Huck Finn Reading Questions
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-full text.
Answer the following questions as you read and finish the novel. Use quotes whenever possible.
1. Huck Finn is a thirteen-year-old boy. Why does Twain use a child as the center of consciousness in this book?
2. Discuss Twain’s use of dialects in the novel. What effect does this usage have on the reader? Does it make the novel less of an artistic achievement?
3. Discuss the use of the river as a symbol in the novel.
4. Lying occurs frequently in this novel. Curiously, some lies, like those Huck tells to save Jim, seem to be “good” lies, while others, like the cons of the duke and the dauphin, seem to be “bad.” What is the difference? Are both “wrong”? Why does so much lying go on in Huckleberry Finn?
5. Describe some of the models for families that appear in the novel. What is the importance of family structures? What is their place in society? Do Huck and Jim constitute a family? What about Huck and Tom? When does society intervene in the family?
6. The revelation at the novel’s end that Tom has known all along that Jim is a free man is startling. Is Tom inexcusably cruel? Or is he just being a normal thirteen-year-old boy? Does Tom’s behavior comment on society in some larger way?
7. What techniques does Twain use to create sympathy for his characters, in particular, Jim? Are these techniques effective?
8. Discuss the place of morality in Huckleberry Finn. In the world of the novel, where do moral values come from? The community? The family? The church? One’s experiences? Which of these potential sources does Twain privilege over the others? Which does he mock, or describe disapprovingly?
9. Why might Twain have decided to set the novel in a time before the abolition of slavery, despite the fact that he published it in 1885, two decades after the end of the Civil War?
10. Is this a racist book? Should students read it in high school?
posted by dconlay @ 10:05 AM
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9 Comments:
1. The author used a child as the center of consciousness within the book since the child has no true ideals about society as adults have. Huck does not have any set opinions on topics such racial discrimination, criminal acts, and so on. Therefore, we can then view the common ideology that most Southerners maintain in an unbiased view. For instance, when Huck goes to rescue Jim, he states, “All right then, I’ll go to hell.” This implies that he understands society’s views on racial discrimination, though it does not necessarily mean that he believes society’s view proving that he does not have completely set opinions.
2. The dialects affect the readers by giving a better perspective of a southern boy during those times. It also gives the reader a clearer perspective on the main character’s education showing how his education is limited. It does make the novel a better artistic achievement since the novel is able to give readers a better sense of how a southern thirteen year old acts and thinks allowing the readers to establish more details about the main character. For instance, I was able to grasp the limits of his education and at the same time capture the nature of his ways of thinking proving that he was not an idiot. He did see past racial discrimination by helping Jim, which implies that he was smart enough to come to conclusions that no one is superior in race.
3. The river symbolizes maturation and growth within the novel. As Huck travels down the river to Cairo and escapes his hometown with Jim, Huck formulates many opinions about Jim and on how society views racial differences. He gains opinions on con men and sees past fun coating books gives criminals. In fact, Huck is ashamed by the human race when Dauphin and the Duke pretend they are the brothers of Peter Wilks to acquire the family fortune.
4. Good lies are meant to achieve something for the greater good such as saving Jim, a good person, from his evils. Bad lies are meant to achieve something for the greater evil such as the ones told by Dauphin and the Duke, who lie to acquire money and other items to quench their greed. Only bad lies are wrong since their purpose is to achieve a greater evil. I cannot really say why a lot of lies occur within the book. From the author’s perspective, he probably added a lot of lies to continue the story and create more problems to create more adventures for Huckleberry Finn. Since this type of people and circumstances were presented within the book, lying was unavoidable. Huckleberry was brought up in a situation that forced him to lie in order to live through life. The two con artists’ profession revolved around lying. Therefore, lying was bound to occur around them.
5. The two models for families that appear within the story are Jim and Huck, and Silas and Sally Phelps. The former is a temporary family, who help each other no matter what situation they are in. The other portrays the loving family consisting of the traditional husband and wife who would be ready to comfort any family member, as in the case of Huck who pretended he was Tom. The importance of family structure is vital since structure supports the family and provides rules on how to take care for their family. Huck and Jim do constitute a family since they care for one another. Families do not necessarily have to be related by blood, but they must care for one another. Huck and Tom could be considered friends but not family since, if they were really family, Tom would have told about Jim’s freedom sooner and taken Huck’s problem more seriously. Society intervenes in a family when they stop caring for one another and do not care for each other’s well being.
6. Tom is only thirteen-years old. Therefore his idiocy can be forgiven to a certain degree. His lie comments on society’s idea of child rearing by showing how parents are not capable of teaching to a thirteen-year old child when a lie has gone too far. It also comments on how society does not learn from its own mistakes since parents have behaved the same way when they were children, but still fail at teaching children how cruel lying can be.
7. Twain creates sympathy for Jim by continuously shifting him into sad or bad situations such as when he was mourning his lost family or was taken to jail by Dauphin. His techniques are effective since the circumstances that the time period puts Jim in cannot help but make a reader mourn for his circumstances. In my case, I cannot sympathize for Jim since he did beat his daughter and maybe, I would have taken this less seriously if I was reared in that manner, but still, I cannot forgive anyone for hitting a child.
8. Moral values come from one’s experience within the novel. This is proven when Huck is ashamed of the con artists’ scam of stealing the Wilks’ money even though he previously was thrilled to be a thief in Tom’s gang. Twain seems to mock the community’s ability to endow moral values since in the novel the community sets a terrible example several times within the novel. For example, when Dauphin and the Duke ripped off the community with their only-for-adults short show, the people acted like fools and tricked the rest of the communities’ people by pretending that their show was great. This illustrates a lack of strong moral values.
9. If Twain had not set the book within that time period, he would have never been able to truly capture Huck’s growth and maturation in the development of his opinions. Had Twain set the book after the civil war, Jim would have not been a slave, and Huck would have looked upon Jim without a racist prejudice. Furthermore, the story revolves mostly around a runaway slave, which would have not been possible if it was told after the civil war, when slavery was abolished.
10. No, this is not a racist book since racists would never dream of allowing a black man to set free within the end of the book. This book should be read in college since in high school we should be focusing on literary works that can give us a better foundation for writing.
1. Twain used a boy because he is innocent to the evil in the world.
By using a boy as the narrator, he gives us a more sincere account because he is just a child and doesn’t understand how the world works. A child this young hasn’t been influenced by society as much as an adult may have been. A thirteen-year-old has a more free and unbiased view on the situation. It’s also easier to manipulate and grabs the audience’s attention.
2. Twain used a lot of bad grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. He made use of many slang terms to convey a more realistic atmosphere according to the time it took place. He emphasized how the whites are more educated than the blacks in the way of their speech patterns. The people like Jim didn’t speak proper English.
3.The river symbolizes the rebirth of Huck. As Huck sails down the river he experiences a change in ideas and opinions. When before he would have given away Jim now, on chapter 16, he is more considerate and doesn’t give him up as a ran away slave.
4. The difference is the Huck’s lies are to save someone. To keep someone from harms way. The “bad” lies are the ones told for one’s advantage or to get their way. So much lies are told because the journey entails many lies. It’s not just a straight shot but contains many curves.
5. Some of the models for families that appear are the widow, the king and duke, the Grangerfords, and the Phelps. Families like the Phelps, the Grangerford’s saw Huck as another family member. They were what a family should be. They were caring, welcoming, and protective. The importance of family structure is emphasized in the way that Huck didn’t have aproper family. His dad was a drunk and would always hit him. This made him grown up into a boy that drank, lied, and wasn’t like the rest. He became independent at an early age.
6. Tom isn’t being cruel. He is just acting like any other kid in that point in time. His behavior was brought on by how he was brought up in that society.
7. Twain makes a serious of tragedies befall the characters. These tragedies help us feel sympathy for them through out the novel. Also by bringing different family structures. Huck doesn’t have a nice father so the audience feels bad for him.
8. In the world of the novel morality comes from family, community, and one’s own experiences. All three play a part in structuring someone’s morality. Twain emphasizes on one’s own experience. He mocks on the community as influence.
9. Twain wanted to add more flavor to the novel. He also wanted to set the novel in a period where so many people were repressed.
10. This isn’t a racist book and it should definitely be read in high school.
1) In the novel, Mark Twain uses the child as the center of consciousness mainly to show us the boy’s perspective of his experiences, how weak a child is, and finding out wrong from right. Also, since he doesn’t know anything morally in society, it allows us to see his moralistic growth.
2) In the novel, we see a unique use of dialect, which in addition, doesn’t make it a great artistic achievement because it’s so hard to comprehend and most likely will scare readers away like for example, myself, honestly. The dialogue used by Jim in this quote sounds like a southern type dialogue, which is sometimes confusing, but does reflect on who he really is to us, “Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do. Sometimes he spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay.” It’s a little confusing in trying to grasp the main idea of what was said.
3) Overall, the river most significantly symbolizes freedom for both Jim and Huckleberry. Both are similar in their quest for liberty from the authority, which in this case the dad for Huck, and Mrs. Watson for Jim. This also has an affect on their relationship as they go to the mouth of the Ohio River and on to the Free states.
4) There isn’t really a difference between the good lies and the bad lies, mainly because they both have the same effect. Lying to save Jim and lying about the duke and dauphin are both bad, deep down inside of Huck. Although a lie can be good depending on its purpose. For example when Huck and Jim encountered a group of men looking for escaped slaves, Huck said “pap's got the small-pox”, and allowed them to continue on. The bad part of lying knowing yourself in your soul that you lied. The society and lying among American children is the reason why it is present so much in Huck Finn.
5) Sawyer’s Gang, and Huck and Jim are some of the models for families that appear in the novel. The importance of family structure is knowing that you have complete trust in them, and that they will be besides you through thick and thin. Huck and Jim certainly constitute a family for the reason that they care for each other and have developed a strong relationship on their journey in the river. For example, Jim doesn’t let Huck see his father’s dead body in the floating house, for the reason that Jim is smart and caring about Huck’s feeling, “doan' look at his face -- it's too gashly." Huck and Tom also constitute family for the reason of friendship for a period of time, that develops that love. Society intervenes in a family when such issues like slavery are dealt with and causes disaster in family, just like Jim and Huck.
6) Tom’s teenage behavior was not cruel mainly because of his life style in society, which was typically normal. For society, it basically puts the picture that they are giving into teenage lies, in other words, they are gullible.
7) Some of the techniques that Mark Twain used for showing sympathy towards Jim were using slavery and his skin color as the main source of sorrow for him. His techniques were undoubtedly effective, mainly because you can easily grasp the readers emotions and sympathy by saying that he was in seek of freedom and was racially discriminated because of his skin color.
8) In the novel’s world, morality derives mostly from family and one’s personal experiences that have a great affect. It seems as if Twaine privileges the source of family and experiences over the others, for example church, mainly due to the lack of mentioning it.
9) I believe that he might have decided to set the novel in a time before the abolition of slavery because he wanted to send a message to the people of how cruel slavery was, and how it was wrong to mankind. In addition, after the abolition of slavery, the people would reflect upon their actions committed and would not do something similar in the future.
10) Personally, I don’t consider this novel to be racist. Although it does use the “ N “ word repeatedly, as seen here, “If you see any runaway niggers you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it,” it is not intended to be racist against blacks. It has to be used because it is truly what they were called back then. Twaine has no intention in being racist; he is using it to display how freedom was sought by many. I think that it should be read in high school because it displays the great bond of a black and white person during the slavery period.
1. Many say that children are honest in what they say and think. They’re not exposed to as much experience, such as murder, robber, love and other things, as an adult. “We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned. All the boys did. We hadn't robbed nobody, hadn't killed any people, but only just pretended.“ (Chapter 3) Twain use a child, Huckleberry Finn, to show the truth, which is his honesty, about the story because children are more likely follow their self conscience. “I'll up and tell the truth this time,….” (Chapter 28) In this chapter, Huckleberry Finn confesses about the frauds, king and the duke, because his conscience thought it was better to tell the truth than a lie. This shows the readers about the good and bad about human beings through the boy’s eyes. It shows the innocence that everyone has, if he or she is willing to confess about the truth.
2.. Twain’s use of dialects are unique in the novel. The dialects does not necessarily make the novel artistic in a beautiful and majestic, but it shows how simple the people were during that time. “‘I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de security.’” (Chapter 8) This is when Jim is talking, but it shows that African Americans, such as Jim, did not receive education in that time. They have to adapt the words from other people in order to communicate with them. The reader can assume people, in that time, did not receive few or any education. The reader can also assume that education was building up and improving because Huckleberry Finn went to school and he was about to read and write, but it was not to the point where the community stressed on education for children.
3. In the novel, the river symbolizes as an education. While Huckleberry Finn and Jim have a separate goal they want to achieve, they have to go through the same course, the river, to obtain it. Jim’s main goal is to go to the Northern states and be free while Huckleberry Finn wants to get away from his father and Miss Watson. “He was saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he got enough he would buy his wife….” (Chapter 16) During their voyage, they learn about things they never expected. Jim and Huckleberry Finn goes through the same river and same experience, which is the education.
4. Lying occurs throughout the novel, but depending on the lies, it can be good or bad. When duke and the dauphin told a lie, but was for their own benefit. “‘Quick sales and small profits! It's a good business -- yes.’” (Chapter 27) They would trick people to get more money out of them. They are only helping themselves and harming others. Huckleberry Finn lies, but it helps Jim. Also, his lies doesn’t harm anyone. His lies is used to hide hid identity and help Jim get his freedom. People say that it is wrong to lie, but it may help someone’s life. In desperate times, lying is a tool people can use. Many lies go on in this novel because it shows how lies can benefit the community or benefit for one’s selfishness. The reader can see that lying can be good to some point, but even a white lie has some consequences.
5. There were various kinds of family models in the novel such as Huckleberry Finn’s family, Tom Sawyer’s family, Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, duke and dauphin, and many others that Huckleberry Finn encountered during his trip. Huckleberry Finn’s family was unique because his father is not there all of the time, Miss Watson is taking care of Huckleberry Finn, and Jim is a servant who becomes close to him later on. Tom Sawyer’s family is bad at identifying people because they thought Huckleberry Finn was Tom Sawyer and Tom as Sid Sawyer. There’s a conflict between Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. The feud started long time ago so it’s been a tradition for them to fight against each other. “‘It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along there. There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the man that won the suit -- which he would naturally do, of course. Anybody would.’” (Chapter 18) Duke and the dauphin have a strong bond with each other because they have many things in common, but they are both men. The importance of family structure is that it shows what kind of family people have in the world. Different people varies in different parts of the world. In society, people have to accept different kinds of families because not every family will be the same. Huck and Jim and constitute a family because both do care for each other as a sibling would. The same goes for Huck and Tom. They are almost like brothers looking out for each other. The society intervene when families starts forgetting people and stop caring for the,
6. Tom looks cruel because of his action, but it is not his fault that he takes cruel actions. Children imitate other people thinking it’s okay to do the same thing. Children, such as Tom who is a thirteen-year-old boy, are easily influenced. “Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. He said, some of it, but the rest was out of pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had it.” (Chapter 2) It is not normal for a thirteen-year-old to be thinking about dangerous things, but the society is to be blamed for his action. By looking at Tom’s behavior, readers can see how they take care of the children and how they’re censoring the environment around them.
7. The technique he used to put sympathy for his character is his dialogue and how he uses the characters in the story. Jim’s lack of speaking was from not going to school, but Jim’s dialogue still gives feeling about what he is saying. “‘Ef I could git de ten cents back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de chanst.’” (Chapter 8) Also, Jim was the one who gets in trouble and Huck or someone else has to rescue him. This shows that he is weak because he has no rights except being a slave. These techniques are effective because it shows Jim’s true character in the book.
8. In the novel, morality comes from all over the places such as community, family, church, experiences, and many others. Twain privileges one’s experience because he shows that people can only teach knowledge, but mistakes has to be taken by themselves. During the voyage, Huck knows that lying is bad, but he doesn not understand it until he’s in a tight situation. “… I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it looks so to me, anyway….” (Chapter 28) Twain mocks the family because there were no family that was a “good” family. People died or got hurt and Huck met the families on his journey.
9. Twain decided to set the novel before the war because he wanted people to see what it was like to have slavery. If the book was published after the war and the abolition of slavery, people won’t understand how hard it was to be a slave in the time. This way, people will oppose to slavery and it will prevent the war from happening.
10. The book is only racist to African Americans because there were no other different race. It compared between an American, such as Huck, and an African American, such as Jim. The novel shows that Huck was powerful and can handle anything in any situation because he’s an American, but Jim was weak and had no skill to get out in a small situation. Students should read this book in high school because it has different morals to the story. Also, it is interesting to learn how they can manage to lie all over the place without getting in trouble. The only thing I’m against is the writing of the book. The way Twain have written this book is a good idea to show that people didn’t have enough education to talk normally, but it confuses the reader what people are trying to say, especially Jim.
1. Mark Twain used a child as the center consciousness for his novel for many reasons. First of all, it created a sense of innocence in his novel, and affected the way that the reader viewed events. Having a child who learns about life, and how different people act helps to give his novel a theme of moral value. It gives the reader a chance to see American life in the mid 1800’s in a whole new light, not only in a literal sense, but also in a figurative sense. For example, when Huckleberry Finn sees men murdered for no good reason, he becomes physically upset, and reacts like an innocent child would to such a horrible thing. “…singing out, "Kill them, kill them!" It made me so sick I most fell out of the tree. I ain't a-going to tell all that happened -- it would make me sick again if I was to do that. I wished I hadn't ever come ashore that night to see such things. I ain't ever going to get shut of them -- lots of times I dream about them,” (p. 114). Twain is trying to say that this kind of reaction is the way that everybody should react toward murder; it shouldn’t become an accepted part of life in the new world. This was becoming more common in the Western states at this time because the new territories weren’t under complete control yet, and so the people self-governed themselves most of the time. Another time where he used the innocence of Huck, was when he discusses slavery. Huck undergoes an interior struggle over Jim when they have been sailing for a while. He has always been told that black men were inferior and belonged to people as property. When Huck became friends with Jim, he began to question this idea. This shows how as he was growing up, his views began to change, and that if people can separate yourself from the common opinion, they will be better off in life.
2. Mark Twain uses a few different dialects throughout the novel, including: a dialect for slaves, the sloppy English of Hick Fin and the other country folk in the novel. His use of these dialects doesn’t make his novel any less of a work of art; in fact, I think that it makes the story seem more real. He tried to give readers a realistic picture of how common people actually spoke in America during this time period. The drastic changes in dialogue between characters based on their education and race, constantly reminds you throughout the novel about the difference between Jim and Huck; that one is a slave and the other is a white boy. “Nuffn never come of it. I couldn' manage to k'leck dat money no way; en Balum he couldn'. I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de security. Boun' to git yo' money back a hund'd times, de preacher says! Ef I could git de ten cents back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de chanst. ‘Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're going to be rich again some time or other.’‘Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'." (p.47) Here, not only is the language so completely different, it even shows the way slaves were thought of during this time.
3. The use of the river in the novel represents freedom and independence. No matter what bad luck they manage to run into while they are on land, they always find a way back to their beloved raft. When they are on the raft, they are best friends. While they are on the raft, Huck and Jim forget about the restrictions that society puts on the relationships between black and white men. Nobody can tell them what to do, and they don’t have to be somebody that they are not. For Huck, it is an escape from the hard life he has always lived. For Jim, the river symbolizes freedom from the bondage and oppression he has lived under his entire life. “Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was… It's lovely to live on a raft,” (p. 118). With this, Huck describes the wonderful carefree life he and Jim are able to enjoy while living on a constantly moving river.
4. While reading Huckleberry Fin, I noticed that the characters were constantly lying. The good kind of lie in the story was the kind where Huck lied to save Jim from being hunted and taken back to slavery. “Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head of the bend. Is your man white or black? ‘I didn't answer up prompt. I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man enough -- hadn't the spunk of a rabbit. I see I was weakening; so I just give up trying, and up and says: ‘He's white,” (p. 89) The bad lies, are the horrible cons that the “kind” and “duke” tell to fool innocent people out of their money. “In other bills he had a lot of other names and done other wonderful things like finding water and gold with a “divining-rod,” “dissipating witch spells,” and so on,” (p. 128) The lies in this story represent the moral growth that Huck undergoes as the novel progresses. He begins to realize that there are good lies and bad lies. They are determined by their purposes and outcomes.
5. There are several families in Huck Fin. First, Huck lives with the widow and her sister. This was a fairly good home for him because he had a family that cared about his well-being and his future. His second home in the novel was with his drunk father. This was his worst home because his father beat him and only used him for his own purposes. The next model for a family was his relationship with Jim. I do think that their relationship constitutes as a family because they cared for each other, supported and trusted each other, and spent a lot of time together. I don’t think that Huck and Tom constitute as a whole family. I do think that they were brothers to each other, but a family needs to have an older figure to stand as a solid guide that can teach and support the younger children. The next model was the Grangerford family. They were deceiving because at first, they seemed like the picture perfect family with a nice home and loving family members. Later though, a stupid feud ends up destroying the entire family in a horrible violent way, showing that while a family may look happy, underlying issues can still ruin it. Society intervenes in the family when it comes to the laws and ideals of family life. In the novel, the perfect family would include a loving mother and father with lots of children around willing to help their parents all the time. The law intervenes with laws that don’t always mean the best thing for the child. For instance, in the book when Huck’s father comes back, he wins custody of him even though he is a drunk who obviously won’t care for him. “…said he'd druther not take a child away from its father. So Judge Thatcher and the widow had to quit on the business.” (p. 21).
6. I think that Tom Sawyer’s personality had a lot to do with his actions regarding Jim. Huck Finn shared the same sort of carelessness earlier in the novel when he fools Jim into thinking that he dreamed the whole storm. “I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way,” (p. 86). When he learns how much it hurt Jim to trick him so, he learned that lying and tricking for pleasure was a dangerous game. Tom hadn’t yet learned this lesson. I don’t think that he really thought about his actions regarding Jim, and all of the trouble he had put him through. Jim could have been killed, or sold into slavery again, when he was already free. I think that this kind of “joke” was a terrible one that was very cruel, but the fact that Tom was still a boy who didn’t think of the consequences of his actions helps explain what he did.
7. The techniques that Mark Twain used to create empathy for his characters was by having the characters explain their opinions and feelings themselves throughout the novel. In Jim’s case, his ignorance regarding his own existence is enough to create empathy for him and all of the other slaves. This was displayed when Jim exclaims how proud he was of being worth 800 dollars. “Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo, '” (p.47). After this, I felt total pity for Jim, and anger at the whole slave system. Jim should not have been proud to be worth ANY amount of money because human beings aren’t supposed to be priced; no matter what your race or social status is. This technique of the author’s not only created empathy for Jim, it also brought attention to the evils of slavery and sparked thinking in the reader.
8. All throughout the novel, Huck explores different aspects of morality. He remembers the values that his father taught him, as well as the religious morals that the widow told him to always live by. Huck’s family life had never been strong and sturdy, so moral values were not found in that. While all of these different sources threw morals at Huck, he never was able to find them satisfying to him or his life. He only began to sort out his moral values after he ran away onto the river with Jim. Here through experiences, he was able to work out his own set of moral values. For example, while he was out on the river, he was able to make up his own mind about slavery when he became close to Jim. Although he had been taught his entire life, that black men belonged in bondage, his relationship with Jim was able to trample all over those thoughts and make him realize that those people were wrong. “Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad -- I'd feel just the same way I do now. 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?” (p. 91). In the book, Mark Twain seems to mock the religious kind of morals the most. When Huck Finn learns about bible verses and the morals he is supposed to live by according to the bible, he always mocks it. He thinks that he would rather be in hell than learn anymore about it in his bible studies. He even says that the great Kings of the bible, such as King Solomon, were stupid and didn’t really know anything.
9. Mark Twain might have chosen to write a book during this time period with slaves, even though the Civil War was over for a couple of reasons. First of all, just because the Civil War was over, did not mean that racism was anywhere near gone. In most cases, black people were treated with the same amount of respect they were given as slaves twenty years before. The little hints throughout this novel about the evils of slavery could have been ways of telling people that racism was evil and that the United States was still acting like they were living in a United States from decades earlier. He also was trying to say that black men weren’t inferior to white men through Jim. As Huck begins to become closer to Jim, he has a much harder time of thinking of him as a person who wasn’t free. As the barriers between them began to break down, and a friendship formed, he couldn’t see anything that really separated them like everyone said it did. In this, Twain was trying to show people that racial equality was necessary in order for the nation and its people to advance and to cease being filled with such hatred and racism.
10. I do not think that this book is a racist book at all. Mark Twain was taking United States History to try and convey a message to the still fragile nation. He was not trying to be racist in his book. He wrote the opinions and thoughts of the characters as if they were people that were living during that time period in the United States. Jim’s character would have thought that way, and spoken that way because he was an uneducated slave. Mark Twain was trying to be historically accurate with his writing, not trying to insult anyone or fuel racism. Almost all Americans are ashamed of the fact that slavery existed so long in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it never happened. It also means that it is important for students to read about it in high school to show the kind of hatred that was present in our nation not even 200 years ago. Discussing slavery and racism helps to stop the ignorance that causes that kind of hatred.
1. Huck Finn is a thirteen-year-old boy. Why does Twain use a child as the center of consciousness in this book? Mark Twain uses a child as the center of consciousness because a child is less likely to know how society works and is less likely to go into major details about everything. Children’s brain are less complex than adults because they have not matured yet. Huck Finn is not only a young, he is uneducated.Therefore, he knows less than the average boy his age. Most children go to school and are taught what is civilized and proper. Mark Twain cleverly sets up the book this way in order to be able to write more about the oppression of blacks without people judging him on his views; his words and thoughts are being spoken by a young, poor, thirteen-year-old boy from the mid 1900s.
2. Discuss Twain’s use of dialects in the novel. What effect does this usage have on the reader? Does it make the novel less of an artistic achievement? There are a few different dialects in the novel. First, there is Huck Finn’s dialect; unintelligent, boring, simple, and superstitious: “Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then the genies come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the smoke a-rolling, and everything they're told to do they up and do it. They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it -- or any other man." Second, there is Tom Sawyer’s dialect; more intelligent, questioning, curious, and confident: “Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn. You don't seem to know anything, somehow -- perfect saphead.” Last, there is Jim’s dialect; he is even less educated than Huck because he is a slave: “Say, who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. Well, I know what I's gwyne to do: I's gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin."
3. Discuss the use of the river as a symbol in the novel. The river is a symbol in the novel. To both Jim and Huck the river symbolizes freedom and the way to a new life; a life without the people they have been around for many years who know their stories and know their souls inside and out. It symbolizes the way out of town, and yet it symbolizes a way to town as well; it depends on which way they want to take it. Going or coming, it is a long journey, sometimes peaceful and sometimes stressful; one moment full of adventure and daring action, the next nothing but lounging and thinking of good times past.
4. Lying occurs frequently in this novel. Curiously, some lies, like those Huck tells to save Jim, seem to be “good” lies, while others, like the cons of the duke and the dauphin, seem to be “bad.” What is the difference? Are both “wrong”? Why does so much lying go on in Huckleberry Finn? I think the difference between a “good” lie and a “bad” lie is that a “good” lie means lying for someone else’s sake, whereas a “bad” lie means lying for your own mischievous intentions. I would say that mostly both are wrong, but sometimes a “good” lie is needed in trying times. I think so much lying goes on in Huckleberry Finn because the author is trying to relate such lies to those that appeared in the lives of U.S. and its citizens during World War I. The government lied to the people, countries lied to each other, and so on.
5. Describe some of the models for families that appear in the novel. What is the importance of family structures? What is their place in society? Do Huck and Jim constitute a family? What about Huck and Tom? When does society intervene in the family? Some of the families in the book are the widow’s, the Grangerfords, Tom Sawyer’s gang, the Mary Jane’s sisters, the kind and duke, and Jim.
1. Huck Finn, as a child, is used as the center of consciousness because he gives the effect that he has not been changed or forms his opinions based on the society around him. In addition, it also gives a sense of truth to what he says, making the story take a sort of factual air. Both of these effects help to give the reader the sense of american change which Twain is trying to convey.
1. Twain uses a child in his novel because children are still learning things. He is more naïve and doesn’t know everything yet. He is innocent toword many topics. He doesn’t have strong opinions about things going on in his community and therefore does not have a hateful judgment against things.
2. They way the novel is written it is as if Huck Finn is telling it. “You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly -- Tom's Aunt Polly, she is -- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.” He uses the words and speech that people of that time do. It puts you into the time period better then if it had been written normally. If anything, I believe that it makes it more artistic. It gives the reader an insight into Huck Finn’s world.
3. The river symbolizes Huck Finn growing up and matureing. As he travels down the river he learns many things and grows as a person. This is the same for Jim. It could also symbolizes freedom. Jim is escapeing from a life a slavery and Huck is escapeing from his father.
4. I think both types are lying are wrong. However when Huck lies its more accepted because he is helping someone. Also, because he is a child and its more accepted when you’re a child. The difference between the two is that one is a lie to help someone and the other is hurting someone.
5. In the beginning of the novel you see Huck living with the widow and that family. For the most part the adults in that family want whats best for Huck. Huck is rebelious at first but they live together well. Then Huck is living with his father. His father takes advantage of Huck and tries to steal from him. Some other ‘families’ would be, Huck and his friends, and Huck and Jim. I think Huck and Jim are a family. However I don’t think that just Tom and Huck are. Theres no responsible adult that can guild then. Tom and Huck are just friends.
6. I don’t think Tom is cruel, but rather just being a teenager. I don’t think it refelects on the society as a whole, but perhaps on a group of people during the time.
7. During the novel Jim often tells stories of being taken advantage of. He talks about losing money. "Why, live stock -- cattle, you know. I put ten dollars in a cow. But I ain' gwyne to resk no mo' money in stock. De cow up 'n' died on my han's." "So you lost the ten dollars." This makes you sympathetic toward Jim. You feel sorry about his situation and his bad luck.
8. Though there are lots of lies in the novel, the characters feel bad about things and that’s the morality in the novel. Learning from there mistakes and things. This definatly doesn’t come from the community which is not very respectable. I think He gets this from family. Such as the family of Huck and Jim.
9. I think he writes it before the abolishion of slavery to make the relatinship of Jim and Huck more special. Other wise Huck wouldn’t have had to protect Jim as much because he would have been free. They probably wouldn’t have gotten as close.
10. I don’t think this is a racist book. I think its just capturing the way of life of the time that the novel was written about. The country was very racist toward Black people. The book is just trying to show how life was.
1. Mark Twain uses a boy in his book for various reasons. One reason is that using a boy as the main character gives him a sense of innocence. He is also impressionable and can evaluate pressure without the interference of outside interferences.
2. Twain uses dialects in his book to make the characters seem more simple. This gives the reader the impression that he is less learned and also helps give the sense that he is impressionable.
3. The river is a symbol of American history. It reflects the passage of American time. This is demonstrated by the characters and events in the book.
4. There are many lies in the book. There is no differences between the good and bad lies. They are both wrong, especially depriving the widow of her black property. So much lying goes on because it shows the influence of the devil.
5. The different models are those of huck finn and those of the shepardsons. Family structures are very important because they provide structure in the family. Their place in society is in the family. Huck and Tom have a mutual friendship family. Society intervenes in the family when a lost dad comes back.
6. Tom was not inexecuseably cruel and was just being a thirteen year old boy. His behavior comments and that society can always act quite juvenille.
7. In order to create sympathy for Jim, he uses techniques. Jims dialect is one. This makes him seen like he was never given the chance to learn anything at all, ever. These techniques are effective.
8. The morality in Huck Finn is almost non existent. They never think of morals when makeing their decisions and they always do what would benefiet them most. Morals values don't really come from anywhere because they don't exist in the novel. He doesn't approve of morals because they are not used in the novel.
9. He sets it before the civil war because this is a time when he can use the plight of the black slave to his advantage. He would have a harder time of spreading his message after the civil war.
10. Huck Finn is not a racist book because they are niggers in his time. People in other time periods should not be considered racist. They were property, so can't be racist toward property. It should be read in high school because its a piece of classical american literature.
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