Chapters 21-22
Boggs’s Shooting
Jack Greenway, Eliot Baker, Devin Carranza, Taylor Baldwin, Ryan Frost
Plot and episode summary
Chapter 21: This chapter starts off with the King and the duke reenacting a scene from Romeo and Juliet. They
stop their raft at a town hosting a shakespearean revival. When walking through the town they witnessed the
residents of the town lounging around, and chewing tobacco. Then a man they call Boggs drunkenly rides into
town on his horse. He goes into town once a month trying to start fights with people. When he messes with
Colonel Sherburn, the Colonel doesn’t mess around and shoots and kills Boggs.
Chapter 22: After Boggs’ death, an angry mob formed and went after Colonel Sherburn. When they got to his
house, Colonel armed himself with a double-barrel shotgun and lectured them about how the southern way of
lynching was more courageous than the northern coward way by means of a mob. After his speech the mob
dispersed. Huck, the duke and the king then go to the circus and perform but their show is not liked by the
crowd.
Lesson Learned
What is the lesson learned?
The lesson being learned in chapters 21-22 is carefully portrayed through Colonel Sherburn’s speech atop his
roof in front of an angry crowd.
His main point is basically that everyone in the crowd is cowardly because it takes a bigger man to realize the
lynching isn’t solving or accomplishing anything.
Saying that no one had the decency to step out or crowd and stop what was happening but everyone hides in
the crowd so they aren’t looked at as cowards by the people around them.
He also brings the “southern gentleman” aspect and talks about how the people in the north cowards and let
others walk all over them rather than people in the south who solve things without hiding behind the
“mask’ of a mob.
Lastly he states that the only “half man” is Buck Harkness because he was the only one to take some sort of
charge and yell “lynch him, lynch him!” and everyone followed because nothing would have been
achieved without it and a mob without a leader is even more pitiful than a mob with a leader.
Lesson Learned
How is the lesson learned?
Sherburn, armed with a double-barrel shotgun atop his roof, delivers his speech in a way seen by the
townspeople as “slow and scornful”...emphasizing each of his points with well thought-out insults and
shocking the entirety of the lynch mob. So thoughtfully and aggressively delivered is Sherburn’s speech
that, at his order for them to turn away at the conclusion, they obey- “tearing off every which way”.
Huck, however, remains at the scene, but only for a couple moments following the dispersal of the
crowd. Interestingly enough, he does indeed learn his lesson, but still ends up retreating with the others
despite Sherburn’s discouraging words against doing so. Huck even states that he could have stayed, “If
I’d a wanted to, but I didn’t want to.”
Lesson Learned
What is the evidence?
“You brought part of a man- Buck Harkness, there- and if you hadn’t had him to start you, you’d taken it out in
blowing” (Twain 251-252)
“But a mob without any man at the head of it, is beneath pitifulness” (Twain 252)
“As long as it’s daytime” (Twain 251) (Referring to how Sherburn will face them all directly, in the middle of
the day.)
“... with a hundred masked cowards at his back, and lynches the rascal.” (Twain 251)
“... a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass.”
(Twain 252)
Literary Analysis
Tone- negative, revengeful, shows the anger of the lynching mob after Sherburn
“They swarmed up to Sherburn’s house , a-whooping and raging, like injuns,” (Twain 148).
Theme- society and hypocrisy
the society of this town is the opposite of what Huck was use to in the Grangerford estate
Boggs and drunks in the town remind Huck of his pap, but less threatening
Sherburn calls out the lynching mob hypocrisy
"Your newspapers call you a brave people so much that you think you are braver than any
other people - whereas you're just as brave, and no braver. (Twain 149).
Literary Analysis
Figurative Language
Simile- “Mud as black as tar” (145). This simile compares mud to black tar.
Onomatopoeia- “...and then he fetched his cane down slow to a level, and says
‘Bang!’ staggered backwards, says ‘Bang!’ again…” (149). Bang is the
onomatopoeia, said by an old man recalling Boggs’ murder.
● Alliteration- “The same second I see a young girl coming on the run, and two
men with her”(340). Same, second, and see all begin with “S” to show the
alliteration.
Study Guide Questions
1. Why is the town at the beginning of Ch. 21 described so carefully?
a. To give readers a good mental picture, and to show how poor and rundown the town is.
2. How is Colonel Sherburn described?
a. He’s described as the best dressed in town, very demanding, and a proud looking man about 55
years of age.
3. How do the townspeople react to the killing?
a. They were surprised at first, but then angry and formed a mob to lynch Sherburn
4. Why does Twain call it a “lynching bee”?
a. Twain humorously calls the event a “lynching bee” to imply that it was a social gathering of sorts, a
Citation
Twain, Mark, and Emory Elliott. "Ch. 21-22." Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999.
Print.
"Ch. 20-22 Summary." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, 13 Mar. 2015. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/huckfinn/section9.rhtml>.