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The Adventures of Huck Finn
(Chapters 19 -31)
The Story
Chapters 19 and 20
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Life on the raft represents an IDYLLIC WORLD/EXISTENCE: the culture that Jim and Huck create
- Life on the raft is relaxing and easy  serves in CONTRAST to society
- It represents a life without conflict: they take care of each other and work together for a
common good  it’s an ideal paradise
Life on the raft is invaded by the LAND: represents the opposite of their world (the hypocrisy
and racism)
- The land is represented by the king and the duke
Huck means well and helped the king and duke get on the raft because he’s so good hearted
The king and the duke = con men
- In the United States, there aren’t supposed to be kings and dukes or hierarchy
- They want POWER: they create a hierarchy on the raft  impose themselves on Huck and
Jim (Huck and Jim have to serve them)
- They dupe the gullible townspeople to make money
Huck and Jim comply and submit: they don’t fight or resist
Huck makes up a 2nd story to save Jim: tells the duke and the king that Jim is his slave
At the beginning, in St. Petersburg there were two cultures:
1. Dominant culture: that of the widow, Tom, and Judge
2. Subculture: Jim and superstition
The king and the duke become the dominant culture on the raft. Huck and Jim are relegated to
the subculture
 The dominant culture threatens and represses their culture
- Huck and Jim hang on to each other and work to keep the peace at all costs, so they yield to
what the king and the duke want.
The king and the duke try to reenact a scene from Romeo and Juliet
- IRONY: Huck has just experienced a real-live Romeo and Juliet story.
The king and duke start their “campaign” in the town
- “Campaign” is associated with war where the object is to win and take over  they’re going
to come in and attack the town
- Their goal is to get money by duping the gullible town
- The king is worse than the duke- he pretends to be a pirate and tells a tent revival that he
wants to reform himself
- He knows how to manipulate to get what he wants  he has no conscience
- The king is a thief who will exploit the gullibility of others for his own purposes
Huck figured out they’re frauds, and Jim has been testing them
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The duke printed a poster that said that Jim was a runaway slave so that way they could travel
during the day
 Everything Jim has worked for is going down the tubes  he’s getting dangerously close
Chapters 21-22
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Twain gives us a taste of life in the South
- He starts with the plantation: Colonel Grangerford tries to uphold family honor
- Then he moves to small towns: escorted by the king and the duke
Twain pokes fun at the king and the duke in order to show how horrible they are
- Are motivated by greed
- Satire on Shakespeare reveals their ignorance
Small town:
- Poor, run-down, unkempt
- Backwards: not modern
People in the town:
- Dull: bored and boring
- Lazy (no employment)
- Crude
- Cruel, violent (set dogs on fire)
- Enjoy watching others’ suffering
Boggs’ murder:
- Boggs is very drunk and stops in front of Colonel Sherburn’s store, which is the biggest in the
town.
 Colonel Sherburn controls the town and holds the position of power and authority
- Sherburn tells him that he will kill him if he’s not gone by 1 o clock  unfair advantage
 Sherburn is a coward: he picks on a vulnerable, defenseless, drunk man
- The crowd gathers around to see the murder and then they reenact it for each other.
 The townspeople exploit others’ suffering for their own purposes of entertainment
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Chapter 23
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The town goes to see the king and duke’s show called “The Royal Nonesuch” and they felt
ripped off because it was so short
- The townspeople decide to say good things about the show so they’re not the only fools. So
the second night, it’s packed.
- The third night, the townspeople came back for revenge and were going to throw fruits at
them, so the king and duke escaped.
Huck calls the king and the duke “rapscallions” – they’re frauds, rascals
- Huck tells Jim that says that all people in power are like that.
- Huck then goes on about the history of kings, but mixes it all up.
- Jim ironically says that he wishes they lived in a country with no kings, which is ironic
because America is supposed to be a land of democracy, free of kings.
Huck says that the fraudulent king and duke are behaving like real kings and dukes
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 They’re all the same: even real kings and dukes are all frauds, all fakes.
JUXTAPOSITION: 2 scenes side by side that do not go together, often for an effect
- We see Jim in his full humanity, which is contrasted to the king and duke who have no
scruples (=no conscience)
- Huck says that he thinks Jim cares just as much for his family as white families to theirs.
IRONY: the white people in the story don’t take care of their kids at all-Jim cares more
- Jim tells Huck about a time that he beat his daughter for not listening to him and shutting
the door, but at the time, he didn’t realize that she was deaf because of the scarlet fever
 He still feels guilt and remorse: Jim has feelings, a conscience, and has humanity while
the king and the duke have no conscience and are inhumane
 We see Jim in his imperfections and mistakes: he’s not sugarcoated
 We admire Jim for his true nobility and honor in his actions
Chapter 24
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After we see a touching, human moment from Jim, then immediately after the king and duke tie
him up and paint him blue and put a sign next to him that says “Sick Arab”
 Public display of humiliation: Jim is relegated to the bottom of the hierarchical society
that the king and duke have created
Huck’s new identity is Adolphus, a valet (which is a personal servant for a man)
The king bumps into an innocent looking, young country man
- The king uses him to find out information about the Wilkes. Peter Wilkes has recently died
and has left a lot of money to his two brothers who the town is waiting for.
- The young man gets totally duped
 The king is manipulative and deceptive, motivated by greed, and determined. He knows
how to find situations to exploit and uses knowledge to his advantage
The king and the Duke pretend to be the 2 brothers: the king is Harvey (the older one who is a
preacher) and the duke is William (the younger, mute and deaf one)
Huck is appalled and disgusted by the king and duke, but doesn’t do anything about it (which is
in character for him)
- “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race”
Chapter 25
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Huck meets the 3 Wilkes sisters: Mary Jane (who he has a crush on), Susan, and Joanna
The king is idiot and mixes up his words:
- “Deceased” and “diseased”
- “Orgies” and “obsequies”
The king slowly brings up the topic of money. When he and the duke count it, they’re a little
short so they put their own money in the bag because they’re afraid that people will believe
that they stole some.
- The king says he will give it to the girls – trying to appear genuine and selfless
The Doctor says that these guys are frauds and tries to warn the town.
- However, the town sides with the king and the duke and the girls give them all of the
money.
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 Lets us know how blind and gullible the townspeople are: Twain is saying that
sometimes people are blind to the truth in front of them and will believe anything no
matter how unrealistic it is
Wilkes Family:
- Harvey: the brother who is a preacher (who the king impersonates)
- William: the deaf and dumb brother (who the duke impersonates)
- Peter: the man who died and left all the money; was a tanner (=makes leather out of hides)
- George: the father of the 3 Wilkes girls; was a carpenter; he died, so the girls lived with
Peter
- Mary Jane: the oldest sister who is a red-head
- Susan: one of the sisters
- Joanna: the sister who is called the hare lip (which is a slur for cleft palate)
Chapter 26
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Huck is in the kitchen with Joanna (the harelip)
- She is an outsider because she is different  she’s relegated to the status of a servant and is
marginalized and excluded.
- She’s the only one who asks questions and picks up on incongruities
-As an outsider, she can see more clearly
-She’s smarter than her sisters but is marginalized because she’s different
Mary Jane comes in and reprimands Joanna, telling her to stop it because Huck is their guest and
shouldn’t be treated this way.
Huck has a crisis of conscience and a change of heart:
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He decides to take action
He makes his decision based on friendship – it’s all about personal relationships for Huck
He decides to take the money and give it back to the girls because they’ve treated him so
kindly
He sneaks into the king and duke’s bedroom to get the money, then hides in the curtains when
they come in. The duke wants to leave, but the king wants to sell the property for more money
first.
- The king is the most greedy and ruthless
- The king tries to justify his appalling behavior: they’re young, they can work
- He’s willing to ruin others to get what he wants
Chapters 27 and 28
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Huck hides the money in the bottom of the coffin and then fears someone will steal it.
The king and duke realize someone’s stolen the money and confront Huck.
- Huck tells them that he saw the slaves going into the room a lot. He says this because he
knows the slaves have already been sold, so blaming it on them would not do any harm to
them anymore
The duke has had enough and wants to leave, but the king doesn’t know where to stop. He is
hurting the whole town and has no sympathy or feelings for others.
Huck has another crisis of conscience!
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He decides that he is going to tell Mary Jane the truth even though its risky and dangerous
He says he’s never taken the risk of telling the truth while in a bind
This way he can save her from all the trouble and can leave without being aligned and
convicted with the king and duke.
- Mary Jane was crying because she was sad that the slaves were sold off, and were sold
separately.
When Huck tells her the truth, she is angry and Huck says that she has a lot of “sand” (Huck
means she had a lot of grit, which is just a lot of courage)
Huck has priorities and responsibilities that he must remember.
- He is trying to save the Wilkes girls
- He’s trying not to antagonize the king and the duke
- He’s trying to protect Jim
Mary Jane and Huck figure out a plan.
- Mary Jane is going to go away and then will come back at night. She will put a candle in the
window.
- If Huck doesn’t come by, then he’s gone so she can confront the king and duke. If he does
come by, then she’ll still confront them but will use the evidence to make Huck not guilty.
- The candle in the window was also used in the Underground Railroad to let people know it’s
safe.
Huck is happy with the plan, but says that Tom Sawyer could’ve done it with more style.
 This reflects that he believes he’s inferior to Tom. Twain reminds us that Huck is having
real adventures, once again criticizing romantic literature and praising realistic literature
Chapter 29 and 30
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The town goes through a series of tests to figure out who the real brothers are
The town asks the king and the duke where the money is, and when the king finally tells the
truth that they don’t know where it is, the town doesn’t believe him
The king refuses to break character
The tests:
1. Handwriting:
- The king and duke don’t have handwriting that matches the letters from the brothers
- But then Harvey says that his brother William is the one who writes all their letters, but now
William’s hand is broken so they can’t prove it.
2. Tattoo:
- The king says that Peter has a small thin arrow tattoo
- The other brothers say that he has a P-B-W tattoo
- But the undertakers say that the body had no tattoo
The town is in a frenzy and thinks they’re all frauds. They decide to exhume the body.
- Twain writes the episode like a gothic romantic story for fun, but it’s realistic. He’s once
again criticizing the unnecessary nature of romanticism.
- It’s storming, at night.
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Huck escapes from the scene and finds Jim on the raft. They take off, but the king and the duke
catch up with them.
The king and the duke argue about who took the money and fight each other, but then forget
about it.
Chapter 31: Huck’s crisis of conscience
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Returning from going to shore with the king and the duke, Huck finds that Jim is not on the raft.
He asks a boy if he’d seen anything, and finds out that the king sold Jim to a plantation for $40.
- Huck is really mad: after all that they’ve done for them, they still were heartless enough to
make Jim a slave for life again amongst strangers just for $40.
- Huck is all about personal relationships: he was kind to the king and duke and he expected
them to be nice back
Huck is trying to figure out a plan and he considers writing a letter to Miss Watson telling her
where he was. He decides against this because:
1. Miss Watson would be mad at him for his ungratefulness and probably sell him back south
2. Everyone else would make Jim feel bad
3. Everyone would hate himself as much as they hate abolitionists
Huck struggles to figure out what to do.
- He knows that if you do something bad, then you’ll have consequences. He wants to save
Jim but he thinks that it’s the wrong thing to do.
- Miss Watson never did anything to him, why would he do this to her?
- He’s aware of the consequences
- He’s in a real bind
Huck decides to write a letter to Miss Watson but then decides against it when he reminisces on
good memories with Jim.
Huck: “It was a close place”
He decides that he’ll just go to hell and decides to steal Jim out of slavery.
 “A good heart is the antidote for a deformed social conscience”
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Society shapes the conscience and tells you what is right and wrong. However, society is
messed up and perverse: the social conscience poisons you
- A good heart leads you in the right direction
Huck’s social conscience tells him to turn Jim in, but his heart tells him not to. He believes that
if he doesn’t follow his conscience, then he’ll go to hell.
- He says that he should’ve gone to Sunday school because it would’ve taught him todo better
- Huck is scared of eternal damnation
- Huck tries to pray but he doesn’t want to be hypocritical. He knows that he will say that he’ll
do the right thing to God, but knows he has no intentions of turning Jim in.
- He doesn’t want to lie to God or to himself.
There is a gap between what Huck says and what Twain means
- Huck thinks what he’s been taught it right, but follows his gut anyways.
- Twain separates his voice from Huck, implying that what Huck thinks is right (what he has
been taught) is actually wrong, and his gut feelings are the right thing to do.
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