the adventures of huckleberry finn2 (k5.ro)

7/29/2019 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn2 (k5.Ro)

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Chapter 1 Summary:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins where the The

Adventures of Tom Sawyer leaves off. At the end of the previous novel,Huck and Tom find a treasure of twelve thousand dollars which theydivide. Judge Thatcher takes their money and invests it in the bank at sixpercent interest, so that each boy earns a dollar a day on their money.Huck Finn moves in with the Widow Douglas, who has agreed to care forhim.

Huckleberry Finn is the narrator of this story, and he starts off bydescribing his life to the reader. After moving in with the Widow Douglas,he soon runs away because she tries to "civilize" him: she buys him newclothes and begins teaching him the Bible. Tom Sawyer goes after Huckand convinces him to return after promising that they will start a band ofrobbers together. Huck, even though he returns, still complains about thefact that he must wear new clothes and eat only when the dinner bellrings, something he was not used to while growing up.

The Widow Douglas is careful to teach Huck the Bible and to forbid himfrom smoking. Her attentions towards him are complemented by hersister, Miss Watson, who also lives in the house. Miss Watson is a spinsterwho decides that Huck must get an education. She tries to teach himspelling and she also lectures him on behaving well so that he will go to

heaven. Miss Watson warns Huck that if he does not start behaving he willgo to hell. However, Huck is more impressed by her description of hellwhich he thinks sounds like a lot more fun than the lessons she keepstrying to teach him.

Huck goes to and lights a candle. He starts to feel extremely lonesomeand whenever he hears a night sound, such as an owl, a dog or awhippowill, he equates the sound with death. At one point he flicks aspider and accidentally causes the spider to burn up in the candle flame,which he takes to be a very bad omen. Huck waits until midnight, and atthat time a soft meow comes from outside his window. Huck replies and

then climbs out of the window and drops to the ground where he meetsTom Sawyer.

Chapter 1 Analysis:

The first sentence introduces Huck in a colloquial, friendly manner: "Youdon't know about me." This is important because it sets up Huck as thenarrator right from the first words. This is clearly going to be a book told

from his point of view. In addition, Twain is careful to add the commentthat not knowing about Huck's adventures in The Adventures of Tom


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Sawyer "ain't no matter." This comment is meant to assure Twain'sreaders that they can read this book without any prior knowledge ofTheAdventures of Tom Sawyer.

Living with the Widow Douglas is a form of nurture for Huck Finn; she

wants to raise him as a civilized child. This immediately sets up the maintheme of the novel, the conflict between civilization and freedom. Twaintends to follow the beliefs of Jen-Jacques Rousseau in suggesting thatcivilization corrupts rather than improves human beings. For example,right in this first chapter, Huck is forced to change his natural characterinto what the Widow Douglas demands him to become. He feels crampedin new clothes, and he hates having to eat dinner when a dinner bell rings.This new lifestyle is simultaneously cleverly contrasted to his old lifestyle.For example, the "barrel of odds and ends" implies a pig's slop bucket;Twain originally meant to indicate that Huck had to compete for food withpigs. Thus, he also creates a sub-theme to the conflict between civilizationand nature: namely Huck's obsession with food which is pronouncedthroughout the book, such as later on Jackson's Island, on the raft, or inthe various households he visits.

A key literary element in this novel is irony. Huck is among the most ironiccharacters ever created, and he frequently expresses his irony viasarcasm. For example, Huck states, "I wanted to smokeBut she wouldn't[let me] And she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because shedone it herself." In this passage Huck is pointing out the hypocrisy of theWidow Douglas; although she forbids him to smoke, she still uses snuff (a

form of tobacco) for herself.

The scene where Miss Watson tries to warn Huck about hell is made comicthrough the juxtaposition of hell with her horrible lessons. Huck has such ahard time learning spelling from her that he remarks that hell sounds likea lot more fun. This is an important scene because it is meant to introducethe reader to Huck's youth; only a young child would rationally choose hellover heaven.

A major theme that permeates the rest of the book is that of superstition.The first chapter provides several examples of Huck's superstitious side,

both in terms of how he interprets the night sounds (as death) and interms of the spider he kills. His response to the dead spider is toimmediately attempt a counter-charm, even though he is aware that thereis no way of undoing the bad luck.

The theme of superstition stands in contrast to Huck's typical characterfeatures. Up until the end of chapter one, Huck has come across asextremely rational and logical. Even his response to Miss Watson that hewould prefer hell over heaven is grounded in logical terms that the readerscan understand. Superstition, on the other hand, is completely irrational.Throughout the novel, whenever Huck is confronted by superstition he willact in a manner that is contrary to his usual manner.


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The use of superstition is two-fold. It primarily serves to give the readerinsight into Huck's character by showing him to be somewhat naive andgullible. Within this context, however, superstition symbolizes the fear ofthe unknown; Huck is most superstitious whenever he is extremelyworried about his future, such as in this opening chapter and later when

he is on Jackson's Island. Second, superstition also serves to foreshadowevents throughout the novel. Thus, killing a spider in this chapter, andlater spilling the salt, does in fact lead to bad luck, in the form of Pareturning home.

Chapter 2 Summary:

While the boys are sneaking away, Huck trips over a root and makes noisewhen he falls. Miss Watson's slave Jim hears the sound and comes outsideto look around. Jim sits down right between where Huck and Tom arehiding and decides to wait until he catches them. However, he soon getstired and falls asleep against a tree.

Tom then wants to play a trick on Jim. He and Huck climb into the houseand steal three candles, for which they leaves a nickel as "pay". Then Tomquietly makes his way to Jim, takes off Jim's hat, and places it on a treebranch above Jim's head. He soon returns and tells Huck what he did.

After Jim woke up he thought he had been bewitched, and he always kept

the nickel as a token around his neck after that. According to Huck, Jimused to tell all the other slaves that he had been ridden around the worldby some witches, and that the nickel was given to him as a token by thedevil.

Tom and Huck sneak down to the river and meet some of the other boyswho are supposed to be members of Tom's robber band. Together theysteal a skiff and float down the river several miles to a spot with a cave.Tom shows the boys a hidden room in the cave which they make theirrobber headquarters.

Tom then reads them an oath that he has written, taken mostly fromrobber books and pirate stories. The boys argue over what Huck Finn's rolein the gang will be, because Huck does not have a family for them to kill incase he reveals any of the gang's secrets. Huck finally offers them MissWatson in place of his real parents, and the boys then sign an oath inblood to join the band. Tom is elected the captain.

Tom explains that as robbers, they will only attack carriages and take thestuff inside. The men will be killed and the women will be brought back tothe cave. He also mentions that they will ransom some of the people,

because that is what they do in books, although he has no idea what"ransom" means. After that, all the boys agree to meet again soon. They


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return home exhausted and Huck climbs into bed having muddied up hisnew clothes, and feeling dead tired.

Chapter 2 Analysis:

This chapter serves to introduce the other boys in Huck's town. It isimportant to notice that although Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are bestfriends, the other boys are more than willing to cut Huck out of Tom'sgang. The fact that Huck is not very popular helps to explain his feelings ofisolation in the town; the adults keep trying to "sivilize" him, and the otherboys tend to ignore him.

Twain puts together an interesting juxtaposition of theft with honor in thischapter. These contradictory ideas are conveniently merged by TomSawyer, who logically explains to the other boys that robbery is honorable.Tom's definition appears to be complete nonsense. However, as the readerwill see by the end of the book, this scene actually parallels the ending,where Huck and Tom "steal" Jim out of slavery. Thus, Twain actually showshow honor and robbery can go together: when someone is stealing a slaveout of slavery.

The gang can be viewed as a childish form of society as a whole(synecdoche): Tom creates a set of rules, ideas, and morals that heexpects the boys to adhere to. Notice that all of Tom Sawyer's ideas about

the gang he gets from books. Books thus form a foundation for civilization;using books, people like Tom are able to create the society that they wantto live in. Twain is ironically mocking the adult world in this chapter byshowing that although the adult world relies on books like the Bible tocreate their civilization, they could just as easily create a society withpirate and robber books.

The theme of slavery is introduced in this chapter when Tom and Huckinteract with Miss Watson's slave Jim. Slavery will gradually become alarger issue as the novel progresses. It is important to note Huck's viewstowards slavery at this point so that they may be compared to his views

later on. His comment that Jim "was most ruined, for a servant" is a signthat he still supports slavery; only later in the novel will Huck start toquestion the idea that Jim should be a servant at all.

Chapter 3 Summary:

The next morning Huck gets a lecture from Miss Watson for getting hisclothes dirty. She takes him into a closet to pray, and tells him to pray

every day so he will get what he wants. Huck tries to pray daily, but hebecomes disillusioned when all he gets is a fish-line with no hooks. When


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he asks Miss Watson about it, she tells him praying brings spiritual gifts.Unable to see any use for that sort of thing, Huck decides that praying isprobably not worth his time.

A drowned man is found in the river, and the townspeople believe is

Huck's Pa. Huck is unconvinced after he hears the man was found floatingon his back. He remarks that everyone knows dead men float face down,so this must have been a woman in man's clothing that looked like his Pa.

Tom Sawyer's robber band falls apart after a few weeks because the boysget bored of pretending they are robbing people. The only real escapade iswhen they wreck a Sunday School picnic and chase some of elementaryschool children away. They have to clear out when the teacher arrives,however. Tom pretends that during the battle there were Arabs andelephants and that the boys were attacking a large army, but Huck is toopractical to believe him. When Huck asks why they could not see all theelephants, Tom explains that some magicians must have turned the wholearmy into a Sunday School picnic. Tom then tells Huck all about genies inbottles, and how the genies must obey whoever rubs the bottle. Huck getsan old lamp and tries to find a genie, but when it fails he decides that thegenies were just another of Tom's lies.

Chapter 3 Analysis:

Huck's rationality and literalness forms the basis of this chapter. Twaingoes to great lengths to show that Huck is a logical thinker who onlybelieves what he can see with his own eyes. Thus, Tom's band becomesboring when all they do is attack turnip wagons and Sunday Schoolpicnics. Unlike Tom Sawyer, Huck is unable to make-believe that the picnicis really an Arab army. The same thing happens with respect to Huck's Pa;Huck decides that Pa cannot be dead because the dead person wasfloating on its back rather than its face, meaning that it must have been awoman.

This focus on rationality and literalness is used by Twain to further attack

religion. Huck is told to pray for what he wants, but when he prays anddoes not get anything, he decides that praying is pointless. Huck alsothinks about the Christian concept of always helping other people. Whenhe realizes that Christianity seems to offer him no personal advantage inlife, he quickly rejects it as quite pointless.

Chapter 4 Summary:


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Huck spends the next three months living with the widow and getting usedto his new life. He starts to attend school remarks that, "I liked the oldways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too."

Everything goes fairly well until one day when Huck accidentally overturns

a salt-shaker at the breakfast table. Miss Watson does not let him throwany salt over his left shoulder (as a way of avoiding the bad luck) and as aresult Huck starts to get worried that something bad will happen. As soonas Huck leaves the house, he notices boot prints in the fresh snow. Uponcloser inspection he realizes that there is a cross on the left boot-heel,meaning that Huck's Pa had returned.

Aware that Pa is probably after his money (the $6,000 that he got fromsharing the treasure with Tom), Huck goes to Judge Thatcher and begs theJudge to take all his money as a gift. The Judge is quite surprised by therequest, but when Huck refuses to reveal why he wants to give away hismoney, Judge Thatcher agrees to "buy" it for one dollar, saying he will takethe money "for a consideration."

Huck, still quite worried over what is going to happen now that Pa hasreturned, goes to the Miss Watson's slave Jim. Jim takes out a hair-ball inorder to do some magic with it for Huck. When the hair-ball refuses towork properly, Jim suggest that Huck give it some money. Huck offers acounterfeit quarter, which Jim takes and places under the ball. Jim tellsHuck that Pa is torn between two angels, a good white angel and a badblack angel. He also informs Huck that Huck will have considerable pain in

his life and at the same time considerable joy. Huck returns to his roomthat night and finds his Pa sitting there.

Chapter 4 Analysis:

Superstition permeates this entire chapter and foreshadows many of thefuture events. First there is the incident with the salt shaker which leadsHuck to assume that there will soon be bad luck. This is immediatelyfollowed by Huck finding the cross on the boot-print, a sign that his Pa has

returned. It is a sign of Huck's peculiar logic that he chooses to fightsuperstition with more superstition, namely Jim's hair-ball.

What is interesting about Jim's predictions with the hair-ball is that this isthe first time that Twain foreshadows the entire rest of the novel. Noticethat Jim mentions "two gals flyin'" around Huck's life, a light one and adark one, a rich one and a poor one. This is of course a reference to Huckand to Jim, since Huck is rich and Jim is poor. Jim's comment that Huckshould avoid the water will go unheeded when both of them end uprunning away downriver.


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Huck reinforces a split between what can be termed "natural learning"versus "book learning." He has been brought up with only "naturallearning," such as how to survive in the wild. This can be contrasted withTom Sawyer's "book learning," which has little actual application in Huck'slife, and which Twain makes fun of by portraying the silliness of Tom's

robber band. The usefulness of Huck's type of learning is constantlytested, as when he spots the boot marks in the snow. This split betweennatural and book learning will be brought to a head in the next chapter,when Huck encounters Pa directly.

The theme of money is introduced again, this time in the context of payingfor a fortune-telling. Jim has Huck pay his hair-ball so that it will start tomake predictions. In the process, Jim come across as greedy, wanting tomake money even if it involves taking a counterfeit quarter. The issue ofmoney will be one that splits Jim and Huck during their travels down theriver; Huck will never understand Jim's obsession with making money.

Chapter 5 Summary:

Huck arrives back at his room and sees his Pa sitting in a chair. Hedescribes Pa as filthy, poor man who used to scare him a great deal. Now,however, Huck is no longer scared of Pa, and instead is able to see howold his father has gotten.

Pa harasses Huck for wearing good clothes and going to school. He thenaccuses Huck of putting on airs and acting better than his own father. Paremarks that no one in his family could ever read, and that he certainlydoes not want his son to be smarter than he is. He demands that Huckread him something, and soon becomes quite furious when he realizesthat Huck is in fact able to read. Pa then threatens to beat Huck if he evercatches him near the school again. He makes Huck hand over the dollarthat Judge Thatcher "paid" him and then climbs out the window to godrinking in the town.

The next day Pa goes to Judge Thatcher and tries to make the Judge give

him Huck's money. The Judge refuses, and he and the widow take a caseto court in an effort to get Huck legally placed with one of them. The judgeis unfortunately new to the town and refuses to separate Huck from hisfather. Judge Thatcher, realizing he cannot win, gives Huck some moneywhich Huck immediately gives to Pa; Pa soon gets royally drunk and isplaced in jail for a week.

The new judge then sympathetically takes Pa into his home, dresses himwell, and tries to reform him. After thinking that he has reformed Pa, theJudge goes to bed. That night Pa sneaks out of the new judge's house and

buys some alcohol. By morning he is so drunk that he breaks his arm intwo places and nearly freezes to death on the porch. The new judge is livid


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at this betrayal of his trust and comments that the only way to reform Pais with a shotgun.

Chapter 5 Analysis:

The issue of Huck's "natural learning" versus his new "book learning"comes to a dramatic climax in this scene. Pa is furious at the thought thatin addition to knowing a great deal of "natural learning," Huck is alsogetting a real education. This reflects badly on Pa because it reinforceshow ignorant he is. Thus, Pa makes the comment that no one in Huck'sfamily could ever read. Pa's threat that he will beat Huck if Huck ever goesto school again is designed to keep his son as ignorant as he is.

This chapter also highlights one of Twain's favorite themes, which ismocking Christian morality. All of these morals are espoused by the newjudge, who supports the idea that family should be kept together and theidea that reform is better than jail. Thus, Huck is forced to stay under thelegal guardianship of Pa, and the judge decides that he can reform Pa andmake a good man out of him. The attempt by the judge to reform Pa is adismal failure; not only does Pa wreck his room, but he also gets so drunkthat he breaks his arm. Twain thus undermines the judge's Christianmorals, and instead shows that under certain conditions more radicalmeasures are necessary.

Chapter 6

Pa starts hanging out around the town in order to make Huck give himsome of the money every few days. When the widow tells Pa to get awayfrom her property, he kidnaps Huck and takes him three miles upriver to alog cabin. Pa carefully locks the door and never leaves Huck's side withoutmaking sure that Huck cannot escape. Huck enjoys being free from schoolbut soon gets upset that he is being beaten so much.

Huck then discovers a part of a saw which is missing its handle. He startsto saw off a log in the rear corner of the cabin, but is frustrated by Pa'sreemergence. Pa is drunk after having been to the town to buy whiskey,and he makes Huck go outside and pick up all the supplies he boughtwhile there. Pa then proceeds to drunkenly curse everyone he has evermet and spends a while cursing the government.

Huck was hoping to escape after Pa fell asleep, but unluckily for him Pastarts to have nightmares. At one point Pa jumps up thinking he is coveredwith snakes. Later he dreams that the angel of death is after him and he

starts to chase Huck around the cabin with a knife. Huck runs for his life


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and manages to survive because the older man falls asleep again. Huckthen takes down the gun and holds it for protection.

Chapter 7

Pa and Huck go out into the woods to hunt for game. While there Hucksees an abandoned canoe on the river and jumps in to get it. When herealizes that Pa had not seen him get the canoe, he hides it in a littlestream and returns to Pa. Huck next fetches a wooden raft from the riverwith timber that is worth about ten dollars. Pa locks Huck into the cabinand takes the raft to the town in order to sell it.

Huck quickly finishes his sawing and climbs out of the cabin. He takeseverything worth any money to his canoe. Then he axes down the frontdoor and goes hunting for game. He shoots a wild pig, butchers it insidethe cabin, and spreads the blood on his shirt and the floor. He alsocarefully lays some of his hairs on the now bloody ax to make it appear asif he has been killed. Huck then cuts open a sack of flour and leaves a trailwhich indicates that the killer left via a lake that does not connect to theriver. Thus he prevents anyone from searching along the river for anythingmore than his dead body.

As Huck is finishing everything, a man starts to return in a skiff. Huckrecognizes that it is Pa returning early and that he is sober. Immediately

Huck jumps into the canoe and pushes off. He floats downstream until hereaches Jackson's Island, a deserted stretch of land in the middle of theriver. He ties up the canoe and settles down to get some sleep.

Chapter 8

Huck wakes up on Jackson's Island late the next day and hears a cannonbeing fired. A ferryboat filled with his friends comes down the river firing acannon to try and bring his carcass to the surface. At the same time they

have set loaves of bread filled with mercury afloat, hoping that the breadwill go to where his body would be. Sure enough, Huck manages to snagone of the loaves and enjoys eating it for lunch.

After a few days Huck starts to explore the island. While following a largesnake he accidently stumbles into a still smoking campfire. Out of fear heretreats back to his campsite and paddles over to the Illinois side of theriver. However, he soon returns for the night and sleeps poorly out offright.

The next morning Huck decides to find out who else is on the island withhim. He paddles his canoe down to where the other man had his fire and


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hides in the brush. Soon he sees Jim, the slave Tom Sawyer played trickson, wake up and stretch. Out of joy Huck rushes out and greets him.

Jim nearly dies of fright when he sees Huck, whom he believes to be dead.Huck tells him the story about how he faked his murder. Jim relates that

he overhead Miss Watson telling the widow that she was going to sell himdown the river for a good sum of money. So the next night Jim decided toescape and ran away to the island.

Jim starts to tell Huck all about various superstitious signs which the slaveswatch out for. When some birds go hopping along the ground, stoppingevery few feet, Jim comments that that indicates it will rain soon. He alsotells Huck a story about how he lost a large sum of money, fourteendollars at the time, by speculating it. He first bought a cow which died andthen he invested the rest with another slave who was setting up a "bank,"but the bank lost all its money and poor Jim had nothing left.

Chapter 9

Jim and Huck explore the island together and discover a cavern atop a hillin the middle of the island. They paddle their canoe to the base of the hilland then haul their equipment into the cave in order to keep it dry. Thestorm that Jim predicted comes that night and afterwards the river risesfor over twelve days straight.

Both men go out on the river at night to pick up drifting logs and otherstuff that happens to float downstream. The one night they capture a largeraft which they will later use to navigate the river after they leave theisland. Later they see a whole house floating downstream and they climbinto it to salvage some of the goods. Jim finds Huck's Pa lying dead on thefloor of the house, but he refuses to let Huck see the man's face. Jimdecides not to tell Huck that it is his Pa, because Pa was shot in the backwhile obviously attempting to rob the house.

Chapter 10

Huck is thrilled with all the things they managed to get from the house andtells Jim that he wishes they could have fun like that more often. Huck isalso still curious about the man in the house but Jim refuses to talk abouthim. Huck mentions that he thought they would have bad luck after hebrought a snakeskin into the cave, not great luck like what they werehaving. Jim warns him that the bad luck is still coming.

Three days later Huck tries to play a trick on Jim by leaving a curled updead rattlesnake under Jim's blanket. But when Jim crawls into the bed hegets bitten in the ankle by the snake's mate. Huck kills the mate and


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sheepishly carries both snakes far away from the cave. Jim takes the jug ofwhiskey and drinks himself into a drunken stupor to avoid feeling the painof his swollen leg. It takes Jim four entire days to recover from the bite andat the end Huck vows to never touch a snakeskin with his hands again.

In order to get news about what is happening in the town, Huck dresses upas a girl and goes to the village. He stops at a house where he sees awoman knitting. Since she is new to the town, Huck figures he can talk toher without being recognized.

Analysis

These five chapters reveal a great deal about Huck as a person. Huckemerges as a vibrant character who fights for his life without any help. Hiscapture and escape from Pa shows his genius for innovation, as does hisability to live alone on Jackson's Island. Huck does not need anyone tosurvive, and the only indication that he is not completely happy is hiscomment that he sometimes gets lonely.

Huck's personality is quite uniquely established throughout thesechapters. He exhibits humility in that he constantly underplays his brilliantideas. Thus when he fakes his death he says that even Tom Sawyer wouldhave been proud, indicating that Tom would have been able to fake itbetter but that it was a good enough to earn some praise. The innocent

side of Huck is also revealed in his encounter with Jim. Jim swears him tosecrecy before revealing that he has run away from Miss Watson. Huck isimmediately faced with the responsibility of protecting Jim or telling thetown the truth. He chooses to stay with Jim because as a young boy he stilllacks the prejudices of the older folks in his town. This youthfulness isreinforced by the image of Huck dressing up as a girl at the end of Chapter10.

The strength of character which leads Huck to refuse to reveal Jim at thisjuncture of the novel will be tested over and over during the course oftheir travels. In a sense it is Huck's desperate need to not be alone

anymore which overcomes his fear of damnation for not turning in arunaway slave. While Tom Sawyer may be his best friend as a playmate,what Huck is seeking is someone who will care about him as a personrather than as a play friend. While it is not at all clear that Jim will be ableto assume this role, early indications are given by the way Jim gets theminto the cave and thus out of the rain.

Jim's motive for not telling Huck about Pa's death is unclear. Jim could justbe trying to protect Huck's feelings. However, there is likely a selfishmotive as well. Jim has just revealed to Huck that he ran away from thewidow. Were he to tell Huck that Pa is dead, there would be no reason forHuck to remain with Jim on the island. Jim's fear is that Huck might atsome point return to town and tell people where he is hiding. Thus for Jim,


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it is a life and death decision whether or not to inform Huck of his father'sdeath.

Chapter 11

Huck, dressed as a girl, knocks on the door of the house. The woman letshim in, believing him to be a young girl. Huck inquires about the area, andthe woman talks for over an hour about her problems. She finally gets tothe news about Jim and Huck and tells him that there is a three hundreddollar bounty for capturing Jim. Apparently some of the townspeoplebelieve that Jim killed Huck and ran away, while other people believe thatPa was the person who killed Huck. She tells Huck that she personallybelieves Jim is hiding out on Jackson's Island.

Huck becomes nervous at this news and picks up a needle and thread. Hedoes such a poor job of threading the needle that the woman getssuspicious of his gender. She has him throw a piece of lead at a rat inorder to judge how he throws. Afterwards she asks him what his real nameis, telling him to be honest with her. Huck cleverly pretends to be anescaped apprentice hiding out in women's clothes.

Huck finally gets away from the woman and immediately returns to theisland. He tells Jim to grab everything and put it in the canoe. Togetherthey shove off in the canoe, after piling their stuff onto the raft which they

then tow.Chapter 12

Jim and Huck spend the next few days traveling down the river. Theyimprove the raft in order to make a wigwam which will keep them dry andwarm. Each night Huck goes into a nearby town and buys more provisionsfor the next day. They only travel at night to avoid being seen andquestioned.

During a strong storm one night they happen to see a wrecked steamboatahead of them. Huck convinces Jim to tie the raft to the boat and climb onboard. They are surprised to hear voices, which Huck goes to investigate.

There are three robbers, two of whom have tied up the third man.Apparently the tied-up man had threatened to go and turn them all in tothe state. One of the robbers wants to kill him immediately but the otherman restrains him. The two men finally decide to kill their partner byleaving him on the boat and waiting until it sinks.

At this news, Huck scrambles back to rejoin Jim. Together they discoverthat their raft has come untied and floated away.


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Chapter 13

Having lost their raft, Huck and Jim search along the boat for the skiff

which the robbers own. Just when they find it, the two robbers emerge andplace the goods they have looted into it. They then remember that theirpartner still has his share of the money, so they return to steal it from him.

Before they can return, Huck and Jim jump into the skiff and cut the rope.They speed away downstream. Before morning they even manage to findtheir raft again and are able to recapture it.

Huck then goes ashore and finds a ferry night-watchman. He tells the manthat his family ran into the wreck while traveling downriver and that theyare stuck there. The man immediately gets his ferry moving to try andsave them. However, before he gets very far the wreck floats by, havingcome loose and sunk even further. Huck realizes that all three men aboardthe wreck have surely drowned. He paddles downriver until he meets upwith Jim and together they sink the skiff and tie up for the daylight.

Chapter 14

Huck and Jim spend some time relaxing and discussing various things.

Huck tells Jim all about kings and other aristocratic personages, and Jim isvery impressed and interested. However, when Huck mentions KingSolomon, Jim starts telling him that Solomon was one of the most foolishmen who ever lived. Jim comments that any man who had as many wivesas Solomon would go crazy. He also says that the whole notion ofchopping a child in half in order to figure out which woman is the rightfulmother is plain stupid. He remarks that the issue was about a whole child,not a half a child, and Solomon would have shown more respect forchildren if he had not had so many.

Huck next tries to explain to Jim that Frenchmen speak a different

language. Jim is surprised by this and cannot understand why they wouldnot all speak the same language. Huck tries to make the analogy that acat and a cow do not speak the same language, so neither should anAmerican and a Frenchman. Jim then points out that a cat and a cow arenot the same species, but Frenchmen and Americans are. He thenconcludes that Frenchmen should therefore speak the same language hedoes. At this point Huck gets frustrated and gives up trying to argue withJim.

Chapter 15


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Jim is hoping to reach Cairo, at the bottom of Illinois where the Ohio rivermerges with the Mississippi. From there both he and Huck will be able totake a steamboat upriver and into the free states where Jim will finally bea free man.

As they are approaching that part of the river, a dense fog arrives andblankets everything in a murky white. They land on the shore, but beforeHuck is able to tie up the raft, the raft pulls loose and starts floatingdownstream with Jim aboard. Huck jumps into the canoe and follows it, buthe soon loses sight of it in the fog. He and Jim spend several hourstracking each other by calling out their names. However, a large islandfinally separates them and Huck is left all alone.

The next morning Huck awakens and luckily manages to catch up with theraft. He finds Jim asleep and wakes him up. Jim is glad to see him, butHuck tries to play a trick on Jim by telling him that it was all a dream. Aftersome convincing, Jim starts to interpret the "dream." Huck then points outthe leaves and debris left from the night before, at which point Jim getsmad at Huck for playing such a mean trick on him. Huck is forced to goand apologize to Jim.

Analysis

These chapters start to provide a great deal of insight into Jim's character.

Jim comes across as sincere and trustworthy, but also stubborn andmature. The chapters also start to test the loyalty of Jim to Huck and vice-versa. For the first time the novel is dealing with the issue of loyalty and itwill later have a strong impact on the decisions of the each character.

Jim's sincerity is established in several ways. The most potent example ishis joy at seeing Huck alive again after they are separated by the fog. Jimgets upset with Huck for tricking him into believing it was all a dreamprecisely because he had invested a great deal of emotional content intothe adventure. It also starts to become obvious that Jim would be willing tosacrifice a great deal to make sure that Huck is safe.

The problem at this juncture of the novel is that Huck does not reciprocateJim's feelings about him. Huck is not yet willing to sacrifice part of his lifeto ensure Jim's safety and thus leads Jim from one adventure to another,be it on the wrecked steamboat or during the fog. This is importantbecause it is Huck's loyalty to Jim which will be tested later.

The stubborn and mature side of Jim is evidenced by his arguments withHuck and with his attitude towards adventures. Huck comments that onceJim gets and idea into his head it is impossible to change it. This he provesby telling us about Jim's opinions of Solomon and Frenchmen. Thisstubbornness on Jim's part can partially be traced to his maturity. Hedesperately wishes to avoid any adventures because adventures bring


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complications. Jim would be happiest if he were able to get to Cairo andtake the steamboat upriver with no interruptions.

Twain is famous for his sense of irony, and this section contains severalexamples. His best use of irony concerns the three robbers on the wrecked

steamboat. When Huck and Jim lose their raft, they need to steal therobbers' skiff. However, the robbers return before they can steal it. Therobbers then decide that they want all of their money, including theirpartner's share. When they return to steal the partner's money, Huck andJim steal their skiff. The irony is two-fold: not only are the robbers"robbed," they are also condemned to die on the steamboat as a result oftheir greed. Thus the fate which the two robbers condemned their partner,namely drowning, ends up happening to them as well.

Chapter 16

Jim restlessly searches the banks of the river for the town of Cairo. Eachtime he mentions how he will soon be a free man , Huck feels worse andworse because he believes that he is at fault for helping Jim escape.Huck's moral dilemma ends when he reasons that he would feel just asbad if he were to turn Jim in, so he finally decides that letting Jim escape isthe best way.

Huck meets two white men who are searching for runaway slaves. They

ask him who else is on the raft and he tells them it is his Pa, his mother,and his sister. Huck pretends to be eager for their help and tells them noone else has been willing to pull the raft to shore. At this the men becomesuspicious and finally they conclude that Huck's family must havesmallpox. Each man then puts a twenty dollar coin on a log and floatsthem over to Huck, but only after making him promise not to landanywhere near their town.

Huck and Jim are thrilled to have received so much extra money, which isenough for several trips up the river. They continue watching for Cairo, buteach town they arrive at is a different town. After several days both Huck

and Jim begin to suspect that they have passed by Cairo in the fog severalnights prior.

The night after they realize they have passed Cairo, Huck and Jim start toplan on using the canoe to paddle upriver. However, the canoe disappears,so they are forced to continue downriver in the hopes of buying a newcanoe. While drifting downstream they encounter an oncoming steamboat.Instead of getting out of their way the boat ploughs ahead and steamsdirectly over the raft. Both Huck and Jim are forced to dive overboard.Huck emerges and grabs a piece of wood with which he paddles to theshore. Jim is nowhere to be seen. Huck is soon surrounded by dogs andstands dripping wet and immobilized.


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Chapter 17

Huck is trapped by the dogs, but soon a man calls out to him from the

house and tells him to hold still. After several of the men in the house gettheir guns ready, Huck is allowed to approach. He cautiously enters andwhen the family sees that he is not a Shepherdson they immediatelybecome friendly.

Huck tells them his is an orphan from down south who has lost everythingand that he arrived at their home after falling off of the steamboat. Theyoffer him their home and he agrees to stay. The youngest son Buck likeshim and they soon become good friends.

The family had a younger daughter named Emmeline, who passed awayseveral years earlier. She had made several pictures which the family kepton their walls, all of which were very dreary and dealt with sadness. Shealso wrote quite a few remarkable poems, which Huck immediately startsreading. He says that whenever the pictures start to annoy him he can goand read the poetry.

The family is quite wealthy considering their location. They own a fairlylarge house with nice furnishings and even have intellectual books in theparlor. Huck is happy to stay there, especially when he discoverers thattheir cooking is wonderful.

Chapter 18

Huck introduces the reader to most of the family. The father of the houseis a Col. Grangerford, whom Huck describes as a powerful man who is wellrespected and honored. The family owns a considerable amount of landand has over one hundred slaves, including a slave for each member ofthe household. The two eldest sons are Tom and Bob, and the youngest isBuck, with whom Huck becomes friends. There are two daughters: Miss

Charlotte, who bears herself like her father, and Miss Sophia who actstimid and nice.

While out hunting with Buck one day, Huck and Buck hear a horseapproaching behind them. They quickly run behind a bush and wait to seewho arrives. Harvey Shepherdson passes by and Buck takes a shot at him,knocking off his hat. He follows the two boys into the woods but is unableto catch them.

Buck tells Huck that the Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords have beeninvolved in a feud for over thirty years now. No one seems to rememberwhy the feud started, but several men seem to get killed each year.


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When they go to church all the men carry guns with them, and ironicallythe preaching is about brotherly love. After the service and once they haveall returned home, Miss Sophia pulls Huck aside. She asks him if he couldreturn to the church and fetch her Testament, which she accidentally leftthere. Huck goes and finds the book but also sees a note that has been

slipped into it which reads, "half past two."

When Huck goes outside, he realizes that his personal slave is followinghim closely, which is unusual. The slave offers to show him some watermoccasins, an offer which he had extended the day before as well. Huckrealizes that something is going on, and agrees to follow him. In theswamp he is surprised to find Jim asleep on the ground. Jim has the raftwhich he completely repaired, and he is waiting for Huck to rejoin him.

The next day Miss Sophia runs off with Harney Shepherdson and rekindlesthe feud. Buck's father and both his brothers are killed in an ambush, andHuck arrives at the harbor in time to see Buck and his cousin shooting atfive grown men. Eventually the men manage to sneak around Buck andthey kill both the boys while Huck watches from a tree that he hasclimbed. Huck pulls Buck and the other boy out of the river and onto dryland where he covers their faces.

Huck then runs back to the house and sees that it is quite silent there. Hegoes to the swamp and finds Jim again, who is glad to see that Huck is stillalive. Together they push the raft into the river and start floatingdownstream again.

Chapter 19

Huck and Jim continue down the river for a few days, enjoying the fresh airand the warm breezes. Huck finds a canoe and uses it to paddle up astream about a mile in search of berries. Two men come running throughthe woods and beg him for help. He makes them cover their tracks andthen all three of them paddle back to the river.

The two men turn out to be humbugs and frauds who were running awayfrom getting tarred and feathered in the town. One of the men is aboutseventy and balding and the other man is in his thirties. The younger manspecializes in printing and theater while the older man often "works" camprevivals.

The younger man then tells them that he is actually the direct descendentof the Duke of Bridgewater and therefore actually is a Duke. Both Huckand Jim start to treat him as royalty and cater to his every need. Thismakes the older man jealous and so he then tells them that he is actuallythe Dauphin, or Louis the Seventeenth. Huck and Jim then treat both menas if they were aristocracy, although Huck comments that it is prettyobvious neither man is royalty.


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There are three separate escapades in which social commentary is offeredby the novel. The first concerns the two slave-hunters who approach theraft. After Huck makes them believe that his father is aboard withsmallpox, they are so desperate to avoid the plague that each man forksover $20 just to keep the raft away from the town. While disease is a valid

concern, Twain is showing the fear with which people treat other sickpeople. Rather than offer to help, the two men try to buy off the familyand send them away.

The second scene concerns the Grangerford family and its feud with theShepherdsons. This whole scene can be read as a modern take on theRomeo and Juliet theme. Huck tells the reader how civilized, wealthy andrespected the family is, but then completely shatters this image bydetailing how they go about shooting everyone in the feud. This is Twain'sway of showing the utter stupidity of even the most educated andrespected families, who can destroy themselves through nonsensicalthings such as a feud. Thus, it is a modern take on the Romeo and Juliettheme but with the rather odd twist that everyone, except for the twolovers, is killed.

The last escapade in which social commentary is offered is in the scenewhere the King bilks an entire congregation out of money. His story aboutbeing a pirate and wishing to convert his brethren is laughable and silly,but everyone is so overcome by the love of God and their fellow man thatthey believe him and donate to his cause.

Twain is not pointing out the foolishness of southerners as much asshowing the gullibility of religious zealots. This is consistent with his attackon religion in the very first pages of the novel, when Huck decides thatpraying and heaven as described by Miss Watson are a pretty lousyalternative to having fun. Twain's view of religion is lucidly set forth in thisand other novels, and mostly he finds it a waste of peoples' time.

Huck is consistently forced to assume different characters and roles inorder to survive and protect Jim throughout these chapters. Thus hepretends to be an orphan all alone in the world to the Grangerford's, a boyliving with a sick family to the slave-hunters, and an orphan traveling with

his only slave to the Duke and dauphin.

Each role provides a greater insight into Huck's personality. When Buck iskilled, Huck is deeply affected by the entire tragedy and admits to crying alittle. He wishes that he had not played a role in causing the death of somany people. At the same time, he realizes how foolish the whole feud is.

One of the remarkable things about Huck Finn is that he constantlypretending to be less intelligent or less capable than he really is. It is easyto forget that he is only a boy of fourteen when he and Jim are floatingdown the river together. But when they meet other people, Huck'sinteractions are always at a level which is lower than we know him to becapable of. Thus he tells the slave-hunters that he is too weak to drag the
http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/LiteratureOnline/CompleteShakespeare.htmlhttp://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/LiteratureOnline/CompleteShakespeare.html


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raft ashore by himself. When he and Buck are together he shows muchgreater maturity than Buck, evidenced by his restraint in mattersconcerning the feud. Tom Sawyer also comes across as a young child incomparison to Huck's common sense approach to life.

Huck's interaction with the Duke and the King is at first puzzling and laterannoying. He and Jim both are quite aware that the two men are conartists. The question then arises as to why they put up with the men. Theanswer is that Huck is afraid of the consequences if he tries to cross eitherman. Huck compares the men to Pa and remarks, "I learnt that the bestway to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their ownway."

Thus Huck and Jim realize that rather then stir up trouble with either of themen it is best to play along and pretend they have been duped. Jim isunhappy with the situation, commenting at the end of Chapter 20 that hewould prefer it if no more kings arrived during the trip. Huck seems to beconsidering a way out of the situation, but is unable to find a way duringthe first night and day. Part of the reason Huck is willing to stay is that healso enjoys watching the two men at work, since their actions become partof the whole adventure for him.

Chapter 21

The King and the Duke turn their attention to performing scenes fromShakespeare. The King learns the lines for Juliet and also practices sword-fighting with the Duke in order to do a part of Richard III. The Duke thendecides that a great encore would be for the King to do Hamlet's siloquy.Unfortunately the Duke must piece it together from memory. The endresult is quite different from the real siloquy, but still contains someelements of drama.

The men stop in a nearby town and decide to set up their show. They rentthe courthouse for a night and print up bills proclaiming how great theyare. Unfortunately a circus is also in town, but they are hoping the people

will still come for some entertainment.

During the day of the show a man named Boggs rides into town. He is adrunk who comes in each month and threatens to kill a man, but neveractually harms anyone. This time he is after a Colonel Sherburn who is thewealthiest man in town and owns a store. Boggs stands outside the storeand screams insults at the Colonel. The Colonel comes out of his store andtells Boggs that he will put up with the insults until one o'clock and afterthat he will kill him if Boggs utters even one word.

Sure enough at one o'clock the Colonel comes out and kills Boggs on thespot. Boggs's daughter is approaching at that moment to try and save her


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father but is too late. After Boggs is laid to rest the crowd turns into a moband decides that Sherburn should to be lynched for the killing.

Chapter 22

The crowd gets to the store and rips down the front fence. They only stopmoving when Sherburn himself emerges with a shotgun and calmly standsin front of them. He then lectures the mob on how pathetic they are. Hetells them they are only being led by half of a man, Buck Harkness, andthat they are all cowards. When he finishes his speech he cocks his gunand the entire crowd runs off in every direction.

Huck leaves and goes to the circus which is in town until late that night,and after which the Duke and King plan to perform their show. He sneaksinto the circus and watches all the fun activities, such as the clown and theshowgirls. Huck then remarks that it is the best circus he has everwitnessed and the most fun as well.

That night the Shakespearean show is a disaster, with only twelve peopleshowing up and none of them staying until the end. In response the Dukeprints up some new handbills which tout a show called the RoyalNonesuch. He then cleverly adds the line, "Ladies and Children NotAdmitted" and he comments that if that does not get them an audience,then he does not know Arkansas.

Chapter 23

The Royal Nonesuch opens that night to a house packed with men. TheDuke greets them and hypes up the audience for the King. The King thenemerges completely naked, covered in paint, and crawling on all fours.The audience laughs their heads off, and he is called back to do it twicemore. Then the Duke thanks them all and wishes them a good night.

The men are furious that the show is so short and realize they have been"sold," or cheated. But before they can rush the stage one man stands upand tells them that they will be the laughingstocks of the town if it ever isrevealed how badly they were cheated. They all agree to leave and sellout the rest of the town as well.

As a result, the next night is also full. This audience leaves just as mad.The third night all the same men show up, this time with rotten eggs, deadcats, and other foul items. The Duke pays a man to mind the door and heand Huck rush away to the raft. They immediately push out onto the riverand the King emerges from the wigwam where he and Jim have beenhiding all along. Together the two con-artists made four hundred sixty-fivedollars.


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The King and Duke find out that they have received the bulk of the estateholdings as well as three thousand dollars cash. The three girls have alsoreceived three thousand dollars and the house they live in. The will tellsthem where to find the cash in the cellar and so the two men godownstairs and find it.

They count the money and come up four hundred and fifteen dollars short.In order to alleviate any suspicion they add the money they made from theRoyal Nonesuch to the pile. Then, to permanently win the town over totheir side, they graciously give their share of the money to the three girls,knowing they can steal it back anytime.

The King talks for a while and foolishly digresses a little in his speech. ADoctor Robinson enters the crowd and hears him. The Doctor finally burstsout laughing and calls the King a fraud because his British accent is such abad imitation. The townspeople rally around the King who has been sogenerous and defend him. The Doctor warns Mary Jane directly, but inresponse she hands the bag of money to the King and tells him to invest itfor her. The doctor warns them one final time and leaves.

Analysis

In these chapters Twain again revisits his commentary on human natureand scathingly portrays his society. His version of Shakespeare, the death

of Boggs, Jim's feelings about his family, and the Royal Nonesuch all seekto provoke the reader into thinking about the society. Huck helps byadding commentary which helps bring Twain's critique into sharper focus.

The use of Shakespeare is at once funny and tragic. The scene where Huckdescribes Hamlet's Siloquy to us is laughable since it soon becomesobvious that the Duke has completely muddled up the lines. The idea ofthe King, with his white hair and whiskers, playing fair Juliet also makes amockery of the plays.

Boggs's death focuses the reader's attention on a much more serious

aspect of the society. Boggs is shot to death in front of his daughter andwith a crowd of people watching. The disrespect shown to ColonelSherburn hardly justifies killing a man directly in front of his own daughter.Twain further derides the society for is cowardly actions when the mobgoes to lynch Sherburn. Instead of succeeding, the mob is made to runaway because Sherburn tells them what cowards they all are.

Twain also makes several pointed comments about the attitude towardsblacks when he has Jim discuss his family. Huck comments that he issurprised to find that Jim is almost as concerned about his family as awhite person. This prevailing attitude, which often is invoked to justifybreaking up slave families, is an attitude which Huck is overcoming. Jim'stouching story about his daughter Elizabeth, in which he hits her for not


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obeying him, is a powerful indication to Huck that Jim is in fact moreconcerned about his children than Huck's father ever was about him.

The Royal Nonesuch is perhaps Twain's most brilliant philosophicalcreation, a show in which the audience sees exactly what it pays for:

nothing. Not only does the title accurately describe the show, but Twaincleverly has the Duke and King add the line, "Women and Children NotAdmitted." Thus the show is a comment on human nature, namely the factthat we cannot imagine a show being about nothing even when the verytitle says it. The men are further fooled into thinking the Nonesuch mustbe some great, sexual thing since their wives are excluded. The fact thatthey are duped does not stop the men from hiding that fact by talking upthe show to their friends the next day. Again Twain scores a scathingreview of his fellow citizens by showing how fragile our egos are that wewould rather fool everyone else than admit to being fooled ourselves. Thefinal showing, in which the show truly is non-existent since the Duke andKing both run off before it starts, is a coup for the Duke and King who onceagain give the citizens exactly what they pay for. One wonders whether itis possible to hold them guilty of a crime considering the people couldread on every handbill what the show was about.

However, Twain makes a point of having the Duke and King sink evenlower in their abuse of human gullibility and nature. He next has thempretend to be the uncles of three orphaned girls so as to steal theirinheritance. Huck's views on the conning of the family are to call theirbehavior "disgusting" and he also remarks that he is "ashamed of the

human race."

These chapters offer us a great deal of new insight into Huck Finn as aperson. He is obviously maturing in his views, as evidenced by his beliefthat black and white people are not so different. He is also changing froma boy who lacks firm morals to a man with a commitment to values. Thushis commentary is not longer merely descriptive, but is becoming moreand more evaluative as he goes along.

It is becoming obvious that Huck will not be content to stand aside and letthings slide past him, as the metaphor of gliding down the river suggests.

Instead, Huck is about to take a stand and assert himself as an individualand a person. Thus his attitudes will eventually bear fruit in his actions,which is the final step in Huck's journey towards mature individuality

Chapter 26

Joanna eats with Huck that night since they are the youngest two peoplepresent. She asks him all about England, and Huck lies to her in order tosound knowledgeable. She catches him in several of the lies, and Huck


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keeps pretending to choke on a chicken bone in order to think of a wayout. Mary Jane overhears Joanna telling Huck that she does not believehim. She then makes Joanna apologize to Huck for being so rude. Huckdecides that he cannot let the King and Duke steal the money of such nicegirls.

Huck goes to the King's room and hides when he hears them approach.The King and Duke talk about leaving now or waiting until the rest of theproperty is sold off. They then choose to stay and hide their money in thestraw tick mattress. Huck steals the money before they even getdownstairs and waits until it is safe to slip downstairs with the money.

Chapter 27

Huck is afraid he will be caught, so he hides the money inside the coffinwhere Peter Wilks is lying. That day they hold the funeral service, which isinterrupted by a loud barking from the cellar. The undertaker goes downand silences the dog, then returns and tells the audience that the dog hadcaught a rat. Huck remarks that the service was long and tiresome, butfinally Peter Wilks was buried with the money inside the coffin.

The King and the Duke immediately start to sell everything they can,including the slave family owned by the household. They break up thefamily in order to sell them all faster, but with the effect that the girls start

crying and are terribly upset by the act. Many of the townspeople werealso upset about them breaking up the family, but they would not beswayed.

On the day of the auction the King realizes that the money is gone. Heasks Huck about it, and Huck cleverly blames the slaves who were sold.Both the Duke and King feel absolutely foolish for having sold off theslaves for such a low price considering they have now lost all their money.

Chapter 28

Later on the morning of the auction, Huck sees Mary Jane packing to go toEngland with her uncles, but she is on the floor crying. She tells him she isupset about the slaves being so mistreated. Huck then blurts out that theywill be together again in two weeks at the most. When he realizes hismistake, he decides to tell her everything. She becomes furious as herelates the story, and when Huck is finished she calls the King a "brute."

Huck makes Mary Jane leave the house and go to a friend across the river.Before she leaves, he writes down the location of the money for her. He isafraid that if she stays, her face will give away the fact that she knowseverything. Huck then tells her sisters that she is across the river trying to


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stir up interest in buying the house. Huck remarks that he has neverforgotten her and still thinks she is one of the most beautiful girls he hasever met.

The auction is held all afternoon and the King sticks with it in an effort to

sell every last thing. But the auction drags on long enough that asteamboat lands, and two men claiming to be the real heirs to the Wilks'sfortune get off. The elder man is talking as they approach, and theyounger man has his right arm in a sling.

Chapter 29

The new set of heirs claim to have lost their baggage and are thereforeunable to prove their identity. The King and the Duke continue pretendingto be the real heirs. Both groups are taken to the tavern where Levi Belland Dr. Robinson grill them for information.

The first bit of information to be established is that money has beenstolen, which looks bad for the King and the Duke. However, they blame iton the slaves and continue pretending. The lawyer, Levi Bell, thenmanages to get all three men to write a line for him. He pulls out some oldletters and examines the handwriting, only to discover that none of threemen had written the letters to Peter Wilks. The real Harvey Wilks explainsthat his brother had transcribed all his letters because his handwriting is

so poor. Unfortunately, since his brother has broken his arm, he cannotwrite and therefore they cannot prove their case.

Harvey Wilks then remembers that his brother had his initials tattooed onhis chest. He challenges the King to tell him what was on Peter's chest,assuming that the men who had laid his brother out would have seen themark. The King continues pretending and tells them it was a blue arrow.Since the men who laid out Peter Wilks cannot remember having seenanything, they are forced to go dig up the body.

The entire town goes to the gravesite and they start digging. When they

finally get the casket open, they discover the gold which Huck has hiddenthere. Immediately the men holding them let go in order to see themoney, and Huck, the King, and the Duke run to the river as fast as theycan. Huck gets to the raft and takes off down the river, but almost startscrying when the Duke and the King catch up to them in a little skiff.

Chapter 30

After the King gets back on the raft, he grabs Huck and starts to shakehim. He yells at him for trying to get away without them and for escaping


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without waiting. The Duke finally intervenes and calls the King an "oldidiot." He says, "Did you enquire for him when you got loose?"

Next the King and Duke get into an argument about the money. They startaccusing each other of stealing the cash and hiding it, especially since

they had added the proceeds of the Royal Nonesuch to the pot. The Dukefinally attacks the King and makes his say that he was the one who tookthe money. Both men then get drunk, but Huck notices that the King neveragain admits to taking the money and in fact denies it every chance hegets.

Analysis

These chapters mark the first moments of maturity for Huck. Up until thispoint he has followed the authority of those around him, such as Pa, theWidow, Miss Watson, Judge Thatcher, the King, and the Duke. He breaksfree of this authority the moment that he decides to steal back the money.For the first time Huck is actually acting on his convictions and morals,rather than on his desires and wants.

Huck's interaction with Mary Jane also highlights an emerging aspect of hisgrowth, namely his interest in girls. Any reader who recalls TheAdventure of Tom Sawyer knows that girls were merely an annoyancefor Huck and not people to be taken seriously. With Mary Jane, however,

Huck finds new words to describe the opposite sex, including beautiful,and comments that when he sees her light the candle in the window, "myheart swelled up sudden, like to burst."

The final part of these chapters worth noting is the fact that Huck isdesperate to escape the King and the Duke by the end. This is not simplybecause he is scared of them. Recall that when he first meets them hecompares them to his Pa. Thus for Huck, escaping from these two men isthe equivalent of breaking free from his parents. It is not only a desire toescape these men in particular, but rather a desire to escape what theystand for, namely authority and control over his life.

It is notable that Jim has dropped out of the action during these scenes. Heis instead replaced by the slave family which is torn apart by the King inorder to make some quick cash. The fact that Twain places this scenedirectly after Jim's emotionally charged story is purposeful and brilliant.Twain was vehemently opposed to slavery, and this is one aspect of theinstitution which he abhorred. Thus Twain is trying to subconsciouslyinfluence his reader every step of the way by directing their emotions. Thestory about breaking up the slave family has much more impact after Jimdiscusses his family, because the reader realizes that Jim ran away toescape a similar fate

Chapter 31


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The Duke and the King spend a few days plotting how to recover theirfortunes. Soon they reach a village named Pikesville. The King leaves andtells the Duke and Huck to follow if he does not return by midday. He fails

to emerge and they go to find him, leaving Jim with the raft. Huck and theDuke search all over and finally find the King in a tavern. The Duke joins inthe drinking and both men get drunk.

Huck sees his chance and runs straight back to the raft. When he arriveshe discovers that Jim is gone. A young man on the road tells him that Jim isa runaway slave who was just captured and was sold to the Phelps downthe road. Huck realizes that the King had snuck back, taken Jim and soldhim for forty dollars, and then returned to the town to drink.

Huck sits and contemplates what he should do. He is torn between hisfriendship for Jim and his knowledge that helping a runaway slave is a sin.Huck finally writes a letter to Miss Watson explaining where Jim is. He thenthinks about it some more, and, in one of the most dramatic scenes in thenovel, rips apart the letter and says, "All right, then, I'll go to hell!"

Huck starts walking to the Phelps's farm but encounters the Duke alongthe way. The Duke is placing posters for the Royal Nonesuch which thetwo men want to try and perform again. When he sees Huck, the Dukegets extremely nasty and is afraid that Huck will tell on him. He lies toHuck and tells him that Jim was sold to a farm several days away. He then

threatens Huck in order to keep him silent. Huck promises to not say aword, and hopes that he will never have to deal with men such as theDuke and the King ever again.

Chapter 32

Huck decides to trust his luck, so he walks directly up to the front door ofthe Phelps' farm. He is quickly surrounded by about fifteen hound dogswhich scatter when a large black woman chases them away. Aunt Sally

emerges and hugs Huck, saying "It's you, at last! - ain't it?" Huck merelymutters "yes'm" because he is so surprised.

Aunt Sally drags him into the house and starts to inquire about why he isso late. Huck does not know what to say other than that the steamboatblew a cylinder. The woman immediately asks if anyone was hurt, to whichHuck replies, "No'm, killed a nigger." Before Huck has to answer any morequestions, Silas Phelps arrives back from the wharf where he went to pickup his nephew. Aunt Sally hides Huck and pretends he is not there, thendrags him out and surprises Silas. Silas does not recognize Huck until AuntSally announces, "It's Tom Sawyer!" Huck nearly keels over from joy whenhe hears that.


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Huck then spends the next two hours telling the family all about theSawyer family and entertaining them with stories. Soon he hears asteamboat coming down the river, and he realizes that Tom is probably onthat boat since the family was expecting him. Huck tells them he mustreturn to the town to fetch his baggage and that they need not come

along.

Chapter 33

Huck meets Tom Sawyer on the road and stops his carriage. Tom isfrightened and thinks he is seeing a ghost, but Huck reassures him andthey settle down. Huck then tells Tom what has happened at the Phelps'sand Tom thinks about what they should do. He then tells Huck to return tothe farm with his suitcase while he returns to the town and starts the tripover.

Huck gets back and soon thereafter Tom arrives. The family is excitedbecause they do not get very many visitors so they make Tom welcome.Tom makes up a whole story about his hometown and then impudentlykisses Aunt Sally right on the mouth. She is so shocked that she nearly hitshim over the head with her spinning stick until Tom tells her that he is SidSawyer.

Silas then explains that Jim revealed to him what a scandal the Royal

Nonesuch really was. Silas says that he told the rest of the town, and hefigures they will ride the two cheats out of town that night. Huck and Tomclimb out of their windows in a last minute attempt to warn the Duke andKing, but they are too late. They see the two men being paraded throughthe street all covered in tar and feathers. Huck remarks that human beingscan be awfully cruel to one another.

Chapter 34

Tom and Huck think about ways to break Jim out of his prison. Huck plansto get the raft, steal the key to the padlock, unlock the door and then floatdown the river some more. Tom tells him that plan is too simple and wouldwork too well. Tom's plan is much more elaborate and stylish, and takes agreat deal longer to implement.

The boys go to the hut where Jim is being kept and search around. FinallyTom decides that the best way, or at least the way that will take thelongest, is to dig a hole for Jim to climb out of. The next day he and Huckfollow the black man who is delivering Jim's food. Jim recognizes them andcalls them by name, but both boys pretend not to have heard anything.When he has a chance, Tom tells Jim that they are going to dig him out.Jim is so happy he grabs Tom's hand and shakes it.


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Chapter 35

Tom brainstorms as many ideas as possible in order to make Jim into a

real prisoner before his daring escape. He decides that they will have tosaw off the leg of Jim's bed in order to get the chain free, send Jim aknotted ladder made of sheets, give Jim a shirt to keep a journal on, andget Jim some tin plates to write messages on and throw them out thewindow. To top it all off, Tom tells Huck that they will use case-knives todig Jim out, rather than picks and shovels.

Analysis

These chapters deal with several issues mentioned earlier in the novel, butin a much more personal and powerful manner. Huck is forced to finallydecide between right and wrong concerning slavery, and as such mustsolidify his own morality. The most powerful scene by far is when Huck isdeciding whether to help Jim or tell Miss Watson where her slave hasended up. He finishes by deciding to follow his conscience and free Jim,even if that means that he will go to hell.

The fact that Huck is willing to sacrifice his own soul to hell for Jim's sakeshows the tremendous amount of personal growth which Huck has

undergone. In the earlier chapters Huck would never have consideredmaking such a sacrifice. This scene indicates how his relationship with Jimhas changed over the course of the journey downriver, from companion torespected friend to being the only family that Huck will acknowledge. Huckmakes his decision after remembering all the times that Jim protected himand cared for him, something which no one else has ever done for Huck.

There is therefore bitter irony in the story about the steamship cylinderblowing up. Huck concocts the tale as an excuse for arriving in town somuch later than expected. When asked if anyone was hurt, he replies"No'm, killed a nigger." Aunt Polly is relieved to hear that. By this point in

the novel the reader is not willing forgive Aunt Polly for her remarkanymore. Whereas in the beginning of the book such an attitude could beattributed to the culture, after being introduced to Jim the reader is unableto maintain that distance. Thus the reader wonders what Huck is thinkingwhen he makes that comment, and whether he realizes how hypocriticalhe sounds.

This part of the novel also reintroduces Twain's writing in a style moresimilar to that ofThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom's return to theplot means that everything will go crazy again and logical thinking will bethrown to the wind. Huck quickly takes a backseat role when compared toTom's unlimited creativity.


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The fact that Tom is willing to steal a slave comes as a surprise to Huck.And well it should, considering how long Huck took to decide that he wouldrisk hell for his friend. Thus Huck questions what Tom's motives are, andfinally writes them off to Tom's juvenile love of adventure. The readerneeds to recognize that this a false assumption. Tom has never committed

a real crime with serious moral repercussions and is unlikely to do so now.Thus, the only reason he would be willing to steal Jim out of slavery is if heknows something Huck does not. As we find out in the later chapters, Jimis already free and therefore Tom can justify the entire escapade from amoral standpoint. Huck on the other hand acts without this knowledge,and therefore his decision is much more serious in its implications.

Chapter 36

Tom and Huck sneak out the next night and start digging with their caseknives. Soon they are tired and their hands blistered, and it does notappear as if they have accomplished anything at all. Tom finally sighs andagrees to use a pick and shovel, so long as they pretend they are usingcase knives. Huck tells him that his head is getting "leveler" all the time.

The next day they steal some tin plates and a brass candlestick for Jim towrite with. They also finish digging the hole and make it possible for Jim tocrawl out. Jim wants to escape immediately, but Tom then tells Jim allabout the little things he needs to do, such as writing in blood, throwing

out the tin plates, etc. Jim thinks it is all a little crazy but agrees to do it.Tom then convinces the man who brings Jim his food that he is bewitched.Tom offers to remove the witches by baking a pie for them, in which heplans to conceal the sheet ladder for Jim.

Chapter 37

Aunt Sally notices that she has lost a sheet, a shirt, six candles, a spoon

and a brass candlestick. She is so confused by the strange disappearancesthat she gets absolutely livid. She starts yelling at poor Silas whoeventually discovers the spoon in his pocket where Tom had placed it. Helooks ashamed and tells her that he has no idea how the spoon got there.Aunt Sally then yells at everyone to get away from her and let her getsome peace and quiet.

Tom decides that the only way to steal the spoon is to confuse his poorAunt Sally. So he has Huck hide one of spoons while she counts them, andthen Huck puts it back when she counts again. By the time she is donecounting, Aunt Sally has no idea exactly how many spoons she has andTom is able to take one without any more trouble. Tom then does the


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same thing with the sheet, by stealing one out of her closet and putting iton the clothesline only to remove it the next day.

The boys bake Jim a witches' pie in which they hide the rope. It takes themseveral hours to get it right because the pie is so large, but they finally

succeed. The man who normally takes Jim his food takes the pie in to himand Jim happily removes the rope.

Chapter 38

Tom designs a coat-of-arms for Jim to inscribe on the walls so as topermanently leave his mark on the prison cell. Tom then works out threemournful inscriptions and tells Jim that he needs to write them into a rock.Huck and Tom go to fetch an old grindstone for Jim to use as his rock, butit is too heavy for them, so they are forced to get Jim to leave his "prison"and come help them. He rolls the rock into the hut and then sets to workon the inscriptions.

Tom next decides that Jim needs some companions in the cell, such assnakes and spiders. He tells Jim they will get him some, but Jim is rathervehemently opposed to the idea of snakes being in his hut. Tom then triesto convince him to get a flower which he can water with his tears. Jimreplies that the flower would not last very long. Tom finally gets frustratedand gives up for the night.

Chapter 39

Huck and Tom spend the next day catching creatures to live with Jim in hiscell. They first get about fifteen rats, but Aunt Sally's son frees them byaccident and so both Tom and Huck get a beating for bringing rats into herhouse. They then catch another fifteen, and also gather some spiders,caterpillars, frogs, and bugs. At the end of the day they gather somegarter snakes and put them in a bag, but after dinner they discover all the

snakes escaped in the house as well. Huck remarks that there was noshortage of snakes in the house for quite a while after that.

Uncle Silas decides to start advertising Jim in some of the localnewspapers because he has failed to receive a reply to his earlier letters.Since the plantation to which he wrote never existed, it makes sense thathe never received a reply. Tom figures out how to stop him fromproceeding by planting some anonymous letters which warn him off.

Tom and Huck first plant a letter which reads, "Beware. Trouble is brewing.Keep a sharp lookout." The next night the boys tack up a letter with a skulland crossbones, and then follow that with a picture of a coffin.


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Tom plans a final coup by drafting a longer letter. He pretends to be amember of a gang of robbers who are planning to steal Jim from thefamily. He warns them that the gang of robbers will be coming late atnight from the north and will get Jim at that time. The family is terriblyfrightened by all this and does not know what to do.

Chapter 40

The letter has a strong effect and the night of the escape over fifteenarmed farmers are sitting in the house waiting for the robbers to come.Huck is frightened for their safety when he slips out the window. He tellsTom they must leave immediately or get shot at. Tom gets very excitedwhen he hears about how many people came to catch them.

As the three of them start to move away, Tom gets caught on the fenceand his britches make a loud ripping sound. All three of them start runningand the farmers start to shoot after them. When they get to a dark area,Huck, Jim, and Tom hide behind a bush and let the whole pack of farmersand dogs run past them.

They then proceed to where the raft is hidden and Tom tells Jim he is afree man again, and that he will always be a free man from now on. Jimthanks him and tells him it was a great escape plan. Tom then shows themwhere he got a bullet in the leg, but Jim gets afraid for Tom's health when

he hears this. Jim rips up one of the Duke's old shirts and ties up the legwith it.

Jim tells Tom that he is not going to move until they get a doctor there andmake sure he is safe. Tom gets mad at both of them and yells at them, butHuck ignores him and gets the canoe ready to go to the town. Tom makeshim promise to blindfold the doctor before bringing him back to theirhiding place.

Analysis

Most of the action in these chapters mirrors the humorous adventureswhich Tom is always contriving in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.There is a serious undercurrent given the fact that as far as Jim and Huckare concerned, they are trying to break Jim out of slavery. But for the mostpart these chapters mark a conclusion to the actual journey downriver.Huck has been reunited with Tom and it is becoming clear that everythingwill be fine.

The end of Huck's adventures is also marked by the shift to Tom'sadventures. Thus we have now departed from Huck's story and reenteredthe story of both Tom and Huck, which is where the novel started. This


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shift is most evident in the fact that Tom is now making the decisionswhile Huck merely plays along.

Chapter 41

Huck returns to the town and gets a doctor. But instead of allowing Huckto come along, the doctor makes Huck tell him where the raft is and thentakes the canoe out alone. Huck falls asleep on a woodpile while waitingfor him to return. When Huck wakes up, he is told that the doctor has notreturned yet.

Huck soon runs into Silas, who is glad to see that Huck is not hurt.Together they go to the post office and Silas asks where Sid is. Huckmakes up a story about Sid taking off to gather all the news about whathappened. When he gets home, Aunt Sally makes a fuss over him but isglad he has returned.

A large gathering is located at the house and the women are discussinghow they think Jim must have been crazy. They have read the scrawlingswhich Jim put on the grindstone and seen all the tools which Huck andTom crafted.

Aunt Sally is worried about where Sid has gotten to. Huck tells her thesame tale he told Uncle Silas, but that does not set her mind at ease.

During the night Huck sneaks out several times and each time sees hersitting with a lit candle on the front porch waiting. He feels sorry for herand wishes he could tell her everything.

Chapter 42

The doctor shows up the next day with Tom lying on a mattress and Jimwalking behind in chains. Tom is comatose due to a fever from the bulletwound, but he is still alive. Aunt Sally takes him inside and starts to take

care of him immediately. Tom improves rapidly and is already better bythe next day.

Huck goes into the bedroom to sit with Tom and see if he is okay. AuntSally walks in as well and while both of them are sitting there Tom wakesup. He immediately starts to tell Aunt Sally about everything the two ofthem did and how they managed to help Jim escape. Aunt Sally cannotbelieve the two of them were the ones creating all of the trouble aroundher house.

When Tom hears that Jim has been recaptured he shouts at them thatthey cannot chain Jim up anymore. He tells them that Jim has been freeever since Miss Watson died and freed him in her will. Apparently Miss


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Watson was so ashamed about planning to sell Jim that she felt it best toset him free.

At that moment Aunt Polly walks into the room. Aunt Sally is so surprisedshe rushes over and gives her sister a hug. Aunt Polly then proceeds to tell

her exactly which of the boys is really Tom and which one is Huck. Bothboys emerge looking quite sheepish. Aunt Polly only gets mad when shefinds out that Tom has been stealing her letters and hiding them. She alsotells Aunt Sally that what Tom said about Jim was true, he is in fact a freeman.

Chapter 43

Huck finds out from Tom that Tom had planned for them to run all the wayto the mouth of the Mississippi if they had managed to escape unharmed.Jim gets a good reception in the house because they had heard about howwell he cared for Tom when Tom was sick. Tom then gives Jim forty dollarsfor putting up with them the entire time and being such a good prisoner.Jim turns to Huck and tells him he was right about being a rich man oneday.

Huck then asks about his six thousand dollars, assuming that Pa hasmanaged to take it all. But Tom tells him Pa was never seen again afterHuck disappeared. Jim then tells Huck that the man they found dead in the

floating house was in fact Pa, but Jim had not wanted Huck to see him.Huck ends the novel by announcing that Aunt Sally wants to adopt himnow, so he needs to start planning on heading west since he already triedto become civilized once before and did not like it.

Analysis

There are several key facts related in the final chapters which have an

influence on the way the reader views each character. Tom announcesthat Jim is free, which clears up the question of why he was willing to freeJim. Since Jim was already a free man, Tom was not breaking any laws andtherefore thought it was all a great adventure.

The second major revelation is that Pa is dead. Jim has known this for mostof the journey, in fact since they left Jackson's Island in the very beginning.What needs to be answered is the exact motivation behind Jim's not tellingHuck. Two main answers stand out: Jim felt sorry for Huck and wanted totake care of him since he was now an orphan; or Jim knew that if Huckfound out Pa was dead, there would no longer be any need to run away. Itis likely that the first answer was what motivated Jim, but in some sense it


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could have been a selfish desire to have companionship which also keptJim from telling Huck the truth.

The ending seems to leave Huck right back where he started. However,the reader can fully appreciate how much Huck has changed during the

course of his travels. Huck's comment that he needs to head west beforethey try to civilize him holds a lot of weight if only because we know thatHuck can act civilized when he needs to. The perception we have of HuckFinn at the beginning of the novel is that of a poor, uneducated boy. Bythe end of the novel we view him as an intelligent, wealthy man whosimply does not care to be a part of a boring middle-class lifestyle. Thischange is profound and is a mark of Twain's genius.

A final change is in our perception of the black slaves in the novel. At firstthey were merely background characters, carrying out the chores whilethe white characters monopolized the plot. That changes when Jim isintroduced, and continues to change even when Jim leaves the plot. Thusthe break-up of the slave family by the King has an emotional impact,whereas before the reader would have simply read through the pages andnot registered the seriousness of the events.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Twain's literary masterpiece.To create this novel he first overcame the difficulty of writing in the firstperson from a young boy's perspective. The novel is also a testament tothe various dialects of the southern regions and embodies many of thecharacteristics of those regions. Lastly, The Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn is a story about freedom. It deals with physical freedom for theslaves and freedom of the spirit for both Jim and Huck. Few novels haveapproached The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in combining suchserious issues with the delightful humor that Twain exemplifies.

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