Comp.+Questions+for+Huckleberry+Finn

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//Questions//

 * 1.** Why did Twain include the "Notice" on the opening page?

By including the notice in his book he is trying to show that his book is out of the normal and that you can’t expect the expected. His writing was a unique style at the time and many sophisticated people would have been lost within the language.
 * 2.** Can the book's 43 chapters be grouped according to distinct action sequences? Are there correspondences among chapters or groups of chapters?

The chapters are set up so that the reader can easily transfer from one to the next. He starts the chapters with a set up so that his audience understands Huck’s situation. The set up makes the chapter events flow from one event to another.


 * 3.** Each stage of Huck's moral growth culminates in a crisis of conscience and a decision to assist Jim (as when Huck tells the two slave hunters that there is "only one" man on the raft and that "He's white"); and each decision is more consequential than the previous. What are these stages and decisions; when do they occur; and what are their consequences?

Huck does not always agree with what most of society thinks. He feels that helping Jim could be bad, but he also grows to see that Jim shouldn’t be enslaved just by the color of his skin. Huck chooses to help Jim even though society would not think to well upon it. Huck continues his journey with Jim even though he had many opportunities to abandon him. Huck gets Jim into more danger by divulging too much information to the Duke and the Dauphin. When Jim gets captured Huck even goes so far as to save Jim, when once again he had the decision to leave him.


 * 4.** What are the consequences of Huck's and Jim's going past the mouth of the Ohio River in the fog? (Chapter XV)

The fog ends up messing up Jim and Huck’s course and they pass the town Cairo, the town they had planned to stop at. By passing the city Huck also gets more time to assess his relationship with Jim. He is still second guessing whether he should keep on helping the slave. Missing Cairo changes their plans and they encounter more danger than expected.


 * 5**.Among the novel's great ironies is that Huck's and Jim's quest for freedom takes them farther and farther into the deep South, the heart of slavery. How and why does this happen? What are the implications?

Ever since they first left their course they continued to move further and further South. Neither one of them really know where they are going, and it is seen throughout the novel that they are truly lost. Each one of them never really had a full education and that explains how they could get so lost.


 * 6.** The primary movement of Huck's and Jim's journey and of the novel is linear, from north to south. A back-and-forth pattern of movement between river and shore also occurs. How is this pattern important in terms of plot? How is it related to the north-to-south movement? Does it reflect any other kind of movement experienced by Huck or Jim?

Their movement can be related to the happenings in the United States at the time. The south and the North had different views on slavery, thus it can be related to the movement of Huck and Jim’s raft. The two people’s relationship can also be compared to a back-and-forth movement. Huck sometimes feels he should trust Jim and other times he feels he should turn him in.


 * 7.** How do the king and the duke impact Huck's and Jim's life on the raft, their quest for freedom, and the novel's movement?

The king and the duke impact Huck’s life negatively; he learns to be a con artist like them and uses his acquired skills to con others. With these characters the plot line becomes more interesting, and there is more obstacles that Huck and Jim must overcome because of these two.


 * 8.** What are the parallels between the king's and duke's treatment of Jim in Chapter XXIV and Tom Sawyer's treatment of him in the final chapters?

Both Tom Sawyer’s and the king’s and duke’s treatment towards Jim is exactly what would be expected from the society of that century; cruel and degrading. Tom Sawyer uses Jim in his plan to create the ultimate story and the king/duke use him to gain money and material gains.


 * 9.** The cemetery passage in Chapter XXIX is one of the few times when Huck is in immediate danger of actual harm or death. What are some similar incidents? What threatens his safety and well-being in each instance--other people or forces of nature? How does he escape in each instance?

Huck’s dad, Pap, was a constant threat to Huck’s well being. He was constantly beating Huck and tried to take his money from him. He was a drunk and always neglected Huck and left him for alone for long periods without food or attention. The next threat could be Jim because he was a slave and if Huck were caught helping a slave dire consequences could have transpired.


 * 10.** Do the final chapters, beginning with Huck's arrival at the Phelps farm, rely too much on coincidence?

Yes the final chapters do rely heavily on coincidence. The fact that the people who took Jim happened to be Tom’s relatives was highly unlikely. Twain makes his story much more compelling with the many obstacles that are faced by the characters. They seem to follow each other by chance.


 * 11.** Do Tom Sawyer's elaborate escape stratagems indicate that Jim's and Huck's goals are unobtainable?

The goal to free Jim was not unobtainable, just made more difficult with Tom’s highly complicated schemes. Jim probably would have escaped much more easily if Tom were not to interfere.


 * 12.** Is there any justice in the fact that only Tom is wounded in the final chase through the swamp?

The ending kind of serves Tom right. Throughout the novel he was only creating complicated schemes in order to benefit himself. The fact that he got caught could serve as a reminder to delinquents that, “what comes around goes around.”


 * 13.** The story is told by a fourteen-year-old Huck, who admits to elaborate lies and fabrications. Can we trust him? Can we accept his version of things, or must we read between his lines?

Not everything should be believed by a boy who is fourteen and relating a highly elaborate story. There are many facts that could have been blown out of proportion and there is know way of knowing if what he was saying was true. Though he is the only one retelling the story, one can never assume that everything is correct.

P5 SKopp