ENGLISH 213—JUNIOR ENGLISH
Name:
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Reading #6: Chapters 20-22 (pages 125-150)
Chapter 20: ”What Royalty Did to Parkville”
1. How does Huck respond to the duke and king’s question about whether Jim is a runaway slave?
2.
What does the duke plan to “cipher out a way” to do?
3.
Where does Huck stay during the storm, while the duke and king are sleeping in the wigwam?
4.
Describe the plan for the scam the duke suggests when they decide to “lay out a campaign.”
5.
Briefly describe the scene where “the king got a-going”? What is his purpose?—and what happens?
6.
Meanwhile, describe what the duke has been up to.
7.
What is the duke’s plan for being able to “run in the daytime”?
8.
Infer Twain’s reasons for entitling Chapter 20, What Royalty Did to Parkville.”
Ch. 21: “An Arkansaw Difficulty”
9. The famous “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy from Hamlet is given a humorous treatment with the duke’s version. Can you spot
where Macbeth appears or other changes?
10. Give some details of the “gardens” around the little houses. On the next page, what makes a loafer “happy all over”?
11. Briefly describe the event of the town drunk Boggs and Colonel Sherburn. (What’s the ultimatum that Sherburn gives to
Boggs? How does it play out?)
12. Where are the townfolk going, “mad and yelling,” at the end of the chapter?
13. Infer Twain’s reasons for entitling Ch. 21, “An Arkansaw Difficulty.”
Ch. 22: “Why the Lynching Bee Failed”
14. Paraphrase Sherburn’s speech to the mob as he speaks to it from his rooftop. (What does he say about the average man?
About a mob? What happens at the end?)
15. Give some details of Huck’s time at the circus.
16. What’s ironic about his line, “It could have all of my custom (money) every time”?
17. What’s the “biggest line of all” that will get a big crowd for the king and the duke’s Royal Nonesuch scam?
18. Infer Twain’s reasons for entitling Ch. 22, “Why the Lynching Bee Failed.”
Passage of Interest
INFERENTIAL, CRITICAL or PERSONAL LEVEL. Choose one phrase or sentence from the reading that interests you for ANY
reason and that you want to discuss with a classmate, the teacher, or the entire class. Maybe it’s a line that you don’t understand.
Write it down, along with the page number and the explanation for your choosing it. FILL THE GIVEN LINES BELOW.