The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Study Guide 3
Answer each question in complete sentences. This time you can single space, because of the length of the assignment. Underlined questions are optional or for extra credit. You only need to type out the answers.
Due: November 8th
Chapters 32-43
Chapters 32-35
Identifying Facts
1. Who sells Jim out? The king sells him.
2. Briefly describe the Phelps farm. It has many log cabins, some for the slaves, and a big one for the family. It’s a small cotton farm and has a fence around it.
3. Who does Mrs. Phelps think Huck is? Tom Sawyer.
4. What does Tom think Huck is at first? The ghost of Huck.
5. Describe how Tom shocks Aunt Sally. By kissing her on the lips.
6. Who does Tom pretend to be? Tom’s brother.
7. Explain how Tom figures out where Jim is. He saw him go into the hut eating a watermelon piece.
8. How do Huck and Tom overcome the difficulty that they can’t take thirty-seven years to free Jim? They just decide to dig him out.
Interpreting Meanings
9. What is Huck’s understanding of
10. How does Twain use irony in the discussion between Huck and Mrs. Phelps about the steamboat accident that Huck makes up? That there was an actual steamboat that had crashed. That tom would have dealt with the steam boat.
11. What accounts for Huck’s surprise that Tom will help him steal Jim? That it was frowned upon at that time.
12. Why do you think Huck tries to help the duke and king when he finds out that the townspeople know about them? He just forgets about how he wronged them, but at that time it was too late. Sympathy had almost fully sunk in.
13. How does Huck respond to the duke and king being tarred and feathered? Is his response at all surprising? Does it remind you of anything earlier in the novel? Explain. He says that people can be really cruel. This probably isn’t what’s usually thought of, but I think it can relate to Huck’s dad being cruel.
14. Why does Huck prefer Tom’s plan for freeing Jim to his own? Because it’s faster and easier then his own.
15. After Tom tells Huck that it’s all right for them to steal, Huck steals a watermelon. Tom is angered by this and insists that Huck pay for the watermelon. Why does Tom respond this way, and what does this scene tell us about the differences between Huck and Tom? Tom is still adjusted to his society and its morals, while Huck has gotten used to the free way. Doesn’t this question contradict its self?
Chapters 36-39
Identifying Facts
16. What do Huck and Tom use for light while they are digging? I think it’s the lightning rod.
17. Describe what Tom does when he can’t climb the lightning rod. As far as I can see, he gives up on it for the night.
18. Who does Aunt Sally blame for the missing shirt? Silas, Tom’s uncle.
19. What does Tom want Jim to water his plant with? His tears.
20. What effect do the warnings have on the family?
Interpreting Meanings
21. How would you compare Huck’s and Tom’s attitudes toward the escape? I would say on and off. At times they wanted to, then one would quit, but they did both end up putting a lot of effort into it.
22. What characteristics does Aunt Sally have that enable the boys to take advantage of her? Gullability, love, and she lets her defenseive side down because she likes them too much.
23. What is the irony in the way that Tom and Huck get the grindstone into the hut?
24. Is there any evidence that Jim is really suffering during all of this? Does Huck’s response to Jim’s plight seem reasonable to you?
25. When Tom devises a coat of arms for Jim, what evidence is there that his knowledge of these things is really quite superficial?
Chapters 40-43
Identifying Facts
26. What effect has the last warning letter had on the Phelpses?
27. How does Tom get hurt?
28. Why doesn’t Huck sneak out at night to visit Tom?
29. Who clarifies the identities of Tom and Huck?
30. What has happened to Huck’s father?
Interpreting Meanings
31. What does Jim’s behavior in these chapters say about his character?
32. What narrative purpose does the doctor’s refusal to share a canoe with Huck serve?
33. What effect does the doctor’s speech in support of Jim have? Is this as great an effect as it should be?
34. How believable is the deus ex machine (literally, the “god from a machine,” a theatrical term referring to a sudden and unexpected solution to a seemingly insoluble problem), through which Jim is freed? Explain.
35. Where is Huck going at the end of the novel? What does this imply about the society in which he lives, and his place in it?
36. Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn “a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.” What influences have “deformed” Huck’s conscience? How does his heart defeat his conscience?
The Novel as a Whole
37. What advantages does the river have as a setting and vehicle for a picaresque novel such as this? What disadvantages does it have for this novel?
38. Briefly describe the style of Huckleberry Finn. What is your opinion of its effectiveness?
39. Compare and contrast life on the raft to life on the shore.
40. How would you describe Jim’s intelligence and abilities? How “ignorant” is he, really? Support your opinion.
41. Why does Huck do what Tom says all the time? What elements contribute to Tom’s authority?
42. What is Twain satirizing in the episode where Colonel Sherburn shoots Boggs? How would you compare the tone of this satire to that in the rest of the book?
43. What aspects of Huck’s character make him a good narrator? What difficulties are there for the reader in having Huck as narrator?
44. How does Twain portray small-town life in this book?
45. Based on how episodes are portrayed in the novel, how do you think Twain feels about “honor” as defined by the Grangerfords and Tom?