Olivia's+Reading+Questions

1.	Mark Twain included the “Notice” on the first page in order to point out to the reader that they shouldn’t take this book too seriously. Whether it is true or not, it is just a story for people to enjoy. There is no deeper meaning. And that this book is going to be different then Tom Sawyer in that sense that Huck doesn’t just follow Tom. He is his own character with a lot more depth.

2.	Yes, even though the chapters all flow to make the book, they can be broken up into different parts: the island, the river, the farm, and the different cities. 3.	During the novel Huck continually decides to help Jim even though he knows it is wrong. He already knows he is going to hell so he figures he might as well save his friend. Huck is learning his boundaries and how far he would go to save another person.

4.	Some of the consequences of Huck and Jim going past the mouth of the Ohio River in the fog are that the boys get separated from each other and the past free land and are floating more into the Deep South.

5.	Huck’s and Jim’s quest for freedom takes them further into the Deep South because the author wanted the boys to have one last struggle. He wants them to prove how far Huck would go in order to save his friend. He wants to show the real fight for slavery in the United States.

6.	This pattern represents Huck’s and Jim’s journey to escape slavery, in order to not get caught. It can also represent the indecisive nature of the people in that time over the issues of slavery.

7.	The duke and the king had a great impact on the boys’ lives on the raft. They made it harder but easier all at the same time. Huck and Jim had to help them and stop in every city so that they could scan the citizens and get money. Their journey would have been much faster without the duke and the king, but they also helped Huck and Jim. They were allowed to pass through all of the states because the two men made a fake bounty for Jim, and pretended like they were taking him back to his owner. They made a great impact while they were on the raft.

8.	There are many parallels of between the king’s and the duke’s treatment of Jim, and Tom Sawyer’s treatment of him in the last chapters. Even though the men were playing Huck and Jim from the start, they treated Jim as an actual human instead of as a slave. They were even trying to help him escape. In the last chapters Tom also tries to help Jim, and after Jim saves his life by getting him a doctor, he is considered as an equal, instead of a slave.

9.	Another instance when Huck was in immediate danger was when hid dad, Pap, was back in town. He was able to escape by running away and making it look like he was murdered. Normally when he was in danger, he escaped by hiding or lying.

10.	Yes, the last chapters rely too much on coincidence. It was too lucky that Jim was being held on the Phelps farm and when Huck showed up they thought he was Tom, who is Huck’s best friend. They just happen to be Tom’s relatives, and Tom is supposed to be there visiting.

11.	No, Tom just likes to have fun and to do things the way he reads them in books. He wants adventure. In a way Tom makes the escape harder and more dangerous, but he just wants to have fun.

12.	Yes, there is justice when Tom gets shot in the end, because he make the escape much more difficult then it would have been.

13.	Even though Huck lies throughout the novel, we are still able to trust him because he seems like such an innocent fourteen year old. We may have to read between the lines but he is for the most part just telling the story.