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Page 1: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - FREE - · PDF fileHUCKLEBERRY FINN Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain CONTEXT ... If you have read the Adventures of Tom Sawyer then the characters of

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WOLFNOTE SUMMARY OF…

MARK TWAIN’s

HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

CONTEXTAs you might guess from the title, Huckleberry Finn is the hero andnarrator of this story, which consists of forty-three chapters. We learn that Huckleberry has a considerable fortune derived from his adventures with Tom Sawyercovered in the book of the same name. The Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, have taken it upon themselves to civilize Huck andhave taken him into their home to teach him proper manners and religion.Huck immediately sneaks out of the house one night to join Tom Sawyer’s gang who aim to becomerobbers of the locality. Unfortunately, these adventures become merely make-believe and themembers of the gang soon become discontented and it breaks up.Huck’s father Pap Finn who is renowned for his violence and drunkenness returns to the area havingheard about his son’s fortune. He is horrified to find out that Huck has been endeavoring to betterhimself at school and he decides to kidnap his son and take him across the Mississippi River to theIllinois territory.To some extent, Huck is happy to be away from the civilizing influence of the town and to be akin withnature again, but the beatings he receives from Pap become too severe, so he decides to fake his ownmurder and make an escape downriver on a raft.He meets up with Jim, the house slave of Miss Watson who was threatening to sell him down the riverto a plantation owner. Jim’s plan is to reach the town of Cairo and then go up the Ohio River to theFree states.Huck is in conflict regarding the rights and wrongs of assisting Jim to attain his freedom, but the morehe learns about Jim’s character, the more sympathetic he becomes to his plight.Huck and Jim meet several colorful characters during the flight including a band of robbers salvagingbooty from a wrecked steamboat, and two feuding Southern families who involve Huck in their dispute.The only time that the two fugitives feel free is when they are on their raft sailing down the river. Thisfreedom is soon shattered when their paths cross the Duke and the Dauphin whose titles are totallyfictitious. They take over control of the expedition and force Huck and Jim to stop at various townswhere the two tricksters swindle the gullible townsfolk out of their money and possessions. Thesescams are initially quite harmless, but then they decide to pose as English brothers and hatch a plot tosteal a family’s entire inheritance. At the point where they are auctioning off the estate, the two realbrothers appear on the scene. In the ensuing confusion Huck and Jim escape as the crowd threaten tolynch all of them. However, the Duke and the Dauphin catch them up, and Huck for a moment is indanger of his life.Although the Duke and the Dauphin had obtained quite a large sum of money, this has now been lostand so Jim is sold back into slavery for $40.00. Huck is now determined to find Jim and help him gain his freedom. He finds out that he is captive in ahut owned by Silas and Sally Phelps who happen to be Tom Sawyer’s uncle and aunt. Huck easily fallsinto the role of Tom as part of his plan to free Jim. However, when Tom arrives on the scene hepretends to be another relation called Sid. Still trying to be the adventurer, Tom devises an intricateplan to free Jim. The basis of the plan is based on extracts from several novels, which he has read andit soon degenerates into a complicated farce. When the escape finally takes place, one of the pursuing crowds shoots Tom in the calf and Jim will notleave his injured friend, thus causing his recapture. At the Phelp’s farm Tom reveals that Miss Watson had freed Jim in her Will, and that there was no needfor this elaborate plan to free Jim.Jim is finally set free and Huck considers where to have his next adventure away from the white societyfull of so many flaws.

The AuthorSamuel Langhorne Clemens was born in the small town of Florida, Missouri on 30th November 1835.His birth coincided with Halley’s Comet being at its closest to the Sun and, of course, nobody knew at

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that time that the fifth child of John and Jane Clemens would become the brightest star in Americanliterary history.Missouri was a slave state and the Clemens family owned a few slaves, so in his books concerning theplight of the slave Samuel Clemens was to speak from a position of authority. As a child he onlyreceived a brief education, as the family required him to work due to the premature death of his fatherin 1847.He started as an apprentice in a print shop but later found work on a Mississippi steamboat. He usedthe pseudonym Mark Twain from the call used on a steamboat to indicate when the ship had reacheda safe depth of two fathoms. Twain always had a strong affection for the Mississippi life and this is immortalized in his works Life onthe Mississippi (1883), Huckleberry Finn (1885), and parts of Tom Sawyer (1876). Twain then went on to work as a journalist in San Francisco and Nevada in the 1860’s.He had a natural flair for writing humor and wrote many such stories, which attracted nationalattention.In 1870 he married Olivia from New York State and moved to Connecticut, by which time he was ableto buy a large house from the royalties received from his early books.He then wrote books on a regular basis, The Prince and the Pauper (1882), The Gilded Cage and alsonoteworthy poems. Despite the economic crisis during this time, his books were always very popularand his financial position was secure. Many of his books received international acclaim and today theyare published in at least twenty-seven languages.Some of his works have always been controversial and have received vigorous criticism over the years,particularly during the 1950’s when racial bigotry was at its height in America. On various occasions hisbooks have been banned from U.S. schools and Children’s Libraries, but despite all of this they haveremained popular with the general public at large.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was not published until 1885 although Twain had begun muchearlier. The manuscript was picked up on several occasions by the author and then put aside again;the writing being done in fits and starts. Some say that it became a burden on Twain causing himmuch frustration, which may explain the disappointing end to the adventure.Huckleberry Finn ensured Twain’s place among the literary greats and this work has proved to beTwain’s most studied and critically acclaimed novel.In his later years, his health failed and in 1894 he became bankrupt due to a poor investment in a newtype of automatic typesetter, which drained all of his fortune. His later years were quite sad as he livedthrough the deaths of his wife who became a semi-invalid before her death, his oldest daughter whodied of meningitis and another daughter who developed epilepsy. His writings at that time reflected adarker side of life due to the grief he felt from the loss of his loved ones.He went on a lecture trip around the world in order to raise money to repay his creditors, during thistime publishing books, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom SawyerDetective, all published in 1896.On 21st April 1910, Mark Twain died just two days after Halley’s Comet reached its closest point to theSun.

Main Characters

Huckleberry Finn The narrator of the story, a boy aged around fourteen who suffered at the hands of his alcoholic fatherin the fictitious town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. He has a series of adventures during which he makesstudies on human nature and of the southern society. As the story develops he slowly lays aside thevalues, which have been instilled in him, and adopts a more moral attitude to those around him,particularly to the slave Jim whom he helps to set free.

JimJim is a house slave of Miss Watson and when he overhears her negotiating his sale to a plantationdown the river, he decides to escape. Jim is upset at having to leaving his wife and two children, buthis aim is to earn enough money in the Free states to buy their freedom. He is perhaps the novel’smost complex character showing a great deal of common sense and intelligence during the course ofhis adventures with Huck. The reader becomes very sympathetic towards Jim and suffers along withhim the pains inflicted by the white dominant society around him. He becomes a father figure to Huckand helps him to mature morally.

The Duke and the DauphinWe never find out these two rascals correct identities, but they turn out to be evil and selfish, illustratedby the fact they callously separate a slave family and sell Jim for $40.00. The Duke claims to be theDuke of Bridgewater from England and the Dauphin claims to be the long lost son of Louise XVI.

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Tom SawyerIt is clear that Huckleberry Finn is the sequel to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which was narrated byTom himself. He is a foil to Huck and the two together at the beginning of the book make an excellentpartnership. Tom loves to take part in make-believe adventures reliving chapters he has read fromEuropean Romantic novels. Twain hates this type of literature and uses this novel to criticize suchworks.

Pap FinnHuckleberry’s drunken father, who has a ghastly appearance due mainly to the abuse he has inflictedon himself over all his adult life, appears at the beginning of the novel. He is illiterate and wishes hisson to be the same, being angry when he finds out that Huck has been attending school. He only useshis son in order to obtain money so that he can feed his drinking habit. He ends up kidnapping Huckwho has to fake his own murder to make his escape and for which Pap is almost lynched. Jimeventually finds Pap dead on an abandoned houseboat.

Widow Douglas and Miss WatsonThese two sisters live in a large house in St. Petersburg. They take it upon themselves to civilizeHuckleberry Finn. They feel this is their duty. Widow Douglas adopted Huck at the end of the lastnovel. Both sisters have strong hypocritical religious views and their only redeeming feature is the factthat they care what happens to Huckleberry Finn. Miss Watson obviously feels guilty at the way shetreated her slave Jim and frees him in her Will.

Chapter 1

SummaryIf you have read the Adventures of Tom Sawyer then the characters of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyerand some of the others will be familiar to you. If you have not read this very entertaining novel by Mr. Mark Twain, then don’t worry; it will not spoilHuckleberry Finn for you.As you find out from the opening sentence of this book, Huckleberry Finn, aged around fourteen is thenarrator of our story, which starts off in the fictional town of St. Petersburg. In the previous book, Tomand Huck find some robbers gold in a cave and they end up receiving $6,000, each which was investedfor them by Judge Thatcher from which they receive $1 per day, each, interest.Huck now lives with the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, and they are endeavoring to“Civilize him” which does not help Huck settle into the frustratingly clean house, incorporating goodmanners as well. Miss Watson is continually reminding Huck that if he does not behave he will end upin “the bad place”. Huck quizzes her on this bad place and asks will Tom Sawyer be waiting for him there and she repliesby saying most probably, which makes the thought of going to hell much more attractive.Another thing, which frustrates Huck, is that he is forbidden to smoke, mainly because Widow Douglashas not tried it, but she does approve of snuff since she uses it herself.Miss Watson tries to give Huck spelling lessons without much success.One night after Miss Watson’s Prayer Session with Huck and the slaves, Huck goes to bed feelingdepressed. He accidentally flicks a spider into a candle and thinks this will be a bad omen. Just aftermidnight he hears a noise below his window and a me-yow and he responds with another me-yow.Climbing out of his window and onto the ground he finds Tom Sawyer waiting for him.

InterpretationThere is a lot of detail in the first pages of the book and Twain fires a lot of information at the readerthrough the unconventional narration by Huck.If you have not read Tom Sawyer, then you are enthralled at Twain’s humor and irony and the colorfulcharacter of Huckleberry Finn.The clever use of dialect in the narration seems off-putting at first, but the reader will soon get used tothis and it only serves to enhance the humor of the tale.We are introduced to Widow Douglas and Miss Watson and any concerns, which the reader should haveabout the adventures of Tom Sawyer, are allayed.The only other thing you should realize is to take with a pinch of salt some of the statements made byTwain. There is a brief notice that introduces the book. In it we are told that the reader must not seeka plot or motive which means, of course, that both are present in the novel.Twain uses irony saying one thing, but meaning the opposite of its literal definition. He uses this ironyhumorously by poking fun at the seriousness of adult American society that is relevant today, but

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Twain’s humor does not have the sole purpose of entertaining the reader, but also conveying a seriousmessage.One of the instances of ironic humor appears in this chapter documenting Huck’s reaction to WidowDouglas’ attempts at civilization. Huck’s views are all completely natural, free of refinements andbreeding which mark the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. In their eyes Huck is rough anduncivilized and it is their duty to bring about a change in their protégé. However, these two well-meaning ladies represent everything, which Huck rejects in the society he sees around him.Miss Watson’s view of heaven is a place where the inhabitants spend their days singing and playingharps on fluffy white clouds.Huck is more interested in the other place, as this seems more fun.Miss Watson’s religion is best demonstrated by her Prayer Meeting with the slaves, but she seesnothing wrong in owning other people.The only redeeming quality the sisters have is their concern for Huck.Huck recognizes the hypocrisy and foolishness of the society represented by the two sisters. Thissociety stifles freedom and they seem intent on punishing themselves by wearing restrictive clothingand adopting pernickety manners. In a larger sense, through the institution of slavery, their wholeexistence is hypocritical and against the Christian ideal.Huckleberry is not only the narrator, but also the protagonist of the novel and the book uses first-person narration. The word “nigger” is first used in Chapter 1 and is present throughout the whole book. It means allAfrican Americans and especially those held as slaves. It is important to remember that the word isused as part of a corrupt language and racist society where slavery was acceptable. These facts arefully described in the novel and it is important to remember that the author utterly condemns bothslavery and racism.

Chapters 2 and 3

SummaryHuck was already tempted to run away from the civilizing sisters, but Tom had told him that he wasforming a gang and that if he ran away he would not be able to join.Now Huck and Tom creep through the garden, but they have to pass the kitchen window and Big Jimthe house slave hears them from inside. Jim says aloud that he will stay put until he discovers thesource of the sound, but after several minutes he falls asleep under a tree. Instead of making theirgetaway Tom decides to play a trick on Jim by putting his hat on a tree branch over his head andtaking candles from the kitchen. At a later date Jim will say some witches flew him around the stateand put the hat above his head as a calling card. He becomes a local celebrity among the slaves as aresult.Meanwhile, Tom and Huck meet with some other boys and they take a boat to a large cavern. Tomdeclares that the Band of Robbers will be called “Tom Sawyer’s Gang” and all must sign an oath inblood that if any of them betray the gang, the rest will kill the family of that member. The boys thinkthis is a great oath and Tom admits he had read about such oaths from books. However, some of theboys want to disqualify Huck because he has no family but a drunken father, but he offers up MissWatson as someone they can kill if he betrays them. One of the other boys also gets cold feet, butTom bribes him with 5c and he decides to stay in the gang. They decide they will meet again, but noton a Sunday as this would be a bad omen.Huckleberry makes it back to bed just before dawn.Huck finds out that the two sisters have different ideas about what God is like. Widow Douglasdescribes God as wonderful and benevolent, whilst Miss Watson’s God is terrible and vengeful. Huckdecides that there must be two Gods and he will keep allegiance to the Widow Douglas’ God.A rumor circulates that Huck’s pap that has not been seen for over a year is dead as a corpse wasfound in the river covered in ragged clothes, but the face was unrecognizable. Huck is quite pleased atthe news as his father was a drunk who beat him when he was sober and Huck used to hide from himmost of the time.After a month in Tom’s gang, Huck decides to quit with the rest of the boys as there has been norobbery or killing and all their activities are make-believe. Most of these are based on the books, whichTom has read and one adventure organized by Tom was to raid a caravan of Arabs and Spaniardscamped nearby. The Spaniards were enchanted like Don Quixote. Huck judged that Tom’s storieswere all lies, especially when he started rubbing old lamps and rings trying to produce a genie with noresult.

InterpretationWe obtain some insight into the characters of Huckleberry and Tom and realize that in many respectsthey contrast each other.

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Tom tends to be insensitive to others, in particular slaves. He wanted to tie Jim up just for the fun of itand it was Huck who restricted him to placing his hat above him in the tree. This will become moreevident later on in the book. Tom also seems to possess a tendency to be hypocritical, for instance, hemakes his gang sign an oath in blood not to divulge any of the gang’s secrets but when a boy threatensto do this, and Tom merely bribes him.In contrast, Huckleberry is much more considerate of others, although he lets himself be drawn intoTom’s make-believe world derived from passages he has read from books.Twain detested the type of literature, which was popular at this time most of which was imported fromEurope. However, it is ironic that the one quoted Cervantes Don Quixote, was itself a book, whichsatirized the romantic adventure stories, much as Twain does here in Huckleberry Finn.Huck is very unsure about religion. He has tried praying without any effect just as rubbing lampsproduced no genies, so he treats both with the same amount of seriousness.To sum up the two main characters, Tom’s tendency towards hypocrisy contrasts sharply with Huck’ssincerity. These differences, however, do not spoil the friendship between the two because they sharethe trait of being immature embodied in the phrase “boys will be boys”.Twain is trying to bring to life the child which is in everyone, lying dormant, this and the Adventures ofTom Sawyer are Twain’s attempts to rekindle the childhood feelings and memories.

Chapters 4, 5 and 6

SummaryThe month’s pass and Huckleberry is slowly adjusting to his new civilized life, even making someprogress at school.One day he notices some tracks in the snow near his house and these are distinctive boot tracks, andhe suspects that they belong to Pap, his father. Huck goes to Judge Thatcher and decides to sell hisfortune to the surprised Judge for $1. Huck is superstitious and decides to go to Jim who has a flair forthe supernatural to see if he can tell him what lies in store. Jim has a magical giant hairball from anox’s stomach and he listens to it and tells Huck that he will need money before he can tell him what thefuture holds. Huck gives him a counterfeit quarter, which does not seem to affect the informationderived from the hairball. Jim tells him that his father has two angels, one black and one white, onebad and one good, and he does not know which one is going to win, but for the time being Huck issafe. Jim then tells Huck what the future holds which could apply to anybody i.e. there will behappiness, there will be sorrow, he may marry a poor or a rich woman, but he should stay clear ofwater since that is where he will die.When Huck goes home he finds Pap waiting for him in his bedroom. He is nearly fifty and is a wreck ofa man with long black hair over his face, which is disgustingly white. Pap is angry that Huck hasbecome the first person in his family to learn how to read and warns Huck not to go near the schoolagain. Pap has heard about Huck’s fortune and accuses him of lying when he says he has no moneyleft. He takes the $1, which he has and goes and buys some whisky. The Judge and Widow Douglastry to get custody of Huck, but there is a new Judge in town that refuses to separate a father from hisson. Pap goes on his usual drunken binge and ends up in jail.The new Judge is determined to reform Pap who tearfully repents the evil of his ways and goes homewith the new Judge. However, he soon gets drunk again and the new Judge decides that the best wayto reform Pap is with a shotgun. Pap threatens to sue Judge Thatcher for Huck’s fortune and continuesto threaten Huck about attending school, which Huck does just to spite his father. Pap continues on his drunken spree and then one day decides to kidnap Huck and take him deep intothe woods to a secluded cabin on the Illinois shore. Huck is locked inside all day, but he finds a hiddensaw and decides to make a hole in the wall and escape. He decides that he is not just going to escapefrom Pap, but also from Widow Douglas and civilization. Pap returns before he has had a chance tomake good his escape. Pap complains about the Government saying that Judge Thatcher is delayingthe trial so that he can keep Huck’s wealth. He has heard that his chances are good for getting themoney, but he will probably lose the fight for custody of Huck, but the latter does not seem to concernhim.Pap also saw in town a well-dressed bi-racial black visitor, university educated, which brings out Pap’sbigotry and prejudice saying that he should be sold back into slavery.

InterpretationHere we learn something about Pap, who is a horrible wreck of a man with a disheveled exterior hidingan even uglier interior. He uses his son as a means of getting drink and is totally opposed to Hucktrying to better himself.

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He is deeply selfish and he is desperate to try and separate Huck from any chance to become literateand successful. It is clear that he is an alcoholic for after a few days without drink in the care of thenew Judge, he has a fit and relapses into a drunker stupor.Twain does not try to encourage any sympathy for this man and uses him to poke fun at the new Judgefor trying to help him. Indirectly Twain may be trying to criticize the temperance movement muchprevalent in the nineteenth century.Twain makes an interesting use of Pap’s character in order to make statements about racialdiscrimination. You will note that Pap speaks angrily against a bi-racial black visitor and he possesses acompletely irrational hatred of the man. Twain seems to be showing just what he thinks of this racehatred by having it voiced by the revolting character of Pap.The author also makes another profound statement when Jim sees that Pap has two angels either sideof him, one good and one evil, one white and one black, interestingly, the inspiration for many acartoon scene. The inference of course is that evil is black and good is white. This convention is usedin everyday references, for instance, a person’s dark side, the most important exception of course inthe literary world is Melville’s Moby Dick where the evil whale is white. However, Twain is clearlyidentifying white with badness by reference to the color of Pap’s skin. Pap’s evil manifests itself later inthe book.

Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10

SummaryNext day, Pap sends Huck out to check for any fish and he finds a canoe drifting in the river retrieves itand hides it in the woods. When Pap has left, Huck finishes sawing the hole in the wall. He catches apig and after bashing the cabin door down, covers the inside with the pig’s blood to make it look as ifhe has been murdered. He takes everything of value out of the cabin to his canoe and he sets offdown the river.He goes to Jackson’s Island being careful not to be seen. Next morning, he sees a boat passing withPap, Judge and Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer and Aunt Polly, and some of Huck’s young friends. Theyshoot a cannon ball over the water and float loaves of bread with mercury inside in an attempt tolocate Huck’s corpse. Huck, careful not to be seen catches one of the loaves and eats it. He explores the island and is delighted to find Jim who at first thinks Huck is a ghost. Jim says that heheard Miss Watson negotiating his sale with a slave trader from New Orleans for $800 and decided toleave before she made her decision. Jim is quite pleased that he now owns all $800 of himself. Huckand Jim share the provisions in the canoe and they move into a large cave in the middle of the island,which will be a good hiding place in case there are any visitors.Jim predicts it is going to rain, and right enough there is a downpour shortly afterwards, but the twoare safe and dry inside the cave.The river floods severely and a washed-out houseboat floats down the river past the island, and Jimand Huck decide to explore it. Inside they find the body of a man who has been shot in the back.They make off with some bits and pieces and return to the cave.Huck wonders about the dead man, but Jim warns him that this is bad luck, so when Jim is sleeping,Huck decides to play a joke on him and puts a dead rattlesnake near Jim’s sleeping place.Unfortunately the dead rattlesnake’s mate comes looking and bites Jim. Jim’s leg swells, but after fourdays, it returns to normal.Huck decides to go ashore to find out what is happening and he disguises himself as a girl using one ofthe dresses he found on the houseboat. He reaches the Illinois shore and finds a woman who lookedforty and appears to be a newcomer to the area, so she won’t be able to recognize Huck.

InterpretationThe character of Jim and his rapport with Huck are covered in depth in these chapters. Jim is an unusual character, intelligent, but superstitious and he becomes both a friend and fatherfigure to Huck. Huck is quite immature at times, carrying on in a boyish manner, and he tends to beinconsiderate. Jim is much more mature and is a foil to Huck’s immaturity, but the two share someimportant similarities. Both are skeptical of civilization and prefer the lure and adventure of the naturalworld. The pair are also lonely and that coupled with their sensitivity, they become good companions.Jim shows his wisdom by predicting that there will be a storm and they are able to shelter themselvesand their goods in a cave.The reader also learns that Jim has a wife and two children who live around St. Petersburg and if hewere sold to a slaver from New Orleans this would mean permanent separation from his family.Currently, Jim is a house slave, but transfer to New Orleans would mean plantation labor and this iscrushing work. Masters often used shipment down south as a real threat when they wanted to keeptheir slaves under control.

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Jim and Huck’s relationship is one of the most important parts of the book, and it is interesting howHuck treats Jim as a peer during the telling of this story.It is funny how superstition was so important in society as a whole where people still thought thatcannonballs and loaves of bread filled with mercury could find drowned corpses. However, there are important ways in which the two characters differ.Whilst Jim always seems to be caring about Huck and his feelings, Huck does behave badly towardsJim. The clear example here is the incident with the rattlesnake.Just as Huck and Tom acted as foils for one another, so do Jim and Huck where we have a blend ofmaturity and consideration from Jim in contrast to the thoughtlessness and immaturity of Huck.

Chapters 11, 12 and 13

SummaryThe woman is suspicious of Huck who calls himself Sarah Williams from Hookerville. Huck learns thathis murder nearly got Pap lynched, but then suspicion fell on Jim who ran away on the same day. Thisresults in a reward of $300 on Jim’s head. However, when Pap receives the money from the Judge tohelp him find Jim and he gets blind drunk again, the Judge suspects that he had the motive to kill Huckand decides to put a reward on his head of $200. Pap has disappeared.The woman says that she has seen smoke on the island and suspects that Jim is hiding there. Herhusband and another man are going to investigate that night. She asks Huck what her name is again,and he says Mary Williams and the woman quizzes him about the change and he says that her fullname is Sarah Mary Williams. The woman realizes that this is a man she is talking to and asks him toreveal his male identity. He says his name is George Peters and is escaping from a mean farmer.Satisfied by this story, she asks no further questions and Huck leaves.He returns to the island and Jim and Huck decide to leave on a raft they have found. They spendanother few days drifting downriver passing the lights of St. Louis. They have a good time borrowingor hunting food, as they need it. One night they come across a wrecked steamship and despite Jim’s objections Huck decides to go ontothe wreck to have some adventure. He realizes that he is not alone, as he overhears two robbersthreatening to kill their third partner who intends to betray them. The wreck, which is sinking, wouldmake a good tomb for the third robber and they decide to leave him and make their escape. Huckfinds Jim to say that they need to cut the robbers’ boat loose so that they are all trapped on the sinkingboat, but Jim says that their own raft has broken loose and drifted away.The robbers are loading booty onto their boat and Huck and Jim take the opportunity to escape on therobbers’ boat. As they draw away from the sinking boat, the catch up with their own raft, but Huck hasa twinge of conscience about leaving the robbers to drown so he goes ashore for help. He finds a ferrywatchman and tells him that his own family is stranded on the steamboat wreck. Huck invents anelaborate story as to how his family got on the wreck in the first place and the man seems more thanhappy to take his ferry to rescue them.Huck, feeling pleased with himself about his good deed, is sure that Widow Douglas would have beenproud of him.Jim and Huck go to an island and sink the robbers’ boat before going to sleep.

InterpretationHuck again shows his immaturity by putting them both at risk by boarding the sinking steamboat,especially when he discovers there are robbers on board. He shows no consideration at all for Jim whohas much more to lose by being captured. He would certainly lose his freedom, and possibly even hislife.Huck’s behavior is similar to that of Tom Sawyer. In Tom’s gang they had no adventures, just make-believe, but Huck sees an opportunity to have a real adventure.However, Huck does show some improved morals feeling guilty at the possible death of the criminalson the sinking wreck if he stands by and does nothing. His solution to send innocent people on theferry to rescue a group of known criminals is certainly questionable. Still it is a first step in Huck’sdevelopment and he is losing some of his self-centeredness.

Chapters 14, 15 and 16

SummaryThe two adventurers, one more adventurous than the other, find a number of valuables among therobbers’ booty, some trinkets, cigars and other valuables. Huck recognizes that Jim is intelligent for ablack person and Huck can never fail to astonish Jim by his tales of heroes and kings. He tells himabout King Louis XVI of France who had a Dolphin for a son, and he is rumored to be wandering

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America. He goes on to amaze Jim by saying that he does not speak English, but French, but Jim saysthat that is impossible. Huck tries to reason with Jim but to no avail. The two are aiming for the town of Cairo, which is at the mouth the Ohio River, which runs into theFree States. Huck is worried about helping Jim escape from his rightful owner, Miss Watson, but Jim isso enthusiastic about reaching the Free States and his plan about earning money in order to buy hisfamily’s freedom that any thoughts he has of surrendering Jim are extinguished.Jim says that Huck is the only friend he has, the only one to keep a promise to him.They come across a boat filled with men who are searching for escaped slaves. Huck tells them not toget too close, as his family has smallpox. The men back away and leave $40 in gold out of pity.Huck resolves to change his morality after his debate over Jim’s future whether he should be free orowned by Miss Watson. He decides to do whatever is “handiest” whenever he is required to make amajor decision.Fog descends on the river and the raft and the canoe become separated in the confusion. They areboth relieved to find each other soon afterwards. They still have not found Cairo and worry that they may have passed it in the fog. They decide to stopfor the night and canoe upriver in the morning. However, when they wake up they find the canoe hasgone, more bad luck from the rattlesnake and later that day a steamboat drives right into the raftbreaking it apart. Jim and Huck dive off just in time, but are separated. Huck makes it ashore, but iscaught by a pack of dogs.

InterpretationWe see a change in Huck’s attitude towards black people during the course of these chapters. Heshows an increased sense of morality and respects Jim for his intelligence, which has been firmlyestablished through humor. It is not surprising that Huck shows prejudice towards black people, bearing in mind the society he isbeing brought up in which allows whites to rule over blacks. Huck does apologize to Jim for histhoughtless pranks and this signals a major change in his attitudes towards black people. Just as Huckhas broken away from the civilized world, he is also breaking away from what he has been taught, inparticular his attitude to Jim. He is developing his own sense of right and wrong, and the fact he didnot surrender Jim was due to the fact that he realizes Miss Watson is a hypocrite believing jointly in herform of Christianity and owning slaves.Twain illustrates clearly here that the society, which Huck has escaped from, is horribly wrong.We also get further insight into Jim’s complex character. Even Huckleberry himself concedes that Jim isintelligent. Jim actually successfully argues against Huck’s assertion that other languages exist. Jimsays that although cows and hens speak differently, they are different species whereas Americans andFrenchmen are the same species and therefore speak the same language. Huck gives up, conceding toJim’s stubbornness, but really Jim has outwitted him, although in the end Huck is correct Jim hasshown his reasoning to be stronger. Of course, this shows that Jim is ignorant in that he has neverheard of other languages. This is because nineteenth century slaves were forbidden to even read andwrite. Unfortunately, this flaw in Jim’s outlook will have painful consequences later on in the novel.Twain is here trying to make a distinction between intelligence and knowledge.

Chapters 17, 18 and 19

SummaryGeorge Jackson, alias Huck, is rescued from the dogs by a man who is relieved to find that Huck is nota Sheperdson. There is a local feud between the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons and Huck findshimself in the middle of this conflict. He is taken back to Colonel Grangerford’s house out of hospitalityand there they provide clean dry clothes for the bedraggled Huckleberry. They have a son the sameage called Buck.The Grangerford house is large, full of paintings and ornate decorations. It is humorously tackybedecked in strange finery. Some of the paintings are by their deceased daughter Emmeline, who hadcreated maudlin pictures concerning people who had died.The family offers Huck a home for as long as he likes and Huck is impressed with Colonel Grangerford,as he owns a very large estate with over one hundred slaves. Huck tells them an elaborate story insupport of his claim to be an orphan and the Grangerford family takes pity on their guest.Besides Buck the son, there is Bob the elder son, then Tom and finally two daughters Charlotte, agedtwenty five and Sophie, twenty, both of them beautiful. Three sons have already been killedconcerning the feud with the Sheperdson family who are an equally grand family with a largeneighboring estate. No one is quite sure how the feud started, but in the last year two people havebeen killed. The two families attend church together with their rifles between their knees as thepreacher makes sermons about brotherly love.

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One day after church, Sophie asks Huck to return to the church to get her Bible, which she had left, inthe pew. She is delighted to find a note inside the Bible saying “Half-past two”. When Huck gets backto the house, his slave valet asks him to go into the woods, as he wants to show him some watermoccasins. There he finds Jim. Jim had followed Huck to the shore on the night they were wrecked,but did not call out for fear of being captured. He has been busy in the meantime repairing the raftand gathering together supplies. Huck says that they will leave shortly once he has made his farewellsto the Grangerfords.The next day Huck learns that Sophie has run off with a Sheperdson boy. Huck finds Buck and anineteen-year old Grangerford in a gunfight with Shepherdsons. Later two are killed. Huck is upset byall of this violence and he finds Jim and the two set off downstream on the raft.Huck muses, “You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft”.Soon after this, they see two men fleeing from a crowd and they beg to be let onto the raft. The twoagree and the two men, one aged about seventy, bald with whiskers and the other aged thirty, areboth dressed in tattered clothes. Apparently the two men do not know each other, but they are in asimilar predicament. The younger man has been selling toothpaste with a special formula for removingtartar. Unfortunately, it also removes the enamel causing annoyance to the locals. The older man hasbeen running a Temperance Revival Meeting but had to flee after he was found drunk. The two menare confidence tricksters making their living from obtaining money from the gullible.The old man reveals that he is in fact the long lost son of Louis XVI, the Dauphin, not Dolphin, and theyounger man says that he is a destitute English Duke. Huck soon realizes that the two are liars, but toprevent any quarrels, he goes along with their story.

InterpretationTwain is joking at the expense of the Southern Aristocracy depicted by the Grangerfords andShepherdsons showing how their society is a mix of fine grand houses and bloodthirsty violence in thewoods. The gaudy Grangerford house with its walls festooned with ugly pictures and decorativefineries shows the lavish lifestyle that they can lead borne on the back of slavery.These Southern Aristocracy families are portrayed as the equivalent of the European Royal families. The Grangerford’s prize possession is a clock ornamented with painted parrots, dogs and cats thatsqueak. They award themselves meaningless titles e.g. Colonel. Twain is here satirizing not only theplantation aristocracy, but also the nineteenth century art, which made a cult out of mourning andproducing ludicrous poems and pictures. Beneath this façade of genteelness, there is the bloody feudwith the rival clan, the Shepherdsons. No one knows how the feud started or can name any reasonwhy it should continue. Perhaps it is a source of relieving the boredom, but the result is the senselessdeath of two boys not much more than fourteen years old. Twain illustrates this deeply disturbing sideof southern civilization, which is in stark contrast to the unprecedented hospitality shown to Huck whenhe first arrived at the Grangerfords.We are first introduced to the characters of Duke and Dauphin who have been employed in tricking thelocals out of their hard-earned money. They will have an important part to play in the future plot.

Chapters 20, 21 and 22

SummaryThe Duke and Dauphin enquire whether Jim is a runaway, so again Huck invents an elaborate storythat he is orphaned and that they are forced to travel at night because they are fed up with peopleasking whether Jim is a runaway. Jim and Huck give up their beds to the “Royals” and they standwatch while the other two sleep. Duke and Dauphin agree that it is time to perform some Shakespearewhen they arrive at the next town, but the town is strangely deserted and they learn that there is aRevival Meeting in the woods. Dauphin goes to investigate and goes onto the stage saying that he hasbeen converted by the meeting and he will give up being a pirate and will return to the Indian Ocean asa missionary. The crowd is overjoyed at this conversion and organizes a collection to help him in hismissionary work and he received $87.75 and many kisses from pretty young women. In the meantime,the Duke in the town gains access to the local print office and earns $9.50 selling advertisements forthe local paper. He also prints a handbill offering a reward for Jim to enable them to travel freelysaying that they have caught Jim and are returning him into slavery.The Duke and the Dauphin rehearse a scene from Romeo and Juliet and also the swordfight fromRichard III on the raft. The Duke also recites a speech from Hamlet, which strangely also includes linesfrom Macbeth, but to Huck these two appear to have great talent.At the next town, Duke posts handbills for the Shakespearean performance. Huck witnesses theshooting of a drunken man by a man called Sherburn. The victim had insulted his daughter. A crowdgathers around the dying man and they decide to go and lynch Sherburn. The mob charges down thestreet after Sherburn. When they arrive at his house he confronts them with a rifle in hand. Sherburnmakes a haughty speech hurling abuse at them, saying that they are all cowards and wouldn’t have the

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nerve to face him man-to-man. Sherburn declares no one will lynch him in the daylight. It is thesouthern way to wait until dark and come wearing masks. The mob disperses.There is a circus in town and Huck decides to have a look. He is amazed at one of the clowns tellingone-line jokes, one after the other. He is also shocked to see a drunk run from the audience and ride ahorse around the ring hanging on for dear life, much to the amusement of the whole crowd exceptHuck, who can’t bear to watch.

InterpretationTwain explores four interesting topics in these chapters.One : the gullibility of people.Two : the violence of the southern society.Three : the cowardice of the mob, andFour : the innocence of Huckleberry.One : the pirate’s conversion to a missionary raises a large sum of money from the crowd, whichsuggests that in a mob, people do strange things and can be swept along with the tide of hysteria. Ifthe Dauphin had claimed conversion and asked for money to an individual, then he would likely receivenothing, but be told to go away. However, the audacity of the Dauphin to claim conversion in front ofso many is taken at face value.Two : it seems an almost everyday occurrence that minor disputes and insults are resolved by the gun.Sherburn’s cold killing of the drunk seems an over-reaction and naturally causes the local people toorganize a lynching. Their reaction is to meet violence with violence without any recourse to theprocess of law.Three : we have seen in ‘One’ above the hysteria that the mob can generate. In the lynch mob,cowardice is present. They pursue Sherburn like a pack of dogs, but when confronted by an armedman, they scatter after receiving a few harsh words.Four : we see another interesting aspect of Huck’s character on his visit to the circus. He thinks thatthe clown has made the jokes up on the spot where in fact the routine would have been wellrehearsed. He is also amazed at the drunk trying to ride the horse failing to realize that this is stage-managed and part of the act.

Chapters 23, 24 and 25

SummaryOnly twelve people came to the Duke’s performance and these laughed all the way through instead oftaking it seriously. The two decide to put on a different show and they distribute handbills advertisingthe performance of The King’s Cameleopard (Giraffe) or The Royal Nonesuch with bold letters acrossthe bottom reading ‘women and children not admitted’. The Dauphin starts the performance byappearing on stage naked except for body paint and some wild accoutrements. The capacity audiencehowls with laughter, but the Duke and Dauphin are attacked when the show has ended after this briefperformance. The crowd do not want to be seen to have been duped, so to avoid embarrassment theyconvince the rest of the town that the show is a smash. On the second night of the show there isanother capacity crowd who see the same show. On the third night, again a capacity crowd is there,but it consists of the two previous audiences coming to get their revenge. Duke and Huck made agetaway to the raft before the show starts. From the three night run, they took in $465, but Jim isshocked that their “Royal” guests are just rascals.Huck explains to Jim that history is full of such rascals, for instance, how Henry VIII started the BostonTea party and wrote the Declaration of Independence.Jim starts to feel lonesome for his family and Huck realizes that Jim loves his family as much as whitefolks love theirs. Jim also starts complaining about having to remain on the boat, tied up to avoidsuspicion whilst the others are away.Duke decides to dress Jim up in a robe and colors his face blue with a sign around his neck saying “SickArab, but harmless when not out of his head”.The Dauphin decides to make a grand entrance by steamboat into the next town.They meet a talkative young man who tells them about the town they are about to enter. He givesthem all the local gossip including the details of a recently deceased Peter Wilks. He had sent for histwo brothers from Sheffield, England, Harvey who he had not seen since he was five, and William whois a deaf-mute. All Peter Wilks’ property has been left to these two brothers, but there seems to besome doubt as to whether they will ever arrive. The Dauphin gets this talkative young man to tell himeverything about the Wilks family before he departs for Rio de Janeiro.When they arrive in the town, they make enquiries about Peter Wilks and when they learn about hisdeath, they are distraught with grief. The Dauphin, now Harvey Wilks, makes strange hand-signs to theDuke, who is playing the part of deaf-mute William Wilks. Huck is ashamed to be part of this scam. Acrowd has gathered outside the Wilks’ house to witness the tearful meeting between the English

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brothers and the three Wilks’ daughters. The entire town joins in with this outward show of grief,which Huck finds very distasteful.Wilks had left a letter instead of a Will which leaves the house and $3,000 to his daughters, and to hisbrothers $3,000 plus a Tan-yard and $7,000 in real estate.When the Duke and Dauphin are alone they count the money and find that it is short of the statedamount by the sum of $415. Then, in a great show before the townspeople, having made up theamount from their own funds to the sum of $6,000, they hand this over to the Wilks’ women.An old family friend, Dr. Robinson, interrupts the proceedings stating that these two are frauds,speaking in stupid accents. He asks the oldest daughter, Mary Jane, to turn these tricksters out, butinstead she hands back the $6,000 telling the Dauphin to invest it as he sees fit.

InterpretationSo far, Huck has been in turmoil concerning the understood behavior towards blacks that they areinferior, and they were designed to be slaves for the white community against which is his ownobservations to the character and behavior in Jim. It is clear that Jim misses his family and loves themjust as much as white people love their families. Jim also demonstrates real humanity and is becomingthe most sympathetic character in the story.Huck is slowly breaking away from society’s unwritten rules and more and more making up his ownrules of right and wrong.Twain again illustrates how easy the rural southerners can be duped and it seems effortless for Dukeand the Dauphin to perpetrate a fraud on the Wilks sisters. They, of course, want to have caring andhonest uncles who will take them to England and provide for them a secure life.Most of the town, therefore, goes along with this farce because there is no strong proof against them.Although Huck knows that the Duke and Dauphin are not real royalty, he seems content to go alongwith the scheme, placating Jim with the fact that throughout history royalty were always carrying outdubious acts. Huck’s knowledge of history is humorous, especially his story about Henry VIII. Againthis is Twain’s way of having a go at the upper class aristocracy and royalty.

Chapters 26, 27 and 28

SummaryHuck has supper with one of the Wilks sisters, Joanna who has an unfortunate hair-lip. She starts toquiz Huckleberry on his knowledge of England and he makes several mistakes, but the other two sistersinterrupt her questioning, saying that she is being discourteous to their guest. Huck has a real twingeof conscience about swindling these sweet ladies, and resolves to return their money. He goes to theDuke and Dauphin’s room to search for it, but hides when they enter. They are debating whether toleave that night, but the Dauphin wants to stay until they have stolen all the property.Huck takes the gold and hides it in Wilks’ coffin. Unfortunately, he does not have the opportunity toremove it from the coffin to a better hiding place and the undertaker seals the coffin without checkingthe contents. The Dauphin decides to auction off the estate and with the money will take the Wilksfamily back to England. The slaves are also sold, which involves the separation of a mother who is togo to New Orleans and her two sons who are to go to Memphis. This causes great grief amongst theslave family, causing Huck more distress.The Duke and the Dauphin discover the money has gone and Huck blames this on the slaves that theyhave just sold.Huck finds Mary Jane stricken with grief, saying that her trip to England is now tarnished due to thefact that their house slaves have been separated from each other.Huck lets slip that the family will be reunited in a few weeks (when the scam is discovered). Mary Janeis gladdened by this news and asks Huck to explain. He, therefore, decides to tell her the truth, butasks her to wait until 11.00 p.m. that night in order to give him time to get away. He tells her aboutthe incident in the previous town concerning the play, saying that this town will provide witnessesagainst the tricksters. She promises to remember him forever and thanks him for his honesty.During the auction, a mob interrupts bringing in the real Harvey and William Wilks.

InterpretationTwain continues his attack on the institution of slavery. Having shown that black people have as strongfeelings for family as whites, he illustrates the far-too common practice of breaking up black familiesand selling them off to different masters. Basically, there were to types of slave. The vast majority worked on plantations. They were workers inthe fields and had no direct contact with their owners. They received their orders from an overseer andthey were treated like machinery.The other type of slaves was domestic. They worked in the white households and did have personalcontact with their masters. Those who had been with a family for a long time became almost like pets,

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but there was always the threat hanging over them that if they misbehaved, they would be separatedfrom their family and sold to a plantation.The slaves whom we have come across in this story have been domestic slaves and that is why theseparation of the Wilks family slaves caused such grief.Surprisingly, Twain portrays these white masters in a fairly sympathetic light and one wonders if theywould have been as grief-stricken in reality.

Chapters 29, 30 and 31

SummaryA test is arranged to see who are the real Wilks, and as the $6,000 is missing, the Duke and Dauphinare viewed with the most suspicion. Papers are signed so that the handwriting can be compared, butthe Duke and Dauphin will not give up their claim easily.The real Harvey says that his brother had a tattoo on his chest and arranges with the undertaker toconfirm this; in fact there is no tattoo. When the Dauphin confirms that there was a tattoo on thebrother’s chest, Harvey and the undertaker reveal the actual truth.The townsfolk cry out for the lynching of the four men, but the lawyer says that the body should beexhumed to discover the truth. They are all shocked to find the gold in the coffin and during theexcitement Huck escapes, steals a canoe and makes his way to the raft, but his heart sinks when he isfollowed closely by the Duke and Dauphin approaching in another boat.The Dauphin tries to strangle Huck because of his betrayal, but Duke separates them.They explain that after the gold was found, there was confusion and they were able to make theirescape.After a few days of floating downstream they arrive at another town and in a local bar, the Duke andDauphin get involved in a fight and Huck decides to escape from them. When he goes back to the raft,he finds Jim has gone. He finds a boy who tells him that a man has taken Jim away after they hadfound the handbill offering $200 reward, this being the handbill, which Duke, had printed.Huck decides that he will try and find Jim and if necessary, steal him out of slavery. He finds out thatthe man holding Jim is Phelps (Tom Sawyer’s uncle). He finds Duke who is putting up posters for hisshow The Royal Nonesuch, and Huck makes up a story about how he wandered the town, but didn’tfind Jim or the raft. Duke says he sold Jim to Phelps for $40.00.

InterpretationThe conflict, which Huckleberry has had between his own conscience and the white society’s values,reaches a climax. He decides to do all that he can to help Jim. The struggle which Huck has had inhow to deal with Jim, who is the property of Miss Watson, is finally resolved when he decides that Jimwould be better off free.Huck’s decision to forsake society’s instructions and help Jim is the climax of the novel.Many critics have argued that the book deteriorates from this point onwards and loses its interest andpurpose.Twain again gives instances of the southerner’s tendency to embark on irrational violence. Againanother lynching is threatened when the scam is revealed concerning Duke and Dauphin and theiraccomplices Huck and Jim. The test, which the four claimants to the Wilks’ estate undergo, takes placein a tavern rather than in a courtroom and it is clear that those who fail the test will be lynched.However, this is no sort of justice at all because the frauds are able to escape from the chaos, whichensues when the gold is found.The true evil of Duke and Dauphin is revealed. Not content to swindle the Wilks sisters and split up aslave family, they sell Jim, their traveling companion for $40.00.

Chapters 32, 33, 34 and 35

SummaryHuck decides to go to the Phelps’ house with a view to rescuing Jim. He will have to pose as TomSawyer in order to gain access to the house. The mistress of the house, Sally, comes out to see theboy she is certain is her nephew Tom. He explains his delay is due to an explosion on the steamboatand she asks if anyone was hurt. He says no, but it killed a black person. Huck hears a steamboatpassing up the river and on the pretence of collecting his luggage; he leaves the house in order to headoff Tom in case he should arrive.He meets Tom who is startled by the ghost of Huck and he agrees to help Huck free Jim.Tom arrives at the Phelps’ house half-an-hour later and introduces himself as another relative SidSawyer. Huck goes into town and discovers that Duke and Dauphin have been tarred and feathered

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and lynched. Apparently Jim had revealed the truth about the two in revenge for having been sold for$40.00.Huck finds out that Jim is being held in a shed and he discusses with Tom the best way to secure Jim’srelease. He proposes that they should steal the key, release Him and make their escape.Tom totally disagrees with this saying that there is no adventure in this plan and proposed that they diga tunnel in order to secure Jim’s release. They will use large kitchen knives in order to dig the tunneland they should also take a saw in order to cut through the chains or even saw Jim’s leg off ifnecessary.Tom says that the escape must be done in accordance with what he has read in books, so they will alsoneed a rope ladder, a moat whatever that is, and a shirt on which to keep a journal, presumably in hisown blood.

InterpretationThe character of Tom Sawyer comes back into our storyline and he is even larger than life than before.The double act is back together again, Tom bringing his flamboyant flair to proceedings. Tom hatchesan intricate plot in order to free Jim, which initially impresses Huck.At last a lynching does take place involving the evil pair Duke and Dauphin and by all accounts this wasa most cruel and violent end to these wicked rascals.Though Huck and Jim have been coldly abused by these two criminals Huck still shows humanity byfeeling sorry for their fate.Twain again demonstrates the evil side of southern life.

Chapters 36, 37, 38 and 39

SummaryAfter much hacking at the ground with their kitchen knives, the boys resort to using pick-axes in orderto free Jim. They are not able to finish the job before daybreak and so they will return the next nightto finish the job. They gather together sheets for a rope ladder, spoons, a tin plate, candlesticks andcandles so that Jim can scrawl a message on the plate which can then be thrown out of the window tobe read by passers-by, just like in the romantic novels.The next night the boys dig their way through to Jim who is delighted to see them. He tells them thatSally and Silas Phelps visited him and they had a prayer meeting.The boys explain their scheme to him, which he does not comprehend, but thinks will be enormous funand goes along with it. Sally goes mad at everyone in the household over the missing candles, sheets, spoons etc.The boys then replace the sheets and spoons and by returning these they further confuse Sally, somuch so she loses track of how many she originally had.To add further confusion to the situation Tom and Huck capture rats and snakes and infest the Phelpshouse with them.Aunt Sally becomes wildly upset when snakes begin to fall from the rafters onto her bed.

InterpretationThese last chapters are spent in a long narration concerning Huck and Tom’s final adventure before theend of the novel. Tom is intent on making his plan an elaborate parody of what he has read inromantic novels of the time.Again, Twain is making fun of the romantic adventure stories, which he hated. The most basiccriticism, which has been voiced regarding this section of the book, is that it is just pointless. Huck’sinternal moral conflict over slavery was resolved when he decided that he would free Jim at all costs.Huck’s sense of morality has slowly developed throughout the book and he has decided to reject thevalues, which he has been taught as a child. There still exists the outside conflict between Huck andJim and their societies to acquire Jim’s freedom. This may have been an interesting topic for Twain tocover rather than this meaningless adventure to bring about Jim’s release from the hut. The readerwould have perhaps derived more satisfaction if Jim had obtained his freedom from white society.Although Huck now treats Jim with affection and kindness, Tom gives Jim no thought at all. He ismerely the reason for having an adventure and whether it brings about his release or not is secondaryto the fun he is achieving from carrying out his cunning plan.Tom is completely selfish in his treatment of Jim.

Chapters 40, 41, 42 and 43

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SummaryFifteen armed men come to the Phelps’ house so Huck goes to the shed to warn Tom and Jim. Tom isexcited to hear about the fifteen-armed men. They rush into the shed as Tom, Huck and Jim escapethrough the hole. As they jump the fence, Tom makes a noise and the men shoot at the escapingthree. They make it to their hidden raft and set off downstream, delighted at their success until Tomreveals that he has been shot in the leg, but treats this as a souvenir of his campaign.Jim says that they should get a doctor, as this is what Tom would do if the situation were reversed.This is confirmation to Huck that Jim is white inside. Huck goes and finds a doctor and sends him toTom. He then runs into Silas who takes him back home. The house is filled with farmers and theirwives discussing the weird contents of the shed. Silas has been unable to find Tom, and Sally isworried about his welfare and refuses to allow Huck to go and search.Then Tom is brought in on a mattress in a semi-conscious state with the doctor. Also with them is Jimwho is in chains. He is badly treated and locked once more inside the shed. The doctor advises thatJim is not all bad, as he could have escaped to freedom, but stayed with Tom to look after him. WhenTom awakes he tells them to set Jim free because in Miss Watson’s Will she stated that Jim should begiven his freedom. She had regretted ever having considered selling him down the river.The true identities of Huck and Tom are revealed to Sally and Silas who yell at the boys for theirmischievous behavior.Tom is sorry for his treatment of Jim and says he will send him back home as a hero, and gives him$40 for his troubles. Tom makes a full recovery and inserts the bullet into a watch, which he wears around his neck. Tom also reveals that the body they found on the houseboat was Pap, so Huck will be able to returnhome with his money waiting for him.Huck hopes to go out to the Indian Territory for some more adventures. He is fed up with writingabout what has happened and he certainly does not want to go back to be civilized, as he has hadenough of that.

InterpretationThis tale has rather fizzled out, but it does have a happy ending in that Jim is free, Huck has his fortuneand Tom is well.It is revealed that Jim has had his freedom all along which in a way is a cop-out for Twain, althoughmasters did free their slaves, this was rare, but perhaps Twain had had enough of this novel andwished to end it without too much effort.Tom’s foolishness is clear in that he was prepared to risk the lives of Huck and Jim in his adventure,which was totally unnecessary.The thoughtful reader will find the end of this story unsatisfying. Although the goal of obtaining Jim’sfreedom has been achieved, it has proved too easy. It has been handed to him on a plate, unlike thestruggle of countless slaves in real life to achieve their freedom.One must also question the historical accuracy of the way in which slavery has been depicted in thisbook. Slavery was only ended after a bloody civil war when the rights of the white masterclass to rulethe black people were wrenched from their grip.Jim’s slavery, which should have depicted the enslavement of the black race, was relinquished by hismaster’s repentance on her deathbed unlike the fate of the millions of African American slaves broughtto work on the plantations. Although Twain was totally against discrimination and slavery, he in the end fudges the situation andends up showing the white slave masters in a favorable light.

Questions for Study with ideas for answers

Q : Huckleberry Finn was published in 1885 and one of the main characters is Jim, the slave. Whywas this a brave subject for Twain to cover in this book?

Ideas : At that time this book would have been read by mostly white people and Twain intends thatthe reader becomes deeply sympathetic to Jim’s plight. The reader is expected to relate to this blackcharacter and obtain some understanding as to what it was like to be a black person at that time.It would be natural to assume that the book would not be popular amongst its white audience, butinterestingly the reverse is true and it has been well read across the whole spectrum of America fromwhen it was first published until the present day.

Q : How has Twain depicted slavery in Huckleberry Finn?

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Ideas : Twain’s portrayal of slavery solely relates to domestic slaves like Jim who were by and largebetter treated than the slaves who worked on large plantations. He has perhaps dealt with these typesof slaves as he had first hand experience of their lives and situation. However, if he wished to make a fuller condemnation of slavery, he should have perhaps given thereader an insight as to what it was like being a slave on a large plantation. Although you do get aflavor of how difficult it is for a slave to escape to the Free states at the time, he has not seen thisstruggle through to its end as he announces that Jim has obtained his freedom in the Will of his owner.

One can only surmise why Twain opted to portray slavery in this milder form.

Q : Tom and Huck are clearly close friends, yet on the surface they appear to be in stark contrastto one another. Why do they remain close?

Ideas : At the start of the novel, Tom forms a gang and Huck is quite happy to be Tom’s follower andtake part in his made up adventures. However, Huck soon becomes disillusioned, as there is nosubstance to the gang’s escapades. During the middle part of the novel, Huck has experienced real adventures and he has successfullynegotiated these showing great wit and skill. He has a more down-to-earth attitude as opposed toTom’s wild scheming, thus Tom and Huck are foils for one another, their differing qualities serving tohighlight, yet balance each other.Huck remains to be impressed by his friend Tom even though he shows little regard for the slave Jim.Although there are clear contrasts between the two characters they share some important traits such astheir affinity to the natural world and the fact they share the same state of boyishness.

Q : How did Twain make Jim a sympathetic character to the white reader of the late nineteenthcentury?

Ideas : One : He illustrates that Jim has as strong feelings for his family as white people do for theirs.When he is threatened with being separated from his family by his owner he shows real grief, andduring his escape down the river with Huck he makes reference to missing his family and longing to seethem again.Two : When Jim discovers the body of Huck’s father he does not immediately inform Huck of hisfather’s death trying to protect him from unnecessary grief.Three : When their raft is wrecked on the river and Huck is taken away by the Grangerfords, Jim staysin the locality to ensure that Huck is safe and make preparations for their continued escape rather thanabandoning him to his fate.Four : Although Tom is not exactly considerate towards Jim, when Tom is shot Jim stays behind to carefor him knowing that he will be recaptured as a runaway slave.