MARK TWAIN

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

CHAPTERS 16-31
The aim of the lesson is to teach you to explain the role of episodes in revealing the psychological
development of the character and to show how a single turn of phrase lends a peculiar tone to an episode and
reveals both the character's and the author's attitude to the events.

1. Reproduce the information BY HEART and sum it up in a sentence.

In the previous chapters, Huck debates the value of education. It never seems vital to him. He can't learn from
books because he is well-tutored by Nature. But life as it is is more than books and nature. The essence of man is
revealed to him in the given chapters. It complicates his way from innocence to knowledge making him shun the
human being because of his inhumanity. Huck hardly ever passes any direct judgment. Yet his attitude is felt in every
turn of phrase.
In a word, .............................................................................................................................................
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Reproduce the following piece of information. Explain to what extent this work is compatible to ‘Don
Quixote’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Robinson Crusoe’.

“Huckleberry Finn places itself with the great things in picaresque fiction. Still, it is more poetic than picaresque, and of
deeper psychology. The art that portrays such a credible soul as Huck’s, without pose or affectation, is fine art. In the
boy’s history, the author’s fancy works realistically to an end as high as those achieved by the authors of “Don
Quixote” and “Hamlet”.

3. Answer the given questions showing your understanding of the inner meaning the author ascribes to the
events. Contribute something to each question but give a detailed answer to the one that seems to you most
vital in revealing the development of the author's idea.
 What makes Huck "feel so mean and miserable" while he and Jim are drifting on the raft towards Cairo? /ch.16/
 How is Huck's basic decency revealed when it is contrasted to the behaviour of the men looking for runaway slaves?
/ch.16/
 What details of the family Feud between the two families show that hatred eliminates the borderlines between
chivalry and meanness, honour and crime, courage and stupidity? /ch.18/
 What do the practices of the Duke and the Dauphin tell us about small-town America? /ch.20,22,23/
 What does the Boggs incident with Colonel Sherburn tell us about the ordinary man in a small town of that day?
How do the people act in a mob that threatens Colonel Sherburn?
 How does the circus episode in ch.22 reveal that Huck, for all his knowledge of life, is still a child?

4. Reproduce the given summary changing the colloquial expressions in the inverted commas into neutral
style. Enlarge upon the summary giving more emphasis to episodes of primary importance.

Huck feels miserable because "his conscience goes to stirring him up hotter than ever" on account of his
helping Jim to run for his freedom. Yet he "smartly dodges" the men who are looking for runaway slaves. After the raft
is smashed by a steamboat, Huck finds himself with the Grangerfords, "a high-toned tribe", engaged in a deadly feud
with another clan of the same kind. Huck is a bewildered witness to their killing each other in cold blood. Finding each
other again, Huck and Jim feel that "there is no home like a raft", but the home feeling is shattered by the intrusion of
the two swindlers, the Duke and the Dauphin. Against his will, Huck gets involved in the theatre affair, which sets the
whole town against them. But the two swindlers manage to escape. Having witnessed a few incidents of small-town
life, Huck and Jim, in the company of the Duke and the Dauphin, resume their journey down the Mississippi.
.......................................................................................................................

5. An author has developed a character successfully when he includes change, and in the case of a
youngster, growth toward maturity. Based on the chapters you’ve read talk about:
a) growth toward maturity in Huck;
b) what additional knowledge about people and the problems of life Huck has acquired.
c) the themes the writer manages to explore through the character’s behaviour and perception of life.

6. What phrases show Huck's implicit judgment of the events and the people? Provide your own examples of
Huck's implicit judgment. Explain how the effect is achieved.

e.g.: "They was as high-toned and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords." /p.99/

The author uses accumulation and at the same time opposes these flattering epithets to the word "TRIBE"
which denotes just a family, but implicitly suggests barbarism. This contrast lends an ironic colouring to the whole
phrase.
7. Read the following piece of criticism. Show the importance of small details when answering the following
questions below:

Mark Twain only seems to conform to typical American values. In fact, he mocked at the Americans' pseudo-
patriotism, their confidence that the United States was the greatest nation on earth. Mark Twain's attitude towards
society, especially its weaknesses, is quiet clear in the novel. We see his distaste for false holiness stubborn
ignorance, narrow-mindedness and excessive sentimentality. These are often emphasized in episodes that are less
important for the development of the plot than for revealing the author's attitude.

a) Why was it that Twain made Jim call Huck his best friend? /p.88-87/
b) Why did the author make the reader pay special attention to the widespread habit of chewing tobacco?
/p.122-123/
c) What evidence can you offer to characterize the taste of small-town America?
d) Why does the author finish the chapters under discussion with Jim's recollections about his daughter? /p.133/