Huck Study Questions

1. Discuss the significance of the fog incident and Jim's interpretation of it. "The lot of towheads was troubles we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big clear river, which was the free states, and wouldn't have no more trouble" (64). Consider the major themes as well as foreshadowing.

-Jim is frightened that he is separated from Huck. This emotion strikes Jim because he is a slave on the run and Huck is his only chance of making it through slave country with out being caught. Jim also misses Huck though because he is his friend.

2. How does Huck feel about playing the trick on Jim? Comment: "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't sorry for it afterwards, neither" (65). How does this statement contribute to the overall meaning of the novel?

-Huck feels genuinely sorry for playing his many pranks upon Jim. One of the main themes in this book is slavery. This quote relates to that theme but in a very positive way since Huck is accepting Jim as a person who possesses actual feelings.

3. Discuss the significance of the following quotes from Chapter XVI:

"Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, it made me all trembly and feverish, too, to hear him because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free -- and who was to blame for it? Why me. I couldn't get it out of my conscience, no how nor no way." (66).

-Jim feels excitement because of how close he is to freedom while Huck is slightly frightened by what might happen to him if he is caught helping Jim escape. Even though they haven't been caught yet he feels a sense of guilt in his conscience and this is due to his upbringing.

"Here was this nigger which I as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children -- children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm." (67). Explain the irony in this quote as well as the significance.

-Jim says that he would steal back his children from the man who bought them. This is just something that most fathers would do and Huck doesn't understand that the slave owner does exactly what he finds obscure. Slave owners are the people that take the children from parents they don't even know and the slaves are the people who did no harm to the slave owners.

"Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (69).

 -Huck is still young and currently having to make quick decisions to keep Jim and himself out of trouble. This is just representing his inexperience as a young man. He does make a good point though that either way the outcome will most likely be the same.

"Doan' less' talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I awluz 'spected dat rattle-snake skin warn't done wid its work." (70).

-Jim is referring to the bad luck of his people and the fact that his race was enslaved. Therefore as long as there's slavery his people can only possess bad luck.

4. Why do the bounty hunters give Huck money? What is ironic about their reaction to Huck's story?

-Because they believe Huck's lie about his family having small pox. Huck at first doesn't tell them his family has small pox, but when he does they tell Huck to lie and send him further down the river for help.

5. What does the destruction of the "naturally" created raft by the "industrially" created steamboat symbolize?

-The advancement of technology and transportation. When the steamboat crushes the raft it pretty much states that they way of transportation is not going to be an option sooner rather than later.

6. Speculate on why Twain put Huckleberry Finn aside for a few years at the end of XVI?

-Huckleberry Finn was beginning to sound a lot like his previous novel Tom Sawyer so he took some time off and traveled south. While on his travels he observed the ways of southern people and families. ex: Hatfields and McCoys.

7. Describe the Grangerford house. What is satirical about the furnishings, art, and poetry? What does this description say about the Grangerfords?

-Very large, fancy, guarded by a pack of dogs. The paintings are all about previous wars, the poem book that Huck finds is titled Friendship's Offering, and most of their furnishings are very old. Everything about their home is very old which basically says that some things never change.

8. The first part of Chapter XVII reveals an example of the theme of Huck playing on Buck's gullibility. Discuss this example as well as other examples of the novel's major themes evident in Chapters XVI & XVII.

-Huck uses the fact that no one knows him to his advantage as much as can. He tells people a different story every time he is questioned where he is from. All of his stories end with his family dieing. Because Huck is so young it's easy for him to mooch off of most people, so I'm going to say mooching is a theme in this book. Or at least getting what you can when an opportunity arises.

9. What does Huck's reaction to "Moses and the candle" indicate? Discuss the meaning of "Moses" as a motif in the novel.

- Moses represents Huck's religious position in this book since he is brought up more than any other religious figure. Huck's a very literal person so when asked a riddle he doesn't really know how to approach it. So instead he doesn't answer and comments with question to Buck.

10. What does Twain satirize in his description of the church service and the hogs that sleep under the floor?

-Both of the feuding families bring guns to church and the sermon that Huck attends is  about brotherly love. The two families leave the church both agreeing that it was a great sermon.

11. What does the feud symbolize? Does this remind you of another famous piece of literature? Explain. Through the feud incident, Twain satirizes human traits and behaviors. Discuss.

-The feud alludes the actual feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. The tale also reminds me of Romeo and Juliet. Buck and a young lady from the Sheperdsons are quite in love but seperated by two their families.

12. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so clamped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"(88). Discuss the paradox. Furthermore, this excerpt from the final paragraph of Chapter XVIII is significant in that it pertains to the major themes of the novel. Explain.

-Whenever they are on the raft they have this feeling of freedom which is a huge theme in this book since Jim is a runaway slave and Huck is a child held captive with his father or forced into school. Huck is saying that even on land he feels cramped and smothered which is understandable because of the people. On the raft Huck is surrounded by the people he wants to be around and away from the racist society on land.