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Dear A.P. Student,
Congratulations on surviving two long years of Pre A.P. English. You may now officially call yourself an A.P.
English student. Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is the last step before taking the A.P. English
test in May. The netbook you have received will be an important tool in this course; take good care of it. On the
netbook you will find a few important tools. Your kindle application, which allows your netbook to function as a kindle,
will have many of your novels and supplemental reading selections. To log in to the account you will use the user name
sowellclassroom@yahoo.com and the password as password. Here you will find “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
by Mark Twain. You will read the novel and complete this guide as well as the summer reading supplemental packet.
You will also find your course guide with information about the course, along with your oral recitations.
The following guide is meant to be a step by step walk through of the novel you have been assigned to read,
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. This guide will be due the first week of school for a test grade. If
you have any questions please feel free to email me at emilys@shelbyville.k12.tx.us or sowellclassroom@yahoo.com .
I encourage you to create a student email account at gmail. You will also see QR codes which you can scan with any QR
code scanner application on your cell phone. It will take you directly to different web pages. If you do not have a smart
phone that will scan the QR codes you may access them by the URL on the works cited page. We will email several
assignments throughout the year. This assignment is not meant to be overwhelmingly difficult, but it will take some time
this summer. As with any assignment in my class, it will benefit you to work on this report periodically. Keep in mind,
“the great thing about procrastination is you will always have work tomorrow.”
Have a wonderful summer!
Mrs. Emily Mills Sowell
Name:
AP ENG LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
Mrs. Sowell
Summer 2015
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Huck Finn Reading Guide
Having trouble with the Kindle app?
Full text of Huck Finn
Part I Vocabulary15%
Define the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
Commence
Victuals
Trance
Providence
Whale
Genies
Temperance
Nabob
Delirium tremens
Quicksilver
Abolitionist
Speculate
Thrash
Reticule
Contrived
Derrick
Skiff
Rapscallions
Gaudy
Infernal
Outlandish
Pensive
Obituaries
Aristocracy
Mesmerism
Phrenology
Cipher
Dissipating
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29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
Histrionic
Muse
Benefactor
Pious
Scoundrel
Impostor
Shoal
Ingenious
Disposition
Shirk
Bogus
Impudent
Cavorting
Brash
Remiss
Insurrection
Addled
singular
Part II Reading 45%
Huckleberry Finn
Chapter 1
1. What do we know about Huck from the way he talks?
2. Why does mark Twain begin Huck Finn with a reference to “The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer?”
3. “The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me
a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it.” Exactly where does
the humor of this sentence lie?
4. What does Huck’s reaction to the burning of the spider show us about him?
Chapter 2
1. What trick does Tom play on Jim?
2. How does Huck feel about it?
3. What difference between the two boys does this suggest?
4. How does Jim react to the trick?
Chapter 3
1. What does Huck think about praying?
2. Why does Huck decide that there must be two Providences?
3. What does Huck think of Pap?
Page | 4. Why does Huck resign from the gang?
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Chapter 4
1. Why does Huck “sell” his fortune to Judge Thatcher?
2. What does the “hair-ball” tell Jim about Huck’s future?
Chapter 5
1. Describe Pap.
2. Is Pap realistic? (Believable)
3. How does Pap feel about Huck going to school?
4. How does the new judge find out how Pap really is?
Chapter 6
1. Why is Huck going to school now?
2. Why does Huck at first enjoy living with Pap?
3. How does Pap feel about the “govment” and “educated
Niggers”?
4. Account for Pap’s unusual behavior.
Chapter 7
1. Why does Huck kill the pig?
2. As Huck prepares to escape, he wishes Tom Sawyer were there. “I knowed he
would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy touches.”
How are Huck’s preparations different from those Tom would make?
3. Describe Huck’s emotions when he first sets out on the river.
4. Where is Huck headed?
Chapter 8
1. Why are people firing cannon over the water?
2. What is the reason for floating bread down the river?
3. Why does Huck scare Jim?
4. Why has Jim run away?
Chapter 9
Page | 1. Why is there a house floating down the river?
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2. What do Huck and Jim find in the house?
Chapter 10
1. How does the snake come to be in Jim’s blanket?
2. What does Jim do for the snakebite?
3. What does Huck’s reaction show about him?
4. Why does Huck dress up like a girl?
Chapter 11
1. What information does Huck get from Mrs. Judith Loftus?
2. What story does Huck tell Mrs. Loftus when she sees
through his disguise?
3. What three things does Huck do that shows that he is a boy?
4. Why do Huck and Jim leave Jackson’s Island?
Chapter 12
1. Describe the raft and the life Huck and Jim lead when alone on it.
2. How do Huck and Jim get food?
3. Why are Huck and Jim able to feel comfortable about borrowing things?
4. Why does Huck insist on boarding the Walter Scott?
Chapter 13
1. Huck and Jim escape from the Walter Scott in the lifeboat, leaving the murderer strapped on the wreck. How does
Huck feel about leaving them?
2. How does his concern differ from the widow’s?
3. How does Huck try to help the murderers?
4. What happens to the murderers?
Chapter 14
1. Why does Jim decide that he doesn’t want any more
adventures?
2. Why does Jim “take no stock in...? Solemn been de wises’ man dat ever live’ ”?
Page | 3. Why does Huck decide that it is useless to argue with him?
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4. Is Mark twain expressing opinions through Jim or Huck?
Chapter 15
1. What do Huck and Jim plan to do when they reach Cairo?
2. In the filmstrips, the comment was made that “Huck
does know how to tell us things.” Describe how Huck felt when he was alone in the fog.
3. Huck tells Jim that the separation in the fog was a dream. Why is Jim so hurt by?
Huck’s trick?
4.Why is Huck’s response to Jim’s rebuke significant?
Chapter 16
1.Why is Huck so uneasy about approaching Cairo?
2. Explain what Huck calls “conscience”.
3. How does it conflict with helping Jim escape?
4. What decision does Huck make to quiet his conscience?
Chapter 17
1. How does Huck solve the problem of forgetting his name?
2. What does Huck think of the Grangerfords and their home?
3.Huck often makes interesting observations. His comment on Emmeline Grangerford is, “I reckoned that with her
disposition she was having a better time in the graveyard.” What does this show about Huck?
4. Why had Emmeline died?
Chapter 18
1. What is the cause of the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons?
2. Which side started the shooting?
3. Why is Twain so vague about it?
4. Buck tells Huck, “There isn’t a coward amongst them Shepherdsons – not a one. And there isn’t no cowards amongst
the Grangerfords either.” What are the drawbacks to this sort of courage?
Chapter 19
1. Read aloud Huck’s description of river life that begins, “Two or three days and nights
went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, they slid along so quiet and smooth and
Page | lovely.” What causes Huck’s new appreciation of life on the raft?
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2. The peaceful interlude on the raft is disturbed by the arrival of the duke and the
dauphin (the king). Describe these two “rapscallions.”
3. When the duke and the dauphin first got on the raft, why did they talk to each other and ignore Huck and Jim?
4. Huck says, “It didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn’t no kings
nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.” Why does he pretend to believe them?
Chapter 20
1. How does Huck explain Jim to the duke and the king?
2. How do the king and duke treat Huck and Jim?
3. What does the king do at the camp-meeting?
4. How does the duke arrange for them to travel in the daytime? This chapter paints a fuller picture of the two
hitchhikers that Huck and Jim have taken aboard. You will remember that the Gragerfords were first characterized
through their possessions. How are these two men drawn?
Chapter 21
1. What are the king and the duke getting ready for?
2. What kind of a town is Bricksville?
3. Why had Boggs come to town?
4. What did the “loafers” think of Boggs’ threats?
Chapter 22
1. Why did the “Lynching Bee” fail?
2. What does Sherburn think of the men in the mob?
3. Is he right?
4. Sherburn’s speech is the only place in the novel where the point of view shifts for a length of time. Why, at this point,
does Twain let Sherburn take over?
Chapter 23
1. Why doesn’t the audience “take care of” the king and the duke after the first performance?
2. What happens on the third night?
3. Discuss Huck and Jim’s comments on royalty in this chapter. Is it believable for Huck to know so much history?
Explain.
4. Why is Huck amazed at Jim’s mourning his home and family?
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1.Why is Jim dressed up like a sick Arab?
2. Huck’s last statement in this chapter is, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.” What is Huck
talking about?
3. How does twain make it believable for the two rogues to impersonate the Wilks brothers?
Chapter 25
1. Huck describes the tearful scene at the Wilkses as the most disgusting thing he has ever seen. Does he mean only the
king’s performance?
2. Why does the king give the money to Mary Jane?
3. Have the “rapscallions” hood-winked everybody?
Chapter 26
1. What decision does Huck make?
2. What are the plans of the king and the duke?
Chapter 27
1. Where did Huck hide the gold?
2. Describe the undertaker.
3. Where is the humor in Huck’s observation, “There warn’t no more popular man in town than what the undertaker
was”?
4. How are the king’s plans progressing?
Chapter 28
1. What is special about Mary Jane?
2. Why is she the only person to whom Huck tells the truth?
Chapter 29
1. Why do the men decide to dig up the corpse?
2. Huck concludes the chapter by saying, “So I wilted right down onto the planks then, and give up; and it was all I could
do to keep from crying.” What’s bothering Huck?
Chapter 30
1. Why are the king and the duke fighting?
2. Why do they get back together?
Page | Chapter 31
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1. What do the king and duke do to Jim?
2. Why does Huck write Miss Watson?
3. Why does he tear up the letter?
4. Huck has rebelled against civilization before. At Miss Watson’s he smoked,
played hookey, and left his room nights to sleep in the woods. What is different
about this decision?
Chapter 32
1. What is Huck’s new name?
2. Why is that convenient for Huck?
Chapter 33
1. Why is Huck surprised at Tom’s willingness to rescue Jim?
2. Why is Tom willing to do it?
3. What new identity does Tom assume?
4. How does Huck feel when he sees the king and duke tarred and feathered?
Chapter 34
1. How did Tom figure out where Jim was?
2. Compare Huck’s plan for freeing Jim with Tom’s
3. What does Huck think of Tom’s fancy touches?
4. What are the dangers of Tom’s approach?
Chapter 36
1. Huck says, “When I start to steal a nigger, or a watermelon, or a Sunday-schoolbook, I ain’t no ways particular how it’s
done so it’s done.” How would Tom feel about this statement?
2. Why does Jim agree to go along with everything?
3. What’s Nat’s problem?
Chapter 37
1. What is the topic of conversation at the breakfast table?
2. How does Tom manage to get the things he needs for
Page | the escape?
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3. Describe the baking of the witch pie.
Chapter 38
1. What is the irony involved in the fetching of the grindstone?
2. Why does Tom try to talk Jim into keeping a pet rattlesnake? Rats?
3. What purpose does this chapter serve?
4. Describe Jim’s ordeal.
Chapter 39
1. Why does Tom write anonymous letters?
2. What does he say in them?
Chapter 40
1. What does Huck find when he goes into the setting-room?
2. When the butter melts down Huck’s face, what does Aunt Sally think it is?
3. What one thing really goes wrong in the escape?
4. When Huck says, “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’s say what he
Did say,” what is he talking about?
Chapter 41
1. Why doesn’t Huck go with the doctor?
2. How does he explain his absence to Uncle Silas?
3. What is Old Mrs. Hotchkiss’ theory?
4. Why doesn’t Huck go check on Tom that night?
Chapter 42
1. Why don’t they hang Jim?
2. What does the doctor think of Jim?
3. What does Tom tell Aunt Sally?
4. Why had Tom worked so hard to set Jim free when he was already free?
Part III Identify the speaker of each the quotation. 15%
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1. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's
going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before.
2. “The idea of You lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a
man!”
3. “When you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tiptoe and fetch your hand up
over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven feet,”
4. What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean?...' I got to
feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead."
5. “trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed”
6. “Your mother couldn’t read, and she couldn’t write, nuther, before she died. None of the
family couldn’t before they died. And here your a-swelling yourself up like this.
7. "I hain't ever done you no harm. You know that. So, then, what you want to come back
and ha'nt ME for?. . . Don't you play nothing on me, because I wouldn't on you. Honest
injun, you ain't a ghost?"
8. "G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n--there now,"
Part IV Criticism 25 %
"Huckleberry Finn" and the N-word debate
Scan the code above using a QR scanner application or visit www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-oneword-change-huckleberry-finn . Read the newspaper article Introduction, “Do Word Changes Alter ‘Huckleberry Finn’?”
from the NY Times Opinion Pages. Select three articles from the Discussion located at the left of the screen and then
answer the following essay prompt:
“Huckleberry Finn” is one of the most frequently censored books in today’s school system because of the language and
themes that it contains. After reading the novel, do you feel it is worthy of the negative attention it receives or is it a
historic novel that speaks to the culture in America in which it is set? Is “Huckleberry Finn” inappropriate or offensive to
today’s youth? In a well written essay discuss the importance, or lack there of, of the novel “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark
Twain. The essay will be graded according to the following rubric and should contain textual support from the novel
(textual support from the news article is not required.)
Essays will be graded according to the rubric on the last page of this guide.
Work Cited
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"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Adobe." - GoBookee.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2013.
<http://www.gobookee.net/get_book.php?u=aHR0cDovL2NvbnRlbnRzZXJ2ZXIuYWRvYmUuY29tL3N0b3JlL2Jvb2t
zL0h1Y2tGaW5uLnBkZgpUaGUgQWR2ZW50dXJlcyBvZiBIdWNrbGViZXJyeSBGaW5uIC0gQWRvYmU
"Does One Word Change "Huckleberry Finn"" NY TIMES OPINION PAGES. N.p., 5 Jan. 2011. Web. 31 May 2013.
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn>.
"The Free Automatic Bibliography and Citation Generator." EasyBib. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2013.
<http://www.easybib.com/>.
CATEGORY
20-25
15-20
10-15
0-10
Focus on Topic
(Content)
There is one clear, wellMain idea is clear but the
focused topic. Main idea
supporting information is
stands out and is supported general.
by detailed information.
Main idea is somewhat clear
but there is a need for more
supporting information.
The main idea is not
clear. There is a
seemingly random
collection of information.
Support for Topic
(Content)
Relevant, telling, quality
details give the reader
important information that
goes beyond the obvious or
predictable. It is clear the
student understood reading
selections.
Supporting details and
information are relevant,
but one key issue or
portion of the storyline is
unsupported. The student
clearly understood reading
selections but should work
on interpretation.
Supporting details and
information are relevant, but
several key issues or portions
of the storyline are
unsupported. Student seems to
confuse the meaning of reading
selections.
Supporting details and
information are typically
unclear or not related to
the topic.
Introduction
(Organization)
The introduction is inviting,
states the main topic and
previews the structure of
the paper.
The introduction clearly
states the main topic and
previews the structure of
the paper, but is not
particularly inviting to the
reader.
The introduction states the main
topic, but does not adequately
preview the structure of the
paper nor is it particularly
inviting to the reader.
There is no clear
introduction of the main
topic or structure of the
paper.
Capitalization &
Punctuation
(Conventions)
Writer makes no errors in
capitalization or
punctuation, so the paper is
exceptionally easy to read.
Writer makes 1 or 2 errors
in capitalization or
punctuation, but the paper
is still easy to read.
Writer makes a few errors in
capitalization and/or
punctuation that catch the
reader\'s attention and interrupt
the flow.
Writer makes several
errors in capitalization
and/or punctuation that
catch the reader\'s
attention and greatly
interrupt the flow.
Commitment
(Voice)
The writer successfully
uses several
reasons/appeals to try to
show why the reader should
care or want to know more
about the topic. Students
writes in third person point
of view.
The writer successfully
uses one or two
reasons/appeals to try to
show why the reader
should care or want to
know more about the topic.
Student writes in a
consistent point of view.
The writer attempts to make the
reader care about the topic, but
is not really successful. Point of
view is unsuccessful or
inconsistent.
The writer made no
attempt to make the
reader care about the
topic.
Sentence
Structure
(Sentence
Fluency)
All sentences are wellconstructed with varied
structure.
Most sentences are wellconstructed with varied
structure.
Most sentences are wellconstructed but have a similar
structure.
Sentences lack structure
and appear incomplete
or rambling.
Conclusion
(Organization)
The conclusion is strong
and leaves the reader with
a feeling that they
understand what the writer
is \"getting at.\"
The conclusion is
recognizable and ties up
almost all the loose ends.
The conclusion is recognizable, There is no clear
but does not tie up several
conclusion, the paper
loose ends.
just ends.
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Adding Personality The writer seems to be
(Voice)
writing from knowledge or
experience. The author has
taken the ideas and made
them \"his own.\"
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The writer seems to be
drawing on knowledge or
experience, but there is
some lack of ownership of
the topic.
The writer relates some of his
own knowledge or experience,
but it adds nothing to the
discussion of the topic.
The writer has not tried
to transform the
information in a personal
way. The ideas and the
way they are expressed
seem to belong to
someone else.