelps’ innocence?
2.
Review the passage on the bottom of page 249 regarding Uncle Silas’ warming
pan. What is peculiar about the syntax (word order) of this passage? What is Twain’s
point here?
Ospalek 2000 page 51
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 38
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What is the significance of the motto picked out by Tom? (In other words, how is
it appropriate?)
2.
On page 253, what is Twain’s not-so-hidden point about “superintendents”?
3.
How would you characterize Jim’s conduct in the face of all the irritations and
indignities he has to endure under Tom’s program for escape?
Ospalek 2000 page 52
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 39
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What message is given in Jim’s remark that “he wouldn’t ever be a prisoner
again, not for a salary”?
2.
Is Twain’s handling of the idea of “duty” and “principle” intended to show us that
Twain is attacking “duty” and “principle”? Why or why not?
Ospalek 2000 page 53
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 40
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
How does Tom’s reaction to the presence of armed men compare with Huck’s?
2.
Was Tom the first or last to leave Jim’s room? First or last to leave the lean-to?
What does his “order” about who was to leave last reveal about his vision of the
proceedings?
3.
Who decides that a doctor must be sent for when Tom is shot? What risk is there
to Jim in this proceeding?
Ospalek 2000 page 54
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 41
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
Is Huck as effective a liar as usual in his story to the doctor?
2.
What is different about Mrs. Hotchkiss’ speaking manner? Aside from her value
as comedy, is her commentary and the remarks of the other people useful as part of the
story? How?
3.
How has Mark Twain made it seem possible that Huck would be unable to break
a promise to Aunt Sally?
Ospalek 2000 page 55
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 42
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
What contradiction is made by the doctor who helps Tom?
2.
Why does Jim come out of hiding while the doctor is attending Tom on the raft?
What does this move cost Jim? Would you have expected Jim to behave otherwise?
3.
What finally brings Huck to understand how, “with his bringing up,” Tom could
help set a slave free?
4.
In reality, what has Tom been shot for?
Ospalek 2000 page 56
Study Guide
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 43
Summary
Guide Questions
1.
so?
Do you think that Huck already knew about his father? What makes you think
2.
T.S. Eliot once said that no novel ever ended with a better chosen final sentence
than this one. Do you agree? Does Huck understand the word “sivilize” to mean the
same as it did at the beginning of his adventures? Does it mean something more now?
Explain.
3.
How can this novel be seen as a metaphor for the history of the United States?
4.
What is Twain’s overall message in this novel? Keep in mind the climax and the
final chapter.
Ospalek 2000 page 57