Quizzical Four for Huck Finn (Chapters 31-end)
“Patience”
Directions: Thoroughly explain all answers. Write your first and last name at the top
of this page in print.
1) Huck says of Jim and himself, “…we made an agreement that we wouldn’t have
nothing in the world to do with such actions, and if we ever got the least show we would
give them the cold shake, and clear out and leave them behind.” To what is he referring
literally? Is he successful? How?
2) After he escapes king and duke and Jim is caught, Huck soliloquizes, “I was
brung up wicked, and so I warn’t so much to blame…and I made up my mind to pray and
see if I couldn’t try to quit being the boy I was and be better…it was because I was playing
double…you can’t pray a lie-I found that out.” This rebirth is most like what literary
movement? How?
3) Huck says, "All right, then, I'll go to Hell-and tore it up?” What did he tear up?
Why is this significant?
4) What roles do Huck and Tom Sawyer play on the Phelps farm literally? Why is
this significant?
5) “It’s one of the most jackass ideas I ever struck.” What is the contrast literally
and figuratively, between Tom’s plans to rescue Jim and Huck’s plans? Hint:
satire!
6) Why do (why does Twain have) Huck and Jim go along with Tom’s plans?
BOTH
7) “Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.” What happened to the
king and the duke? How is this ironic?
8) What are two similarities between the Phelps parents and Mary Jane?
9) What did Tom and Huck see “dripping from the rafters , landing on plates
and down the back of your neck”? How does Aunt Sally react?
10) About the animals in his “cell,” Jim explains, “But I’ll do it ef I got to. I rek’n
I better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de house.” How is
this similar to the time he and Huck spent with king and duke?
11) Who is Nat? What is the figurative importance of his role in the text?
12) “I knowed he was white inside…” Who said this? Who was he referring to?
Why did he make this statement literally? What is the significance figuratively?
13) How much did the doctor say a nigger like Jim was worth? How is this ironic?
14) How did Huck's Pap die? How does Huck find this out?
15) Why did Tom say he engaged in Jim’s “evasion”? What was Twain’s reason? (see #5)
16) What finally happens to Jim? to Huck? to Tom?
17) What were your thoughts at the end of the novel? Is there anything left
undecided at the end of the novel? What?