The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

 

Introduction

This is a strange, hodge-podge of a novel. Be very patient.

 

Sections

This unit is divided into the following sections.

 

 

 

Slavery on Nantucket

 

Introduction

As we all know, Nantucket never had slavery. However, “what if...” are powerful words.

 

Imagine

Imagine if Nantucket had slavery right now.

• What would they do?

• What would their lives be like?

• What would a slave auction be like?

• How would other people’s lives be different?

• How could you change the institution of slavery to keep up with the realities of the nineties?

 

Assignment

As a class, we will write a brief, fictional book of slavery on Nantucket in the year 1997.

 

The class will be broken into groups of three. Each group will be responsible for an aspect of modern slavery. For work, they will need to do

•a one page story or journal entry from a slave-owner or non- slave,

•a one page story or journal entry from a slave, and

•A one page “report” on the topic.

 

You may add a picture for additional credit.
   

 

Topics

We will use the following chapters.

 

• Getting and keeping slaves here

• Slave auction

• Daily Life of Slaves

• Work

• Family Life

• Effect on Non-slave workers

• Escape and Fugitive Slave laws

• Slice of Life: Downtown, August 22, 1997

 

 

Procedure: How to do this Project

 

Introduction

This project will require a touch more than the usual thinking. You will also have to work as a class.

 

Procedure

We will have to follow the following procedure.

 

Step

Action

1

Form groups

2

Read journal articles. Highlight important facts

3

Brainstorm a list of items that would be different on current Nantucket

4

Whole Group Show and Question

5

Handwrite (First draft) the writing assignments

6

Photocopy for Whole Group

7

Rewrite for Whole Class

 

Requirements

All written assignments must have the following characteristics

 

• typed

 

• at least one full page (12 point Palatino or New York, space and a half)

 

• No egregious grammar or spelling errors

 

Optimal

Assuming they meet the minimal requirements, the writing will be graded on these characteristics.

 

• Clarity

• Comprehensiveness

• Use of Detail

• Life-like (verisimilitude)

 

Group

Each group will also be graded each day on effectiveness. They will be graded as Very Effective, Effective, and Useless.

 

 

Follow-Up: Slavery

 

Introduction

Huck Finn is tricky this way. It is set in the time of slavery, but written after slavery ended. Hence, we need to think of three things when we read it.

 

Questions

Think about the following questions. Answer them fully in one Sentence.

 

• Think about the slave owning Nantucket. What might walking up Main Street be like?

 

• What would be the attitudes of white people with slavery around?

 

• What would be the attitudes of black people with slavery?

 

 

• Now, what would happen to Nantucket if slavery was suddenly abolished?

 

 

Huck Finn: Chapters 1-6

 

Introduction

Remember to watch Twain with a very cynical eye. He is a satirist and believes in little.

 

Questions

Answer the following questions fully. They will require you to think more than usual.

 

1. Twain has a good time tweaking the widows. Why?

 

2. Why doesn’t Huck complain to them? Why does he stay silent?

 

3. What is adolescent about Huck?

 

4. Why does he use the word “niggers” so carelessly?

 

5. Why, do you suppose, Tom is quick to play a trick on Jim?

 

6. What is the difference between Huck and Tom?

 

Why does he quit the gang, then?

 

7. Why does Huck believe in superstition if he is so matter of fact with everything else?

 

8. Twain, true to form, makes fun of Pap. Why?

 

9. Pap gives a classic redneck speech. Why does he hate the black man?

 

 

Huckleberry Finn: Chapters 6-8

 

Introduction

Huck gets a move on.

 

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.

 

1. How has Huck figured out how to deal with Pap?

 

2. What is ironic in Pap’s speech about the dressed up black man?

 

3. Why doesn’t Huck talk about returning to town?

 

4. Huck wishes Tom Sawyer was there. Why is it a good thing that he isn’t?

 

5. One of the hallmarks of this book is the way nature is portrayed. How does Huck look at the river?

 

6. Why does Huck start to think that praying might work after all? What does this show you about Huck?

 

7. Why is Jim so scared to see Huck?

 

8. Why does Jim run away?

 

9. How is Jim rich?

 

 

Huckleberry Finn; Chapters 9-12

 

Introduction

Huck and Jim get comfortable.

 

Questions

Answer the following questions.

 

1. What do Jim and Huck do while they are living on the island?

 

2. Why, do you suppose, Jim goes and checks out the dead man and asks Huck to stand still.

 

Where else has Jim taken charge over Huck?

 

3. Why does he go to town?

 

4. Does Huck act as if he knows Jim is black and Huck is white?

 

5. How does Huck get found out?

 

How does this trick show the difference between Tom and Huck?

 

6. Life on the river is often described as something close to ideal. Is it?

 

7. Why does Jim bolt for the raft instead of exploring the steamboat?

8. How does Huck show his practical side?

 

 

The Mind of Jim

 

Introduction

This novel is limited to Huck Finn’s viewpoint. The purpose of this exercise is to imagine the mind of Jim.

 

Exercise

We are going to try, in groups, to rebuild the book from Jim’s point of view.

To do this, we need to do three things.

 

1. Establish what has happened in the book.

 

2. Establish what Jim’s mindset would be?

 

3. Write his version of various events.

 

What has happened?

So far, what are the major events in Jim’s life during the course of this book?

 

Step

Event

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

 

Continued on next page

 

Jim, Continued

 

 

Mindset

What can we tell about Jim’s Mind? In other words, how does he feel about people, places and things?

 

Huck?

 

The Town?

 

The Island?

 

Others?

 

•

 

•

 

•

 

•

 

•

 

 

Diary

Using your own writing voice, write a paragraph diary entry for each of Jim’s events.

 

Use specifics

Use real verbs

 

 

Huckleberry Finn: 13-15

 

Introduction

Huck and Jim escape

 

Questions

Answer the following questions fully.

 

1. How do Huck and Jim escape?

 

2. Why does he tell a lie to rescue the bums on the wrecked boat?

 

3. Jim out argues huck. What does that show about the two of them?

 

What does the Solomon thing show you about Jim?

 

Why doesn’t he like Solomon?

 

4. Does Huck think he has won the argument or not?

 

5. What is the plan for Huck and Jim?

 

6. How do Jim and Huck try to find each other in the fog?

 

Why doesn’t Huck panic?

 

7. What trick does Huck play on Jim?

 

Why do you suppose Jim goes for it?

 

8. Why is it a cruel trick?

 

9. What strange thing does Huck do afterwards?

 

Why does he do it?

 

 

Huck Finn: Chapter 16

 

Introduction

Huck gets pangs of Conscience and trouble raises its head.

 

Questions

Answer the following questions.

 

1. Why does Huck get pangs of conscience?

 

Why does he feel bad? Isn’t he doing a good thing?

 

Has he thought about what he is doing?

 

Why is Jim happy?

 

2. How big is Jim’s family?

 

How are we supposed to interpret Huck’s words?

 

Why does he leave the boat?

 

3. Who does he run into on the river?

 

How does he lie?

 

How are his lies different from Tom Sawyer like lies?

 

4. What do they think the rattle snakeskin did?

 

When did they miss Cairo

 

What is the importance of missing that town?

 

5. How does the steamboat ruin their plans?

 

 

 

Huckleberry Finn 17-18

 

Introduction

We will do these chapters in an odd way. You will only need to answer one of the following questions. However, please answer it in one full page of writing.

 

Question

Answer one of the following questions.

 

• Twain is at his sarcastic best with the Grangerfords. What are the elements of their lives that he makes fun of?

 

• Huck is back with white people and he acts in the style that he is accustomed to. How does he treat his slave? How does Buck and the rest of the Grangerfords?

 

• Huck is, at his best, very practical. How is he practical in leaving the town?

 

 

Huck Finn 19-20

 

Introduction

Question

Pick one of the following questions and answer it fully.

 

• Huck doesn’t say a word about the danger the Duke and the Dauphin pose for Huck and Jim. Are they dangerous?

 

• Huck spends the first several pages describing life on the river. What makes it edenic? Is this Melville’s river, or Emerson's?

 

• Why does Huck and Jim put up with the two of them? Why doesn’t he tell Jim the truth?

 

 

Huck Finn 21-23

 

Introduction

A word about lynching and pilfering from the town.

 

Questions

Answer on of the following questions in a page of writing.

 

• Twain has a lot of fun with the “Arkansaw” town. What is so ridiculous about them?

 

• Are we supposed to like Sherburn or dislike him? How does Twain feel about the man that shot someone in the middle of the street? Is he right when he speaks to the crowd?

 

• Why did more people show up on the second night than on the first?

 

 

Huck Finn: 24-30

 

Introduction

This long section has little to distinguish it. They have a fun, twisting time with a story of an attempted swindle.

 

Questions

Answer one of the following questions.

 

• Huck clearly likes the three women. Why? What qualities are good about them?

 

• Twain, for all his warbling, seems to like the Doctor who comes for the Duke and the Dauphin and tries to expose them. What units Sherburn and the Doctor?

 

• Why isn’t Jim involved more in the story?

 

• How is this section also about the mob?

 

• Who is worse: The mobs of people or the Duke/Dauphin?

 

 

Huck Changes

 

Introduction

Huck has somewhat glacial change. If you look back to the beginning of the book, he has certain beliefs. How do they change?

 

Instructions

Fill in the following chart. On the left, write down things that Huck believed while he was home with the Aunts. On the left, write what his current belief is.

 

Old Beliefs

New Understandings

Slaves are not people

Jim is a slave and a person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking

Answer the following questions.

 

• What qualities does Huck have that makes him different from his contemporaries (Buck, etc)

 

• Is Huck qualified to live happily in any of these towns?

 

• What would Emerson think of Huck?