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Notes adapted from Joseph Claro in “Mark Twain’s
Huckleberry Finn,” Barron’s Educational Series; and
Ronald Goodrich in “The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn,” Living Literature Series.
How to annotate:
Have a conversation with the text. Talk to it.
Ask questions; offer potential answers.
Comment on something that intrigues, impresses,
amuses, shocks, puzzles, disturbs, repulses,
aggravates, etc.
 Comment on lines or quotations you think are
especially significant, powerful or meaningful: Don’t
merely underline or highlight without comment.
 Express agreement or disagreement.
 Make predictions.
 Connect ideas to each other or to other texts.
 Note anything you would like to discuss or do not
understand.
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Notice Huck’s reaction to Jim’s news that
Jim is running away: Remember that
Huck grew up with people who believed
that stealing a slave was as serious as
committing murder. He is shocked. He
has never heard anyone question
slavery and has every reason to believe
that Jim has done something terrible.
Yet, Huck promises Jim that Huck won’t
say a word: “I ain’t a-going back there,
anyways,” he explains.
Not turning Jim in is a monumental
decision for Huck to make: He has
decided to turn his back on everything
“home” stands for, even one of its most
cherished beliefs.
Notes adapted from Joseph Claro in “Mark Twain’s Huckleberry
Finn,” Barron’s Educational Series; and Ronald Goodrich in “The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Living Literature Series.
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Abolitionist: one who
advocated the legal
extinction of slavery as
an institution.
Before the Civil War,
abolitionists often helped
slaves escape to free
states.
Nearly all pre-Civil War
Southerners hated
abolitionists as enemies
who struck at the very
heart of Southern society
and economy.
 Huck, as
a member of
a society that
considers slavery
morally justified and
economically
necessary realizes
that people will
condemn him as an
abolitionist – the
lowest kind of
criminal.
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Huck has a sense of right and wrong
that would shame some of the people
he calls his “betters.” His conscience
now causes him great pain because
he can’t find an easy solution to his
dilemma in helping Jim escape. Does
he live up to the rules of the society
he has been brought up in? Or does
he do what seems to be the right
thing for a friend?
On the way to shore to turn Jim in,
Huck decides to do “wrong” – he
doesn’t turn Jim in, and it never occurs
to him that what he’s done might be
considered the right thing. He has too
low of an opinion of himself to think
that.
Huck reasons, why do right (turn Jim
in) if he wouldn’t feel any better?
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We all face Huck’s dilemma at some
time: Do you always live by the rules,
or do you follow your conscience?
Twain stacks slavery against
friendship, and that stacks the deck in
favor of individual conscience over
rules of society.
This leads to some of the disapproval
over this book: Critics say it glorifies a
lawbreaker by making him likable
and by manipulating the audience
into approving what he does. The
larger moral question of conscience
versus societal rules is one that has to
be determined individually, but there
is little question that Huck has done
the right thing.
Please
answer the following
questions in your notebook. Be
detailed and specific.
What does it mean to be civilized?
What does it mean to be moral?
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The following is satire on the
society in which Twain grew up.
Twain grew up in a society that
had high regard for families like
the Grangerfords: As an adult,
Twain felt contempt for people
who used a family tree to hide
inner decay.
Huck describes the decorations
in loving detail; yet, they are in
pretty poor taste.
Emmeline’s drawings are dark
and gloomy – they are also
maudlin and overly sentimental.
“Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots,”
the annual ritual on the dead
girl’s birthday – it’s all very
comical.
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“Everybody was sorry
[Emmeline Grangerford]
died…but I reckon, that
with her disposition, she
was having a better time in
the graveyard.”
Huck is naïve and means
this statement literally:
Emmeline doted on death
and therefore would
presumbably be happiest
among the dead.
Twain, in contrast, is clearly
laughing at the poetic
justice of Emmeline’s early
death.
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“Buck said [Emmeline]
could rattle off poetry
like nothing. She didn’t
ever have to stop to
think.”
Huck’s tone is one of
admiration for
Emmeline’s ability. Twain
knows that one cannot
“rattle off” good poetry
and that “stopping to
think” is necessary; he is
laughing at Emmeline’s
verse-writing abilities.
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Huck’s description of the
Grangerfords show how
upright, admirable, and
aristocratic they are: Twain
uses this as bitter sarcasm.
The Grangerfords start to
appear silly – the feud, etc.
How intelligent can they
be? How admirable is pride
when it leads to senseless
death? What kind of people
teach their children to
accept murder as normal?
And how can Buck so
revere the Shepherdsons?
Is this a game?
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“Next Sunday we all went
to church…The men took
their guns along…It was
pretty ornery preaching
– all about brotherly love,
and such-like
tiresomeness; but
everybody said it was a
good sermon, and they
all talked it over going
home, and had such a
powerful lot to say about
faith, and good works…”
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Huck is simply telling what
happened, his reaction to it, and
the reactions of the Grangerfords.
Twain is conscious of many
ironies:
• The men took their guns to
church to hear a sermon about
brotherly love.
• Although Huck found the
sermon tiresome and ornery,
he was the most civilized and
religious person in the
audience.
The butt of the criticism here is
not only the Grangerfords but
also the church, for it is implied
that the church is lacking in true
vitality.
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“…There weren’t anybody
at the church, except
maybe a hog or two…If you
notice, most folks don’t go
to church only when
they’ve got to; but a hog is
different.”
Again, Huck mainly reports
the facts as he observes
them.
Twain, however, is clearly
implying that so far as
going to church is
concerned, hogs are more
faithful than these human
beings.
By the end of the
chapter, even Huck is
disgusted, and he’s too
sickened by the details
to share them.
 Huck is slow to learn
this lesson – many of
the people he looks up
to are not as admirable
as he thinks. And he is
very happy to get back
to the world of the raft
with Jim.
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 There
isn’t any
explanation for why
Twain seems to have
forgotten about Jim
during this extended
portion of the novel.
 Ch. 19 begins with
one of the longest
descriptions in the
book of the beauty of
being on the river.

Huck and Jim meet the Duke and
Dauphin (doe-fan)/King
 Temperance revival: religious meeting
at which drinking alcohol is
condemned.
 Jour printer: a printer who travels
around looking for a day’s work (“jour”
is the French word for “day”)
 Patent medicine: usually a concoction of
any ingredients available, accompanied
by wild claims for what it will cure.
 Mesmerism: hypnotism
 Phrenology: the study of personality as
it is revealed by bumps on the skull.
 Laying on of hands: curing people by
touching them and praying aloud.
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The king comes up with a plan
that will allow them to travel the
river during the day that involves
some unpleasant news for Jim.