Summary

o Huck couldn’t stand Widow Douglass trying to civilize him, he runs away but returns because

Tom insists on being respectable for Huck to be part of his (doomed) “robber’s gang.”o Huck recognizes his father’s foot print in the snow and sells the $6,000 plus interest that he got at

the end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to Judge Thatcher for a dollar so that his father, Pap, cannot have his fortune. He appears in Huck’s room that evening demanding the money.

o Pap kidnaps Huck and takes him to an isolated cabin, in which Huck finds a saw that he plans to

use to escape with as soon as he can. His father attacks him with a knife in his sleep, calling him the “Angel of Death” and only stops from passing out. Pap leaves and Huck escapes, making it appear as if he were killed by robbers. He leaves by canoe after seeing his father depart.

o Huck is happy to find the slave Jim hiding also, because Miss Watson had been planning to sell

him to New Orleans, separating him and his family. o Huck goes inland to get information dressed as a girl. He meets a woman and calls himself Sarah

Williams; the woman tells him that her husband intends to search for Jim ($300 reward) on the island they are hiding on, he then calls himself Mary Williams, throws a shoe accurately and confesses he is actually an apprentice to a mean farmer who has run away. Huck and Jim run away on a raft they found.

o Upon finding a steamboat, their raft is cut loose so they steal a robber’s boat. Huck feels bad and

after finding their raft goes ashore to lie and get help for the robbers, who do not live.o A steamboat collides with the raft and Huck and Jim are separated. Huck is taken in by the

Grangerford family, who in feuding with the Stephardsons have two of their own – Buck and a nineteen year old boy killed in a gun fight about their sister and the others’ son in love. Once seeing this, Huck leaves with Jim, who had followed him, on the raft down the river.

o Huck allows two con artists on the raft who pretend to be an English duke and the Dauphin.

o The dauphin and duke put on a play over-charging people who, while angry, do not tell the others

who then go the second night for the same jip. They flee the third night to avoid revenge. o They then pretend to be English cousins who are inheriting money from their recently deceased

brother. The Wilks daughters believe it and reject the idea they are cons though they are bad at their accents and acting when the doctor attempts to reason with them. They give all their money and property to the duke and dauphin who in turn sell it all, promising to bring the sisters to England. Huck steals the money back, puts it in the coffin, tells the sister Mary Jane about the entire scam but asks her to remain quiet about it and before they can all get away, a mob with the real brothers emerges. After various authenticity tests, Huck and Jim prepare to leave but must also bring the duke and dauphin when they approach the boat.

o The dauphin sells Jim to a farmer, and after deliberation, Huck resolves to steal Jim back. When

he gets to the Phelps’, he is greeted by Sally and pretends to be Tom Sawyer – their nephew apparently coming to visit. He finds Tom when he arrives and they come up with a way to get Jim free (though it’s too elaborate and unnecessary for its own good).

o Armed farmers attack the shed Jim is kept in, but he, Tom, and Huck escape – however, Tom gets

shot in the leg. Huck gets a doctor who brings Jim and Tom back to the Phelps house where Tom tells everyone that Miss Watson died and set Jim free in her will. Tom’s Aunt and guardian arrives, identifying the two boys.

o Jim is freed and treated well because he helped the doctor in tending Tom’s wound, Aunt Polly

tries to civilize Huck who quickly grows tired of it and plans to head west and leave society again

Major Characters

Huck Finn: Huck begins and ends the novel as a boy from low class white society who rejects the society he lives in by failing to be civilized by first Widow Douglas and second Tom’s mother. Throughout the novel he faces challenges, not only of physical means but mainly of conflicting feelings on morality. He was raised with the southern boy view of slaves, feeling guilt from helping Jim to escape from Miss Watson, his rightful owner, but also wants to help him because he sees that, strangely enough, Jim cares for his family as much as white men care for theirs, and Jim confesses that Huck is his friend and the only person to keep promises to him. Huck struggles with these conflicting views until he decides to steal Jim back from slavery when the Phelpses buy him. He reveals the good side of humanity – helping Jim, lying in a beneficial way to help others, and risking himself to protect and save others as well. Huck’s importance in the novel is as a questioner of society and as a character with multitudes of development throughout his experiences.

Jim: We first see Jim’s compassion when he escapes so that he won’t be separated from his family, but this nurturing attitude continues as he travels with Huck. He protects Huck from seeing his father, dead, in the water, returns to Huck with risk of being caught after they were separated by the steamboat crash, and also sacrifices his freedom to help Tom by getting him a doctor and helping tend the bullet wound. Strongly contrasting with Huck’s own father, Jim proves to be more caring, nurturing, and understanding than almost every other, specifically white, character in the novel. Jim is really one of, if not the only adult in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn who escapes it remaining respectable, clearly enforcing the fact that blacks and slaves are equally humane, if not more humane, than whites – reinforcing the major themes of the work. Jim also reveals the majority of the superstitious beliefs in the novel.

Minor Characters

Tom Sawyer: Tom represents the well-off southern boy, by learning everything through his books he is highly romantic in his beliefs. Twain hates romanticized novels and therefore expresses Tom as a character the reader should not favor - his overanalyzed plan to rescue Jim almost got all of them killed. He also shows the typical view of black men and slaves in the south – he knows that Jim is free, yet uses and risks him for his own entertainment. He represents the way that civilized society tends to be uncivilized in their views and choice of entertainment, being one of the main focuses on Twain’s commentary on society.

The duke and dauphin: The duke and dauphin represent a lying, conniving, terrible part of society. Though they are of age white men, they don’t care about anyone other than themselves (seen through their various cons, most notably selling Jim and their attempt to take everything from the Wilks sisters and split up their slave family). While Huck lies throughout the novel to help himself, Jim, and even the robbers left on the boat, the duke and dauphin reveal lying and conning in a bad way, to help no one other than themselves – most specifically, to gain wealth.

The Grangerfords and Stepherdsons: The Grangerford’s kindness and hospitality is evident by their taking Huck in; however, they reveal one of the major themes of the novel – hypocrisy – by their ongoing feud with the Stepherdsons. At church, they both attend, listening to sermons about brotherly love whilst holding guns between their knees. The feud also serves as Twain’s mocking of much of the popular romantic work of the time.

The Wilks sisters: While serving as obviously kind, innocent people – apparent from their sadness about the slave family being split up – the Wilks sisters also appear as extremely gullible. Even when the doctor tries to convince them of the duke and dauphin’s scam, they refuse to believe a word of it, or even acknowledge that it’s a possibility. They’re important for seeing both good and bad in society, marking Twain’s comment on society throughout the novel.

Pap: Pap is a symbol in the novel and foil of the mixed race man who comes into town, read more in symbols but Pap basically represents the worst stereotypes of white society, showing early on that being white doesn’t make someone a good man or a good father.

Widow Douglas and Miss Watson: Caring because they take Huck in and help him learn; however, they represent hypocrisy, for the Widow does not permit smoking but allows snuff because she herself uses it, and Miss Watson is a very religious woman and preaches morality, but she owns slaves.

Themes:

Character development: Huck’s moral development throughout the novel is key to the final piece of work. In the beginning, he only keeps Jim around for company and entertainment; however, as time goes on, he struggles with what he has been taught in the south with what feels right for him to do. At one point, he even gives up on morality all together and decides to just do what is “handiest” at the time. Eventually at the end of the novel, he does what feels right to him. For example, he stops viewing Jim as less than human and saves him from slavery. He also sabotages the con that the duke and dauphin have against the Wilks sisters by stealing the money back and telling the sisters about what the conmen are doing.

Commentary on society:

Slavery and racism: Most notably seen by Jim: Miss Watson doesn’t view his connection with his family and plans to sell him away from his family. Even Huck has trouble understanding that Jim cares for his family as much as a white man would care for his. The duke and dauphin also appear to have litte appreciation for slave families as they sell the Wilks’ slaves to different cities. In the beginning of their journey, Huck views Jim as something to play with – attempting to trick him with the rattlesnake, and trying to prove to him that their separation later between the canoe and raft was all a dream. This belief is mimicked later on when Tom knows Jim is free, yet risks all of their lives in order to have amusement in getting Jim free from the shed. Even after connecting with Jim for weeks, the duke and dauphin sell him for quick cash the first chance that they get.

Hypocrisy: Throughout the novel, hypocrisy is found in almost all of the minor characters revealed. For example, the Grangerfords and Stephardsons attend church together, supposedly loving their neighbors, with guns between their legs to attack one another at a moment’s notice. The Grangerfords also appear

nice to Huck but own slaves, just as Miss Watson is supposedly a devoted Christian, yet also owns slaves. At the beginning of the novel, Tom makes the boys in the robber’s gang sign a blood oath not to tell anyone about it, however when one boy threatens to leave and talk about it, Tom merely bribes him to stay and be quiet. When Huck goes ashore to get information, the woman he meets tells of how she and her husband wish to catch Jim and gain the reward, however when Huck tells her that he is a runaway apprentice, she shows hospitality towards him and wishes to help him. The examples continue, however it is important to note that the majority of characters reveal themselves as kind and good people, however Twain uses the hypocrisy of them owning slaves or being unfeeling towards blacks as enforcement that no one who owns slaves can truly be a hundred-percent good person.

Lies/cons: The majority of lies and cons come from Huck, as well as the duke and dauphin. For example, Huck lies to get information on land, to protect Jim from slave-searchers, to save gym, and even to help the robbers from the steamboat that they steal the boat from. The duke and dauphin, however, con the revival meeting to gain money, con a town in order to gain money, lie to Huck and Jim about who they are so that they’ll be treated like royalty, lie to the Wilks’ sisters to steal everything they have, and even sell Jim to gain money. It’s important to note that Huck’s lies are almost always for others’ benefit, while the duke and dauphin con and lie in order to make money the wrong way, and respect no one other than themselves. Huck has sympathy while the others do not.

Superstitions: Jim reveals most of the superstitions in the novel, starting with chest hair meaning that wealth will be in his future, all the way to snakeskin being bad luck. Surprisingly¸ a lot of his superstitions come true: when Huck hides a snake in his bed sheets, Jim gets bitten by the snake’s mate, and at the end of the novel, Jim gains money for helping tend Tom’s bullet wound. While it appears as though Twain pokes fun at the ridiculousness of the beliefs many of the slaves share, he also reveals them as a way of belief that can also be correct aside from the mainstream.

Setting

The river: The river is the main setting throughout the novel. Most importantly, the setting acts as a symbol for the freedom Jim and Huck have whilst traveling on it. For Jim, it’s freedom from slavery to the free states up north, and to Huck it is freedom from his abusive father and society’s attempt to civilize him. Despite feeling that they have escaped the hardships of society, the river soon becomes as uncivilized as the society they left for it. Huck and Jim get separated, meet criminals on the wrecked ship, and even get hit by a steamboat. When the duke and dauphin enter the picture, they are forced to spend more time ashore instead of on the freedom of the river – just as they have lost their freedom by bringing the two upon the raft. While the river could still be means of escape and freedom, it merely becomes the transition between dangerous situations the duke and dauphin get them into. While in the beginning the river appears to be freedom to the two, it does, just as society, become corrupt in that it ceases to protect the runaways from the uncivilized world.

Symbols

The River: See above.

The Widow Douglas: The widow’s household represents an evil civilized society to Huck, for him the place is unlivable and his running away from there represents him running away from civilization.

The Grangerford House: The house is extravagant and through many descriptions it is apparent that the house represents a materialistic aristocracy that is so far from Huck and Jim’s predicament that it’s surprising to see in the novel on their journey.

Humor

One of the most prevalent example of humor in the novel is the artwork done by Emmaline Grangerford. Huck remarks humor in the fact that she was so obsessed with death and in the end she died prematurely.

Quotes

o “‘Say,’ says the duke, ‘I got another idea. Le's go up stairs and count this money, and then take

and GIVE IT TO THE GIRLS.’”o “So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was all I could do to keep from

crying.”o "I wouldn't shake my NIGGER, would I? – the only nigger I had in the world, and the only

property."o “’Good gracious! anybody hurt?’ ‘No'm. Killed a nigger.’ ‘Well, it's lucky; because sometimes

people do get hurt.’”