Plot Events
This event forces James to flee and initiates the novel's central conflict.
What is Miss Watson's plan to sell James and separate him from his family?
The novel opens in this Missouri town, also famous from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
What is Hannibal, Missouri?
This enslaved man, known as "Jim" in Twain's novel, narrates the novel James.
Who is James?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in this year.
What is 1885?
This term refers to the level of formality or style a speaker chooses based on audience, purpose, and context
What is language register?
James hides on this Mississippi River island, where he unexpectedly reunites with Huck Finn.
What is Jackson Island?
This major American river symbolically functions as a source of freedom and danger throughout the novel.
What is the Mississippi River?
The names of James' wife and daughter
Who are Sadie and Lizzie?
James was published in this year.
What is 2024?
This term describes the way in which the narrator of James deliberately uses different language registers depending on his audience.
What is code-switching?
During a storm, James and Huck discover a floating house containing a corpse that James recognizes.
What is Pap Finn's dead body?
Much of the novel unfolds in this pre-Civil War historical context leading up to 1861.
What is the antebellum American South?
James' age in the novel
What is 27?
Percival Everett received his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from this university.
What is Brown University?
Everett's use of this rhetorical device contrasts the readers' awareness of James' education with the white characters' lack of awareness.
What is dramatic irony?
Later in the novel, James reveals that he is this character's father.
Who is Huck Finn?
James gains illicit access to books in this authority figure's personal library.
What is Judge Thatcher's library?
This performer forms and leads the black minstrel shows in the novel (and in history).
Who is Daniel Decatur Emmett?
Percival Everett is on the teaching faculty at this university.
What is the University of Southern California?
Everett's references to Enlightenment philosophers illustrates this rhetorical device.
What is allusion?
During a steamboat disaster, James faces a dilemma about saving these two individuals while knowing that he can help only one.
Who are Huck Finn and Norman?
This room, where a slave named Brock lives and works, symbolizes "hell on Earth."
What is the boiler or engine room of the steamboat?
James challenges the logic and reasoning of this Enlightenment philosopher.
Who is John Locke?
Percival Everett received these book awards for James.
What is the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize?
Everett uses this rhetorical device to critique social beliefs, traditions, and customs.
What is satire?