Huck Finn Questions 37. What is the name of the steamboat? Why do you think Twain Chapters 1-7 might have given her that name? 1. What doesn’t Huck like about the Widow Douglas? 38. Why does Huck stop and try to save the murderers, and how 2. What does Jim think has happened to him as a result of the trick does this reflect on his character? that Tom plays on him? 39. How accurate is Huck’s information about dukes and kings? 3. How does Huck know that the drowned body that is found is not why? his Pap? 40. Why do you think Jim is so vehement in his dislike of King 4. When Tom’s gang raids the “Spanish merchants and rich Arabs” Solomon? What does Jim’s stand tell us about him? what is it that they actually do? 41. What is Huck and Jim’s plan to reach safe territory? 5. Where does Miss Watson take Huck to pray? 42. What is Jim doing when Huck rejoins him after they are lost in 6. How would you compare the characters of the Widow Douglas the fog? and Miss Watson? Who seems to be presented in a more favorable 43. What is Jim’s response to Huck’s trick? light? Why do you think so? 44. What is the principal conflict in Huck’s mind about Jim? 7. How does Huck respond to Miss Watson’s ambitions to pray? 45. Does the reader’s attitude toward Jim change as a result of his What does this tell us about Huck? response to Huck’s trick on him? How does his response make you 8. How would you characterize Huck’s self image at this point in think of Huck’s pranks? the novel? Do you think this is accurate? Chapters 16-23 9. What is the setting of the novel? Why is the time period in which 46. How does Huck convince the men looking for runaway slaves it is set important? not to search the raft? 10. How would you contrast the characters of Huck and Tom? 47. How do Huck and Jim know that they passed Cairo? 11. How does Huck know that his father has returned? 48. What is Huck’s response to Jim’s plans to steal his children after 12. What does Huck do with his money? he reaches freedom? How does this response help to satirize a slave 13. Why do the Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher fail in their society? petition to become Huck’s guardians? 49. How is the steamboat portrayed at the end of Ch 16? What is the 14. Where does Huck’s father take him? Why? attitude of steamboat men toward raftsmen? 15. How does Huck escape from his father? 50. With Huck and Jim below Cairo and the raft destroyed, where 16. How does Twain satirize “do-gooders” in his description of do you think the plot can go from here? Pap’s “reform”? How is the new judge different from Judge 51. After Huck forgets his name, how does he trick Buck into Thatcher and the Widow Douglas? revealing it? 17. How does Huck like life with his father? Why does he decide to 52. What theme was Emmeline Grangerford most interested in? run away? 53. How does Huck rediscover Jim? 18. How does the physical description of Huck’s father in Ch 5 also 54. What happened to the raft? serve to describe his character? 55. Why does Huck feel responsible for the carnage following 19. What does Huck’s father criticize about the “govment”? What Sophia’s elopement? does Twain want the reader to feel about these issues? 56. What do the furnishings of the Grangerford house tell us about 20. Why does Huck think about Tom when he is working out his the inhabitants? escape? 57. What do you think Twain is satirizing in his description of Chapters 8-15 Emmeline Grangerford’s poetry? 21. Why has Jim run away from Miss Watson? 58. In Huck’s description of the church service and later the hogs 22. What does Jim discover in the house that is floating down the that sleep under the church floor, do you think Twain is satirizing river? religion itself or the way some people practice religion? 23. What prank does Huck play on Jim, and how does it backfire? 59. Would you say that the Grangerfords are basically good or bad 24. What does Huck learn about Jim from his visit to Mrs. Loftus? people? Why do they end up the way they do? 25. How does Mrs. Loftus figure out that Huck is not a girl? 60. At the end of Ch 18, Huck says, “You feel mighty free and easy 26. How does Huck feel about not turning Jim in? Why doe you and comfortable on a raft.” How would you compare life on shore think he feels that way? and life on the raft so far? 27. How would you characterize Jim’s predictions in these 61. What theory does Jim come up with regarding the origin of the chapters? Does the reader get any senses of which ones will come stars? true and which will not? 62. How does Huck meet the men who later identify themselves as 28. Do you think that Jim’s character is any different in Ch 8 and 9 the duke and the king? than in Ch 2? If so, in what ways? 63. What had the duke and the king been doing before they met 29. How would you characterize Mrs. Loftus? Why do you think Huck? she isn’t harsher on Huck when she discovers he is lying to her? 64. How does the king dupe the people at the camp meeting? 30. Much of the humor of Huckleberry Finn, as well as the serious 65. How does the duke arrange for them to float by day? satire, comes from Huck’s being unaware of the comic implications 66. How do Huck and Jim dress on the raft? What do you think of what he says. clothes might be associated with in this novel? 31. How do Huck and Jim avoid being seen while they are floating 67. Why do you think Huck helps the duke and the king when he down the river? first meets them? 32. Whom do Huck and Jim discover on the wrecked steamboat? 68. Huck knows the duke and king are frauds from the beginning. 33. Why can’t Huck and Jim escape from the boat? How do they Why does he pretend hat he thinks they are the real thing? finally get away? 69. What characteristics do the people at the camp meeting display? 34. What happens to the steam boat? Do you think Twain approves of their behavior? 35. Where does Huck get his information about dukes and kings? 70. Do you think that the Duke and the king will play a continuing 36. What does Huck’s insistence on boarding the wrecked role in the novel? Why? What narrative problem does their steamboat tell us about Huck? appearance solve? 71. What kind of show do the kings and duke plan at first? 3. Who sells Jim out? 72. What does Sherburn do to Boggs? 4. Briefly describe the Phelps farm. 73. How is the first performance by the duke and king received? 5. Who does Mrs. Phelps think Huck is? 74. What is the people’s response to the “Royal Nonesuch”? 6. How do the duke and the king behave toward each other in 75. What does Jim tell Huck about his daughter Elizabeth? these chapters? How would you compare this with their 76. How would you describe the town where Huck and Jim land? behavior in earlier chapters? What are the inhabitants like? 7. Briefly describe Huck’s crisis of conscience that leads up to his 77. What is Sherburn’s attitude toward the men attempting to lynch decision to write to Miss Watson. How does Twain use irony him? What do you think Twain’s attitude is? here to make his satirical points? 78. Why do you think Twain includes a description of the circus 8. Why does Huck decide to “go to hell?” here? How would you compare the circus to the entertainment 9. What is Huck’s understanding of Providence in chapter 32? provided by the duke and king? Would Miss Watson agree with it? 79. How do the duke and king entice people to see the “Royal 10. How does Twain use irony in the discussion between Huck and Nonesuch”? What do you think Twain is implying about human Mrs. Phelps about the steamboat accident Huck makes up? nature with this? Chapters 33-43 80. What connection does Huck see between the duke and king and 1. What does Tom think Huck is at first? real royalty? What do you think Twain’s opinion is? 2. Describe how Tom shocks Aunt Sally? Chapters 24-32 3. Who does Tom pretend to be? 81. What arrangement does the duke make so that Jim doesn’t have 4. Explain how Tom figures out where Jim is? 5. How do Tom and Huck overcome the difficulty that they can’t take 37 to be tied up all day? years to free Jim? 82. How does the king learn about the Wilks family? 6. What accounts for Huck’s surprise that Tom will help him steal Jim? 83. Why is the king worried that the gold is $415 short? How do 7. Why do you think Huck tries to help the duke and the king when he they solve the problem? finds out that the townspeople know about them? 84. Why does Dr. Robinson think that the king is a fraud? 8. How does Huck respond to the duke and the king being tarred and 85. What makes Huck determined to steal the gold back from the feathered? Is his response at all surprising? duke and the king? 9. Why does Huck prefer Tom’s plan for freeing Jim to his own? 86. How do clothes change the king? How do clothes change Jim? Does his preference fit in with his earlier decision to “go to hell” What would you say the thematic role of clothes might be in the for Jim? chapters? 10. After Tom tells Huck that it’s all right for them to steal, Huck steals a watermelon. Tom is angered by this and insists that Huck 87. At the end of Chap. 24, Huck describes the welcome the pay for the watermelon. Why does Tom respond this way and townspeople give the duke and king and says, “It was enough to what does this scene show about the differences between Huck and make a body ashamed of the human race.” Why is Huck’s response Tom? to this so strong? How does what the duke and the king are doing 1. What do Huck and Tom use for light while they are digging? differ from what they’ve done before? 2. Describe what Tom does when he can’t climb the lightning rod. 88. Why do the duke and king give “their” part of the inheritance to 3. Who does Aunt Sally blame for the missing shirt? the girls? 4. What does Tom want Jim to water his plant with? 89. What qualities do the Wilks girls have that allow them to be 5. What effect do the warnings have on the family? duped so easily? How does Mary Jane’s response to Joanna’s 6. How would you compare Tom’s and Huck’s attitudes toward grilling of Huck emphasize this? the escape? 90. How could you compare these townspeople with the inhabitants 7. What characteristics does Aunt Sally have that enable the boys of the townspeople in the last episode? Are they better, worse or to take advantage of her? about the same? 8. What is the irony in the way that Tom and Huck get the 91. Where does Huck hide the money? Who comes in right after he grindstone into the hut? has finished? 9. Is there any evidence that Jim is really suffering during all of 92. What causes the disturbance during the funeral? this? Does Huck’s response to Jim’s plight seem reasonable to 93. Who does Huck blame for stealing the duke and king’s money? you? 94. Why does Hines claim that the duke and king are frauds? 10. What do you think of Tom’s character and his treatment of Jim 95. What is Levi Bell’s plan for deciding who the real Harvey and throughout this episode? William Wilks are? Explain. 96. How does Huck feel about Mary Jane in these chapters? What 1. What effect has the last warning letter had on the Phelpses? do you think it is about her that he responds to most deeply? 2. How does Tom get hurt? 97. How would you describe the funeral in Chapter 27? How does it 3. Why doesn’t Huck sneak out at night to visit Tom? help to characterize the town? 4. Who clarifies the identities of Tom and Huck? 98. Where is Jim during this entire episode? Why didn’t Twain 5. What has happened to Huck’s father? involve him more? 6. What does Jim’s behavior in these chapters say about his 99. At one point while the townspeople are trying to decide who the character? real Wilks brothers are, Huck says “anybody but a lot of prejudiced 7. What narrative purpose does the doctor’s refusal to share a chuckleheads would a seen” that the duke and king are frauds. Do you canoe with Huck serve? think this characterization of the townspeople is accurate? Why or why 8. What effect does the doctor’s speech in support of Jim have? not? 100. What does Huck’s easy escape from Hines say about Hine’s Is this as great an effect as it should be? character? 9. How believable is the “deus ex machina” (a sudden and 1. Who does the duke think hid the money in the coffin? unexpected solution to a problem), the narrative device through 2. How do the duke and the king prosper in the days following which Jim is freed? Explain. their escape? 10. Where is Huck going at the end of the novel? What does this imply about the society in which he lives, and his place in it?