Study Questions

Huck Discussion Questions: XV - XVII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTES

Chapters 12-15
1. What kind of men do Huck and Jim find on the steamboat? Why are the men there?
2. What is the name of the boat Huck and Jim land on?  Why is this funny?
3. Discuss the difference between "real" adventures and Tom's adventures?
4. What is the plan once they reach Cairo?

Romanticism:
Work of literature that deal with imagination, that represent ideals of life, these works often include fantastic adventure stories, spiritual connections with nature, gothic stories of the fantastic. Authors include: Sir Walter Scott, Fenimore Cooper, Poe.

Realism:
Works of literature that depict life and people as they really appear. Hence Realistic.
Themes include corruption of society as a whole, racism.

Anithero:
A protagonist who doesn't fit the traditional description of a hero.

Satire:
A work of literature that uses irony and hyperbole to attack and mock some aspect of society as a way to promote social change.

Picarsque Novel: Usually a satirical novel which depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who survives by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

Bildungsroman: A novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological and intellectual development of a youthful main character.

Episodic Plot: A structure that features distinct episodes or a series of stories linked together by the same character. Huck Finn can be broken up into 8 or 9 episodes.

How to break apart Huck Finn:

Three Movements:

Movement 1 - Chapters 1-11: St. Petersburg (land)
The introduction to society and the escape from it.

Episodic Structure:
Episode 1: Tom's Gang (chapters 1-4)

Episode 2: Huck and Pap (chapters 5-7)

Episode 3: Jackson Islands (chapters 8-11)

Traditional Plot:

Inciting Event: Huck fakes his death (or could you argue that it's when Huck's Pap returns?)


Huck Finn Personas: Sarah Mary Williams, George Peters.

Huck's stories (his family is dead or sick and he is seeking help)

Motifs: Death, Snakes.

Persona:
An assumed identity or character.

Study Guide

Students should 

1) Be able to list and discuss the differences between Romanticism and Realism (reread 517-523).
2) Be able to discuss a theme from "Song of Myself" backed up with specifics from the text, and explain how the form of the poem fits the theme.
3) Be able to analysis the imagery of one of the following Dickinson poems: "Because I could not stop for Death", "My life closed twice before its close-", or "I heard a Fly buzz when I died-".  What do the images mean, what theme do they reinforce?
4) Be able to discuss Lincoln's purpose in "The Gettysburg Address" and his "Second Inaugural Address".  Give a summary of the "Emancipation Proclamation" and how its form reinforces it idea.
5) Huckleberry Finn (chapters 1-8).  Relate a main theme to these chapters and give specifics to explain the theme.  Be able to answer the study questions related to chapters 1-8.  Summarize episodes 1 and 2.    

Huckleberry FInn Questions

Discussion Questions NOTICE - IV

1) Describe the Widow Douglas.  How does Huck respond to the Moses story?  What does this tell the reader about Huck's character?  (Moses will be a motif in this book)
2) Discuss superstition as a motif.  Provide examples.
3) Discuss Huck's view of death and the afterlife.  Death is mentioned frequently in chapter 1.  Why?
4) Comment on the trick Tom and Huck play on Jim.
5) "Jim was most ruined for a servant..."  Discuss the significance of this quote.
6) Considering the themes listing in the objectives, comment on Tom's decision to leave 5 cents for the candles.  Do you think Huck would have done the same thing?   Why or why not?
7) Compare and Contrast Tom and Huck.
8) Why does Tom think it important that the gang be considered "highwaymen" rather than burglars?
9) Discuss Huck's conflict over Miss Watson's view of prayer.
10) Why does Tom Sawyer call Huck a "numskull"?
11) Comment: "I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all the marks of a Sunday school."
12) Why does Huck want to give all the money to Judge Thatcher? 

Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

Today we will read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and relate it to the times.  As a group you will then outline the speech paragraph by paragraph making sure that you list the main ideas and how Lincoln supports them.

Lastly, we will be starting the 1st Chapter of Huckleberry Finn. 

Thug Notes: THE SUN ALSO RISES

For a break in your studies:

Homework for the Trip

Read Emily Dickinson pages 546-556

Answer questions 1-8 on page 556.  Also write a theme for each of Dickinson and Whitman's poems.  Note, that you will later have to compare a theme from Huckleberry Finn to another text:

Unit Learning Goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of nineteenth century foundation works of American Literature by analyzing satire in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and relating one of its main themes to another text and issue of the time.  

Also, do page 557 - WRITING TO COMPARE.  Make sure you cite specific lines.  This should be a 1-page essay.  (Those of you back on Monday can do this in class).

Today's objective: Reading and understanding themes from Whitman.  

We will read 538-540 and answer 1-6 and 9 on page 541.