Character traits
Though he respects their intentions, Huck struggles to appreciate living with the widow Douglas and Miss Watson mainly for this reason.
What is Huck's reluctance to become civilized?
In an effort to make his well-staged murder even more believable, Huck sticks this on the back side of a bloodied axe.
What is Huck's hair?
In the absence of 21st-century scientific knowledge, the floating loaf of bread with quicksilver and Jim's mystical hairball from the stomach of an ox serve as symbols of this quality found in people of every race.
What is superstition?
Mark Twain wrote Huck as an admirer of some of the book's most virulent racists to illustrate that slavers were ultimately good people.
Mark Twain wrote Huck as an admirer of some of the book's most virulent racists to illustrate that slavers, though they might have believed they were good people, were morally bankrupt.
"And looky here — you drop that school, you hear? I’ll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better’n what he is."
Who is Pap?
Despite the critical role Huck plays in Jim's run for freedom, his willingness to hold Huck accountable for the thoughtlessness of his pranks illustrates this element of Jim's character.
What is Jim's dignity?
In order to gather intelligence early in the novel, Huck dresses as this kind of person prior to meeting and questioning Judith Loftus.
What is a girl?
For Jim, the river is a pathway to literal freedom. For Huck, the river mainly symbolizes this idea.
What is distance from the insular safety of antebellum Southern thinking? (explanations will vary)
The duke and the king's scheme to defraud the Wilks family quickly persuades Mary Jane and her town's doctor.
The duke and the king's scheme to defraud the Wilks family quickly persuades Mary Jane but fails to convince her town's doctor.
"And if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog."
Who is Huckleberry Finn?
Huck, Tom, the duke, and the king all have a muddled understanding of literature and history but remain confident in their knowledge of both, illustrating Twain's contempt for this human trait.
What is poor teaching, undeserved self-assurance, or the buffoonery of unqualified "experts"? (explanations will vary)
One of the many identities Huck assumes in the novel is "George Jackson," whose last name Buck Grangerford spells this way.
What is "J-A-X-O-N"?
In contrast to the Mississippi River's connection to freedom and independence, the shore mainly symbolizes this idea.
What is racism, cruelty, or a narrow-minded view of civilization? (explanations will vary)
Shortly after fleeing Miss Watson, Jim declares he is "rich" because he won $800 playing blackjack.
Shortly after fleeing Miss Watson, Jim declares reveals he is "rich" because he now owns himself; prior to his escape, he overheard Miss Watson saying she could get $800 by selling him to a slave trader.
"The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is — a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers."
Who is Colonel Sherburn?
The willingness of Mary Jane Wilks and many of her neighbors to play into the duke and the king's cartoonishly evil and abundantly obvious scheme illustrates this characteristic.
What is naivete?
Forced to improvise while trying to hide Peter Wilks's fortune from the duke and the king, Huck stashes the gold in this place.
What is Peter Wilks's coffin?
The raft, which Jim and Huck must share with one another and later with the duke and the king, allows its riders to navigate the unpredictable, sometimes dangerous waters of the Mississippi River. In that sense, the raft symbolizes this idea.
What is compassion, respect, forbearance, or peaceful coexistence? (explanations will vary)
Huck strenuously resists Tom's efforts to complicate Jim's escape.
Huck objects mildly to Tom's efforts to complicate Jim's escape but quickly falls in line.
"I don't mind one or two kings, but that's enough. This one's powerful drunk, and the duke ain't much better."
Who is Jim?
(“I doan’ mine one er two kings, but dat’s enough. Dis one’s powerful drunk, en de duke ain’ much better.”)
Tom's eagerness to make Jim an accessory to his recreation of a boy-book escape narrative reveals this element of his character.
What is Tom's unthinking cruelty, his complicity in slavery and racism, or his harmful fascination with morally vacuous storytelling? (explanations will vary)
When he arrives at the Phelps farm, Huck assumes the role of Tom Sawyer; shortly afterward, the real Tom Sawyer pretends to be "William Thompson" of Hicksville, Ohio, before settling into this identity.
Who is Sid Sawyer?
Given the duke and the king's preoccupation with the $6,000 in Peter Wilks's will and Huck's ambivalence about his own $6,000 in savings, gold coins stand in as symbols of this idea.
What is the corrupting power of wealth?
At the end of the novel, Huck tries again to allow a slaver to "sivilize him."
Rather than allow another slaver to "sivilize him," Huck takes off for "the Territory" held by indigenous Americans.
"A prisoner’s got to have some kind of a dumb pet, and if a rattlesnake hain’t ever been tried, why, there’s more glory to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other way you could ever think of to save your life."
Who is Tom Sawyer?