Novel Study Guide

Title
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Author
Mark Twain

Plot Summary
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of a free-thinking street kid, Huck
Finn, and a slave named Jim, both of whom choose to flee their oppressive lives.
The two set out on a trip down the Mississippi River that is filled with adventures
and experiences unique to the particular class of characters and setting during the
mid-nineteenth century.

Setting
Mississippi River and its surrounding communities, 1840s

Major Characters
• Huckleberry Finn, the main character and narrator of the story
• Jim, a runaway slave belonging to Miss Watson
• Tom Sawyer, Huck’s friend
• Widow Douglas, a widow who had taken Huck in and tried to “civilize” him
• Miss Watson, the sister of the Widow Douglas, who wants to sell Jim south
• Judge Thatcher, a respected citizen of St. Petersburg who protects Huck’s
fortune
• Pap, Huck’s father, who is an abusive drunk
• The Duke of Bridgewater, a young con man who invents the Royal Nonesuch
• The King of France, an elder con man who forces himself upon the raft and
sells Jim
• The Grangerford Family, comprising Bob, Buck, Charlotte, Colonel, Emmeline,
Sophia, and Tom. They are involved in a long-standing feud with the
Shepherdsons; they also treat Huck like a son.
• The Shepherdson Family, comprising the Colonel, Harney, and others who
feud with the Grangerfords.
• The Wilks Family, who recently lost their patriarch and whom the duke and
king try to fool by posing as their heirs from England
• Silas and Sally Phelps, Tom Sawyer's aunt and uncle, victims of Huck and
Tom’s trickeries as they plot to free Jim

Chapter Review Questions

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Answering the following questions will increase your comprehension of the novel.
Respond to these questions by writing the answers in your notebook. Some of the
questions require you to express an opinion or describe your reaction to events in
the novel. In these instances, there is no right or wrong answer, and responses will
vary. The answers to factual questions are included in this study guide.

Chapters 1–6
Vocabulary: Providence, ornery, whale, ambuscade, tract, raspy, tanned, pungle,
temperance

Chapter 1
1. What is the irony in Tom’s invitation to Huck to join his band of robbers on the
condition he goes back to the widow and be respectable?
2. How do Huck’s religious practices differ from the widow’s? How are they like
Jim’s?

Chapter 2
1. How does Twain build suspense in the beginning of Chapter 2?
2. What does this sentence mean and what event might it foreshadow? Jim was
most ruined, for a servant, because he got so stuck up on account of having
seen the devil and been rode by witches.
3. How does Tom let his breeding show, even while he is plotting kidnapping and
murders?

Chapter 3
1. What does Huck mean at the end of the chapter when he compares Tom’s lies
to Sunday school?

Chapter 4
1. Find two examples of Huck’s superstitious beliefs.
2. Why do you think Huck wants to get rid of his money? What does Judge
Thatcher do to protect Huck’s money?

Chapter 5
1. What could be the irony or real reason behind Huck’s father’s accusations
toward his son?

Chapter 6
1. Why do you think Twain included the “mulatter” (bi-racial) character in this
chapter?
2. How does Twain create suspense at the end of Chapter 6?

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Chapters 7–11
Vocabulary: palaver, quicksilver, clip, truck, injun, traps, reticule, hump

Chapter 7
1. Describe Huck’s thoughtful process of escaping the shanty.
2. Do you think his staged murder will be believable?
3. How does the author create a vivid atmosphere?
4. What are some examples of how Huck has basic survival skills most young boys
(or even men) in this country these days would not have?

Chapter 8
1. How does Huck’s feeling of contentment change from the morning to the
evening?
2. Which literary device can be found twice in this sentence? “I see the moon go
off watch and the darkness begin to blanket the river.”
3. Describe in your own words how Jim escaped.
4. How does Jim consider himself rich now?

Chapter 9
1. What is strange about the man on the floating house? What do you think
happened in the house earlier?

Chapter 10
1. Why do Huck and Jim think that touching a snakeskin with your hands has
caused their bad luck?
2. Why does Huck dress up like a girl?

Chapter 11
1. What’s the main reason people think Huck’s father killed him?
2. What makes Huck so uneasy while at Mrs. Loftus’s house?

Chapters 12–16
Vocabulary: derrick, halter, toe-head, staving

Chapter 12
1. According to Huck, what are the two meanings of “borrowing”? How do he and
Jim reconcile the two together to feel OK about taking things?
2. How does Huck foolishly do what he thinks Tom Sawyer would do in Chapter 12?

Chapter 13
1. What do you think Twain’s purpose was for having Huck go through the trouble
of trying to save the gang of murderers aboard the sinking wreck?

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Chapter 14
1. Why do you think Jim says he doesn’t want any more adventures? How is Jim’s
situation very different from Huck’s?
2. Why does Jim think Solomon’s life wasn’t so great nor was he wise?
3. Why do you think Jim knows so much about Solomon and other biblical stories?
4. What is the irony in Huck’s statement at the end of the chapter “I see it
warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.”?

Chapter 15
1. What is Huck and Jim’s plan to get out of trouble in general? Does it sound like
a good plan to you? Why or why not?
2. What lesson does Huck learn at the end of Chapter 15?

Chapter 16
1. Why does Huck’s conscience bother him in this chapter? How does his
bothered conscience sound strange to us in the 21st century? What makes
Huck then feel bad about deciding to turn Jim in? What finally eases his
conscience all around?
2. How does handling the snakeskin come back to haunt the pair again?

Chapters 17–19
Vocabulary: frowsy, junket, pommel, puncheon, galoot, scow

Chapter 17
1. How does Huck find out his false name on the night the Grangerfords found
him?
2. How can you tell that Huck is impressed with the Grangerford’s house?
3. What sort of theme runs through all of Emmeline’s art and poetry?

Chapter 18
1. Describe Colonel Grangerford in your own words.
2. What is Buck’s opinion of the Shepherdsons’ bravery?
3. What do all the Grangerfords take to church with them?
4. What is the catalyst for the current battle between the two families?
5. What is Huck’s opinion of life on a raft?

Chapter 19
1. What got the temperance revivalist in trouble?
2. Why does Huck go along with the duke and king’s lies?

Chapters 20–23

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Vocabulary: hub, contrite, pluck

Chapter 20
1. Judging from the context of the chapter, what do you think a “one-horse town”
is?
2. What false identity yielded the king $87.75?
3. How did the duke find a way to run the raft in the daytime?

Chapter 21
1. Think about the way Huck describes the setting in Chapter 21. In what way
does Twain appeal to all the senses in his description of the town?
2. Why does Boggs come to town?
3. What prevents Huck from being confronted by Boggs?

Chapter 22
1. What might have run through Huck’s mind (that he doesn’t tell the reader)
when he sees Boggs carry on and then get shot?
2. How does Colonel Sherburn convince the crowd not to lynch him?
3. What ploy did the duke use to bring in crowds for his “The Royal Nonesuch”
show? How is the title ironic?

Chapter 23
1. How do the men prove themselves to be regular rapscallions in this chapter?
2. What is wrong with Huck’s description of Henry the 8th?
3. Why doesn’t Huck tell Jim they aren’t real dukes or kings?
4. How does Twain show Jim’s humanity at the end of this chapter?

Chapters 24–27
Vocabulary: lath, yawl, doxolojer, obsequies, smouch, melodium (melodeon),
histrionic

Chapter 24
1. What makes Huck say “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human
race”?

Chapter 25
1. What disgusts Huck at the beginning of Chapter 25?
2. What is Huck’s favorite part of church?
3. Why does the doctor think the king is an imposter?

Chapter 26
1. How does Huck feel about the orphan girls?

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2. Do you think such a heist would be possible in modern times? Why or why not?

Chapter 27
1. Where does Huck hide the money? Do you think it is strange that he doesn’t
take even a few pieces of gold?
2. How does the undertaker satisfy the funeral attendees’ curiosity and become
very “popular”?
3. Why do Huck and the girls feel terrible for their slaves?
4. How does Huck feel a little bit better about the slaves by the end of the
chapter? Do you think this was a risk he carelessly took? Why or why not?

Chapters 28–31
Vocabulary: bile, harrow, blether, fagged, cravat, gabble, doggery, tight

Chapter 28
1. Describe Huck’s inner grappling with telling Mary Jane the truth.
2. Why does Huck not want to have his plan set in motion until late in the night?
3. Has Huck’s opinion of Mary Jane changed for the worse during this chapter?

Chapter 29
1. How does the lawyer, Levi Bell, try to decide which is the real brother?

Chapter 30
1. What realization of the king’s makes Huck squirm on the raft? What helps
Huck relax?

Chapter 31
1. What self-described “lowdown thing” has Huck done?
2. What does Huck do to make himself feel better about this horrible thing he
has done?
3. What finally makes Huck decide he will never reform and rip up the letter?
4. Why do you think Huck makes such a point of referring to Jim as his “nigger”
and his only “property” in the world when whining to the duke?

Chapters 32–36
Vocabulary: stile, mortification, vittles

Chapter 32
1. How are the white woman and her children the same as the slave woman and
her children? Why do you think Twain included this detail?
2. Why is Huck so relieved to find out who he is supposed to be?

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Chapter 33
1. What does Tom reveal about himself when he tells Huck he’ll help him steal
Jim?
2. How does Huck feel when he sees the king and duke tarred and feathered?

Chapter 34
1. What is the irony of Huck’s undying admiration of Tom’s stylish plans, such as
the one to steal Jim?
2. Why does Huck try to dissuade Tom from helping release Jim?

Chapter 35
1. Why might some people find Tom’s drawn-out plans to free Jim selfishly
motivated?

Chapter 36
1. How does Tom reconcile himself to Huck’s practicality?

Chapters 37–Chapter the Last

Vocabulary: addled, brickbat, jews-harp, desperadoes, yarn

Chapter 37
1. How do Tom and Huck make up for allowing Uncle Silas to take all the blame for
the missing objects?
2. Does Jim go along with Tom and Huck’s elaborate prison games? Why do you
think he does or does not?

Chapter 38
1. What is ironic about Jim helping the boys move the grindstone?
2. What might the rattlesnake and rats that Tom wants to drop in Jim’s cell
symbolize?

Chapter 39
1. Which characters are likely to be sorry Tom and Huck ever came to the
Phelps’s?

Chapter 40
1. How does Twain add comic relief to the tense scene in the house with all the
armed men?
2. What hitch in the whole escape tipped the men off and made them shoot?
What slows down an almost perfect escape?

Chapter 41

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1. How are Huck and Tom’s shenanigans bad for the other slaves?

Chapter 42
1. What selfless act does Jim commit on the island?
2. What is the doctor’s opinion of Jim?
3. What shocking news does Tom reveal after he delightfully recounts how he and
Huck were responsible for all the trouble?

Chapter the Last

1. What shocking news does Jim reveal to Huck? What is Huck’s reaction?

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