Huck Finn notes
Chapters 1-3
Chapter 1
• Huck Finn as narrator: Huck’s
straightforward, common sense reporting
of ridiculous things is the basis of much of
the book’s humor
• Huck mentions that Widow Douglas and
Miss Watson want to “sivilize” him. The
conflict between society and the
individual becomes a main theme as the
novel develops.
Chapter 1
• The satire about certain concepts of
traditional religion (Moses; Huck not
wanting to go to Heaven) serves to poke
at the hypocrisy of a society that claims to
be religious but treats fellow human beings
as property. Twain also hates the idea of
making a slave convert to Christianity,
which is, to Twain, anti-Christian.
•
Satire: the use of irony, sarcasm, or ridicule in exposing or ridiculing folly or vice. Dictionary.com
Chapters 2 & 3
• Tom functions as a contrast to Huck
Finn
– The extravagant plans which Tom introduces
contrast to Huck’s common sense approach.
This contrast is seen in Huck’s escape from
Pap.
– Huck is involved in real life while Tom is only
interested when he is imitating something
which he has read in a book.
Chapters 2 & 3
• The Mississippi River is described in its powerful
and grand. Eventually, the river will become the
main structural device of the novel (holding the
plot together).
• Huck is literal-minded and accepts everything at
face value and is not influenced by the values of
society – doesn’t like things because he’s
supposed to like them. Huck gives up on prayer
because he doesn’t get the fish hooks he asks
for.
Chapters 2 & 3
• Motif: a central idea or recurring theme
• Chapter 2 continues a superstition motif
with Jim’s belief in witches and devils.
Huck is concerned about killing a spider in
chapter 1.
Huck Finn notes
Chapters 4-6
Chapters 4 & 5
• The superstition motif continues in
Chapter 4 and leads to Huck’s fears that
Pap is coming back.
• Huck is shrewd, but doesn’t share
society’s concern over money
– Incident with the judge shows Huck’s ability to
think on the spot
Chapters 4 & 5
• In contrast to Miss Watson’s hypocrisy, Pap
represents the brutality of civilization which
threatens to destroy Huck
• Pap does not desire something better for Huck
than he had himself, but is jealous of his son
• The appearance of Pap prepares us for Huck’s
need to escape from a society which forces a
son to obey such a totally corrupt and evil
person as Pap.
Chapter 6
• One of Huck’s major attributes is his ability
to adapt to any situation and to live in a
variety of different surroundings
• Twain shows, through Pap’s drunken
tirade, that the lower a man sinks, the
more he seeks to pull others down below
himself
– Pap and the “white-shirted” negro
Huck Finn Notes
Chapters
7-12
Chapter 7
• Huck’s plan of escape is sensible and
based on shrewd judgment, contrasting
with Tom Sawyer’s ridiculous plans
• Twain is pointing out that common sense
and natural actions are better than
romantic pretensions.
Chapter 8
• Theme of death and rebirth
– Huck symbolically dies (ripped away from
society) and is born again with a new set of
values
– Huck is told of Jim running away and does not
turn him in right away, though he doesn’t want
to be a “low down Ablitionist”
– This acceptance of Jim foreshadows Huck’s
later set of values when he defies society for
the sake of his friendship with Jim
Chapters 8 and 9
• Superstition motif:
– Supposedly educated people of the town
loading bread with quicksilver
Irony: The bread feeds Huck and keeps him
alive. The cannon shooting nearly kills him.
Chapter 10
• This chapter presents the climax of the
theme of superstition when Jim is bitten by
the rattlesnake. This is the first time that
Huck has done something which shows
that he is not using common sense.
• Huck’s regret at pulling this trick on Jim
indicates the beginning of a deeper
relationship.
Chapter 10
• Jim doesn’t tell Huck about the dead man
because he is trying to spare Huck the
grief (the dead man is Pap). The
comparision between Jim’s concern and
Pap’s brutality in relation to Huck shows
Jim’s superior sense of humanity.
Chapters 10 and 11
• Huck’s trip ashore is one of many trips meant to
contrast life on the raft against the life of society
on the shore
• The incident in which Huck dresses like a girl is
the beginning of many types of identities he will
assume throughout the journey. Also introduced
is Huck’s ability to invent stories, though he is
nearly caught.
• Huck relies on his native ability, whereas Tom
has to have a fantastic plan based on books.
Chapter 11
• By the end of the chapter, Huck has so
completely identified with Jim and Jim’s
plight that he accepts Jim’s struggle as his
own. This, then, leads to his later
acceptance of Jim as superior to the
values of society which would enslave him
“They’re after us!”
Chapter 12
• This chapter begins the second major part
of the novel: the adventures that take
place as they float down the Mississippi.
• The journey takes on a mythical quality.
• “It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still
river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars…”
Chapter 12
• The first significant adventure involves the wreck
of the Walter Scott.
• The name of the wreck is one of Twain’s uses of
satire, since he apparently thought Walter
Scott’s romantic novels were a wreck.
• Huck’s sympathy for other human beings comes
to light in his desire to save Jim Turner.
• His sympathy with even the worst or lowest of
society allows Huck to respond to all classes of
people and prepares the reader for his total
acceptance of Jim.
Chapters 35 & 36
• Through Tom’s plans, we see again that
the respectable element of society is often
oblivious to the suffering of a human
being. For example, Tom forces Huck to
pay a dime for the watermelon, but ignores
Jim’s suffering.
Chapter 37 & 38
The only alleviating factor in the cruelty to
Jim is the fact that Jim allows these things
to be done and even participates
sometimes, though the tricks are often
cruel.
• According to Twain, it is ironic that the
Phelps’s are praying with Jim and teaching
him Christianity, but are willing to sell him
or give him up to a previous owner.