STAGE

Huckleberry Finn
2 Mark Twain

Introduction

This ungraded summary is for the teacher’s use only

and should not be given to students.

The story
This story begins in the small town of St Petersburg
on the Mississippi River that is also the setting for
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It also uses some of
the same characters, including both Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn.
At the beginning, Huck is rich (from the treasure
that he and Tom found at the end of The Adventures had any notion that slavery was immoral, and most
of Tom Sawyer). As he has no mother, and his father, would have been shocked that a white boy would help
the town drunkard, has disappeared, he is living in the a slave to escape to one of the ‘free states’. But this is
house of the Widow Douglas who is kind to him. But only one aspect of the story. The story also celebrates
Huck is used to running wild, and finds it hard to live the Mississippi River, which Mark Twain knew so well,
in a house and go to school. and a way of life which disappeared after the Civil
Huck’s father then reappears and takes Huck to live War. It also shows a friendship between Huck and Jim
with him in the woods. Huck is happy to be away from which goes beyond the restrictions of its time.
the Widow Douglas’s house, but his father gets drunk
too often and hits him a lot. Huck realises that either before reading
he is going to have to stay with his father, or return to Here are some ways to help your students approach
the Widow Douglas. He decides to run away down the the story:
river instead. 1 Give students the title of the book and show them
On the run, he meets up with a runaway slave, the picture on the cover. Ask them to try and guess
Jim. They start to travel down the Mississippi on a raft. what kind of story it is.
Their objective is to get to Cairo in Illinois and then get 2 Ask the students to read the text on the back cover
a boat up the Ohio River into Ohio, one of the States of the book, and the story introduction on the first
where slavery has been abolished. page. Then ask them a few questions about the
After a number of adventures on and beside the story, or use the Before Reading Activities in the
river, Jim is recaptured and taken prisoner on a farm back of each Bookworm.
belonging to the Phelpses, who, by great good luck, 3 Use the pre-reading activity in this worksheet.
are relations of Tom Sawyer’s. Huck and Tom stay 4 If there is a recording of this title, play the first few
with the Phelpses, and together plan to free Jim pages and stop at an interesting point.
again. They help Jim to escape one night, but they are
pursued and eventually Jim is recaptured. Tom then
reveals that Jim is, in fact, a free man; his owner has
died and freed him in her will. Huck also discovers that
his father is dead and he has nothing more to fear from
him. The three friends can return to St Petersburg,
although Huck is not sure whether he can go back to
living in a house again.

background to the story

Huckleberry Finn is set against the background of slavery
in the USA before the Civil War and emancipation. Few
people in a small town like St-Petersburg would have

68
 STAGE
Huckleberry Finn
2 Pre-reading activity
Match the words with the pictures
1 2
4 5
7 8
a The next minute the steamboat was right
over us.
b Let’s go and have adventures in the wild
country down south.
c They were Pop’s footprints!
d We found the king in a bar, drunk.
e I broke down the door with an axe.
To the teacher
Aim: To familiarize students with the story and its
setting
Time: 10–15 minutes
Organization: Give one copy of the worksheet to
each student or group of students. Ask the students
69
3
6
9
f I could do what I wanted, when I wanted. It
was a fine life.
g We dug a hole right under the wall of the
hut.
h We tied the raft up under the trees.
i I jumped into the river and brought the
canoe to the side.
to match the words with the appropriate picture.
When the students have completed this task, check
the answers with them.
Key: 1f, 2c, 3i, 4e, 5h, 6a, 7d, 8g, 9b
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PHOTOCOPIABLE
 STAGE
Huckleberry Finn
2 After reading activity

Character posters

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To the teacher

Aim: To focus students’ attention back on the
characters
Time: 20 minutes
Organization: Give each student, or group of
students, a copy of the worksheet. Using the poster
of Pop as a model, they should fill the spaces around
the other pictures with appropriate words or phrases
to describe the people.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 70