The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter 1 Plot

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 1 Plot: Huck and Tom getting the money they find in the cave, Widow Douglas takes guardianship of Huck and tries to civilize him, they are trying to give him a religious education (praying, thanking/listening to God) Quote: “…allowed she would sivilize me, but it was rough living in the house all the time” (1)

Chapter 2 Plot: Huck and Tom play a trick on Jim is a celebrity amongst the slaves. The “Tom Sawyer Gang” forms. They are going to be a gang that robs and murders people (keep women prisoners) Quote: “Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches” (6)

Chapter 3 Plot: Miss Watson tries to explain prayers to Huck. Rumor that Huck’s Pa has been found dead, but it later turns out to be a woman dressed as a man. The gang disbands after no robbing or murdering actually happens. Huck tells the reader about game they play where they raid picnics and pretend they are raiding a caravan of Arabs and Spaniards. Quote: “I went and told the widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for it was “spiritual gifts”. This was too many for me…” (11)

Chapter 4 Plot: Huck going to school and accepting his religious and school education. He sees the boot with the cross in the snow, gets Judge Thatcher to take control of the money he has. Jim has the oracle ox hairball and tells Huck that there are two angels surrounding Pa (one good, one bad), but that Huck is safe for right now. Pa is in Huck’s room. Quote: “I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones too, a little bit” (15).

Chapter 5 Plot: Pa returns to see Huck, and is not very impressed by his clothes, and education. Pa goes to the Judge to get the money back, after Huck tells him he is not really rich (even though he technically is, but Thatcher has control of the money). Pa says he is trying to change, so the new judge takes him in and helps him. Pa then later gets drunk and goes back to normal. Thatcher claims the only real way Pa will be reformed is with a shotgun. Quote: “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” (19).

Chapter 6 Plot: Pap tries to sue Judge Thatcher for Huck’s fortune. He keeps getting drunk. He takes Huck to a forest and locks him inside a cabin where they live for a while. Huck tries to escape by cutting out with a saw, but he is caught at the last minute. Pap keeps getting drunk and doing stupid things like chasing Huck with a knife, but he passes out. Huck then points a rifle at Pap but doesn’t shoot. Quote: “Pap warn’t in a good humor – so he was his natural self. ” (Twain, 25)

Chapter 7 Plot: Pap tells Huck to go check for any caught fish, but Huck finds a canoe and hides it. After Pap leaves, Huck breaks out of the cabin and begins setting up a fake murder scene. Huck plans to row away later, but he falls asleep in the canoe and is almost seen by Pap rowing by. He waits and then starts rowing downriver. He falls asleep on Jackson’s Island. Quote: “…they’ll follow that meal track to the lake and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers that killed me and took the things” (Twain, 34)

Chapter 8 Plot: Huck’s first day on the island. He watches the people make superstition-based rescue attempts, and even manages to get some bread thanks to one of them, a floating loaf with mercury inside that was supposed to find his body. After a few days living in comfort, he finds Jim, who has also run away and came to live on the island. The two begin cooperating. Quote: “I knowed I was all right now. Nobody else would come a -hunting after me. ”

Chapter 9 Plot: Huck and Jim move supplies to a cave in case visitors come and they need to hide. They find some supplies and a dead body in a house floating in the river; Jim keeps Huck from seeing the dead body in too much detail, and they stow the supplies in their cave for later. Quote: “Just before daylight, here comes a frame house down, on the west side”

Chapter 10 Plot: Jim refuses to talk about the dead person. Jim and Huck find $8 in silver in the overcoat. Jim says its bad luck to touch a snakeskin and that Huck will deal with bad luck soon. 4 days later Huck kills a snake and puts it on Jims blanket as a prank. The dead snakes mate curls around it and bits Jim when he gets on his blankets. Jims leg swells up but he recovers through rest and alcohol. Huck decides to go to town dressed as a girl to get information. Quote: “Said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin. Well, here’s your bad luck!”… “It’s a comin’. Mind I tell you it’s a comin’. ”

Chapter 11 Plot: Huck goes into the woman’s house as Sarah Williams. The woman talks about a variety of topics, and eventually got to the topic of Huck’s murder. She said how there are speculations that Finn killed himself, Jim killed him and then ran away, his father killed him(money). Jim is worth $300, Finn is worth $200 if they were found. Her husband is going to Jackson’s island (with a gun and another man) after midnight to see if Jim is there because smoke was seen. When asked what Huck’s name was he said Mary Williams. She tested to see if he was a girl by watching how he uses a thread and needle and having him kill rats by throwing lead at it. She caught him faking being a girl and asks for his true identity. So, he told her the ‘real’ story: that his name is George Peters and his parents died and he had to live with a mean farmer. He then rushed back to Jim to warn him and told him to pack up his things and left. Quote: “She said she wouldn’t let me go by myself, but her husband would be in by-andby, maybe in a hour and a half, and shed send him along with me. ”

Chapter 12 Plot: Huck and Jim begin traveling by water, they hide during the day and travel at night. They have been stealing and hunting food for themselves. On one of the stormy nights they find a wrecked boat Huck goes to explore the boat even though Jim told him not to. Huck overhears two robbers talking about killing someone. One of the robbers says they should just let the victim drown in the storm. Huck tells Jim what he overheard and says they need to cut the robber’s boat so they can’t escape Jim tells Huck that their own raft has floated away. Quote: “there’s a gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don’t hunt up their boat and set her drifting down the river so these fellows can’t get away from the wreck, there’s one of’em going to be in a bad fix. ” (52)

Chapter 13 Plot: Chapter 13 begins with Huck and Jim still hiding in terror on the crashed boat, searching for the escape raft. The boys finally find the “skiff” and are almost discovered by Bill and Packard, but they leave to get more cash before Huck and Jim are found. Huck and Jim finally escape in the life raft but Huck begins to feel guilty about leaving the men on board to drown. They decide to split up and Jim stays on their raft while Huck takes the life raft to go find a ferry boat. Once aboard Huck lies to a watchman and explains how his family was on the ship that crashed. The watchman agrees to go help and in the end Huck and Jim reunite and row to a nearby island to get some sleep. Quote: “I says to myself, there ain’t no telling but i might come to be a murderer myself, yet, and then how would i like it? ” (75).

Chapter 14 Plot: In chapter 14 Huck and Jim talk about King Solomon. They discuss how he had many wives and if he was truly “wise” or not. They end the chapter in an argument where they both disagree with each other. This chapter starts out with huck and Jim finding clothes, books, and other things from the robbers bounty. After that they both relax in the woods waiting for night. While they are waiting huck and Jim discuss their adventure and jim says he does not like adventures because he could have died or been captured. Then huck begins to tell Jim about a king named Solomon and Jim thinks the king is a fool for wanting to chop a baby in half but huck tries to convince Jim that the kid was still alive wandering around America. Huck goes on to tell jim of the other kings and tells Jim that they don't speak english but speak a different language and Jim does not believe him. Quote: ”I see it warnt no use wasting words - you can learn a slave to argue. So I quit

Chapter 15 Plot: In this chapter they paddle along the river through the fog. Huck soon realizes that he has lost Jim and in his tired state he decides to take a “quick nap”. After his nap he is reunited with Jim and is filled with joy. This chapter starts off with Huck and Jim planing to go to Cairo where they would sell the raft and get on a steam boat and go north to the free states. the next day a fog rolls in and huck gets in the canoe to go to the towhead to tie the raft to but the raft hits a current and breaks the rope connecting the canoe to it and huck and Jim get separated. After huck and Jim find each other huck decides to prank Jim and say they were never separated and says it was all just a dream and Jim believes it. After this huck feels bad for lying to Jim so he goes and apologizes to him. Quote: “I wouldn’t done that if I’d ‘a’ knowed it would make him feel that way”

Chapter 16 Plot: Huck and Jim just sailed all day until they made it to Cairo. Jim was more chipper as they sailed and Jim started to speak of how he was happy to be free. Later they see two a skiff with two men and Huck tries to get help and makes up a lie about how his pap is sick. The two men then guess that his pap has the small pox and they leave him with directions to a town and give him some money. They then find that where they went wasn’t Cairo. As they went to go see what town they were in their canoe. Later at night they see a Steamboat that destroys their raft. As Huck makes his way to shore, he runs into a pack of dogs. Quote: “I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him” (89).

Chapter 17 Plot: After Huck runs into the dogs he meets a man who questions him. Huck tells him that his name is George Jackson. The man invites him and Huck meets the family and a family member by the name Buck who is close to Huck’s age. Buck gave Huck some dry clothing and Buck tells Huck a riddle that Huck doesn’t understand. Huck then makes up a story of how he was orphaned. Bucks family then says he can stay at their house as long as he needed to. Huck believed that thst the home he stayed in was the best thing and nothing could be better. Quote: “Can you spell Buck? . . . I set it down, private, because somebody might want me to spell it next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was used to it” (99).

Chapter 18 Huck has grown accustomed living with the Grangerfords and Buck tells Huck that his family and Shepherdsons have been feuding for over 30 years. After the Grangerfords go to church and come home, Miss Sophia requests that Huck retrieve her Testament which has a secret note from Harney Shepherdson to run away with him. Huck finds Jim in the forest and after a deadly fight between the two families, Huck never wants to see the family again and he and Jim leave on the raft to continue on their journey down the river. “. . And whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a good time. . . We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (pg 116).

Chapter 19 Huck and Jim continue to make their way down the river. One night, Huck finds a canoe and begins paddling, when a couple of men appear and beg him to let them enter the boat because they are being chased. Huck allows them to do so. He then soon finds out that the men actually did not know each other, and then men both explain why they are running. The younger man complains of how he has been “degraded to such company” as felons, and the others question his meaning. He soon tells that he is the Duke of Bridgewater, and that to comfort him, the others should wait on him and refer to him as “My Lordship. ” The other man then tells that he is the Dauphin. He, like the Duke, says nothing will comfort him, except for the others to wait on him and refer to him as “Your Majesty. ” This angers the Duke, but he eventually agrees to not be sour anymore. Huck believes that both men are lying, but decides not to say anything because he learned from Pap that the best way to get along with his type of people was to let them have their own way. “If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way”(pg 125).

Chapter 20 Plot: In chapter 20, Huck and Jim have taken aboard the duke and the king on their raft. The king makes up a lie about how he was a pirate, and how he was robbed, to gain sympathy for himself and some money. Quote: “And he busted into tears, and so did everybody. Then somebody sings out ‘Take up a collection for him!’”(132)

Chapter 21 Plot: The king and the duke decide to put on Romeo and Juliet as a play. In the town, there is a feud going on between a man named Boggs and Colonel Sherburn. Boggs started calling Sherburn names, and he got sick of it. Then, an hour later, Sherburn calls Bogg’s name, and he shoots him. Then all the women in the village take clotheslines to go lynch him. Quote: “Well, by and by somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched… So away they went, mad and yelling, and snatching every clothesline that they could do a hanging with”(145)

Chapter 22 Plot: The mob goes to Sherburn’s house and knocks down the fence. Sherburn greets them with a rifle in his hand he starts to say a speech about human nature and talks about mob mentality. He says no one can lynch him during the day. The mob then leaves. Huck goes to the circus, one of the performers acts drunk and tries to ride a horse the crowd is very amused except for Huck who feels bad for him. 12 people attend the duke’s performance and make fun of it the duke then prints out another handbill. Quote: “It warn’t funny to me, though; I was all of a tremble to see his danger” (112)

Chapter 23 Plot: Chapter 23 begins with the Duke and King setting up their stage and putting on show consisting of a naked duke on all fours. The crowed seemed to find it very funny until they realized that was the entirety of the show, and they had been ripped off. The townspeople are humiliated and conclude that they must convince everyone else in the town that the show was amazing. The next day even more people return to see the show and on the third night Huck notices the smell of rotten food and decides to get out of town with the Duke and Jim. That night on the raft Huck incorrectly tells Jim of the stories of many “rapscallion” kings. Later, Huck wakes up to find Jim who recalls his family at home and the guilt he felt when he hit a deaf daughter. Quote: “He was a mighty good slave, Jim was” (160).

Chapter 24 Plot: Jim complains about being tied up all day when he is alone, so Huck, the Duke, and the King dress him up to look like an Arab. The King and Huck decide to stop in the next town, and make a good impression by wearing fancy clothes and taking a steam boat to shore. They find a man from the town who takes them towards the boat, and learn all about the people of the town. According to this man, another man named Peter had died the night before, and neither of his brothers showed up before he died. Once they arrived at the steamboat, the King decided to go back to the Duke. The King tells the Duke all about Peter, and the King and Duke pretend to be Peter’s brothers to strangers from the town (in hopes of $$). Quote: “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race” (123).

Chapter 25 Plot: The town is very upset and all crying over the death of peter as his two “brothers” (the King and Duke) go and pray next to the coffin. The King invites the close friends of Peter over for dinner. The King and Duke went to receive the $6, 000 that were hidden in the cellar for the will he had written. Peter had given the house and $3, 000 to the girls and the other $3, 000 to William and Harvey his actual brothers. The full $6, 000 was not there and they were $415 short so the Duke decided that they could make up the money by giving money from their pockets. The King and Duke gave all the money to the girls. The doctor realized that the Duke and the King were frauds. Mary Jane gave the Duke and the King all $6, 000 to show the doctor that she believed they were not frauds. Quote: “ The King he smiled eager, and shoved out his flapper, and says: “Is it my poor brother’s dear good friend and physician? ” (169).

Chapter 26 Plot: Huck has supper with Joanna, the youngest Wilks sister, whom he calls “the hare-lip” because of her cleft lip, a birth defect. Joanna tests Huck’s knowledge of England, and he makes several contradicting statements. Joanna asks if he has made the entire thing up and doesn’t completely believe him. She makes him swear while putting his hand on a dictionary. Joanna’s sisters, Mary Jane and Susan, interrupt and tell Joanna to be nice to their guest, and she apologizes after. Huck feels terrible about letting such sweet women be tricked and would help by getting them their money back. He goes to the con men’s room to search for the money and hides when they enter. The duke wants to leave town that night, but the dauphin convinces him to stay until they have stolen all the family’s property. After the men leave the room, Huck finds the $6, 000 in gold, takes it to his sleeping cubby, and then sneaks out late at night. Quote: “I say to myself, this is another one that I’m letting him rob her of her money. And when she got through they all jest laid theirselves out to make me feel at home and know I was amongst friends. I felt so ornery and low down and mean that I say to myself, my mind’s made up; I’ll have that money for them or bust. ” (178)

Chapter 27 Plot: Huck steals the money from the King. He goes downstairs and was going to try to take it outside but he heard someone coming to he puts the money in the coffin. Mary Jane shows up and prays and cries near the coffin. Huck escapes to his room. During the funeral the next day Huck is panicking wondering if they will find the money and what happens if its buried and if its actually still there and if he should tell Mary Jane that the money is there or not. Huck is very conflicted. The money is not found. The king announce he will take the girls with him and proceeds to sell the African American servants and soon will sell the land. The king discovers the money is missing and questions Huck blames the servants that were sent away, relieved they cannot be harmed. The King rages. Quote: “The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the children that way” (183).

Chapter 28 Plot: Mary Jane is in her room crying because she doesn’t want the slave family to separate. Huck tells her that the family will be reunited in two weeks but feels uneasy explaining to her because he has to tell the truth. Huck explains how the king and Duke are fakes and are not what they say they are. He then tells her to go to a friends house and wait so that he can get away with Jim. He leaves a note with her telling where he hid the money. Later a mob interrupts the auction of the family's possessions. Two people in the mob claim to be the real Harvey and William Wilks. Quote: “She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn’t know how she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and the child warn’t ever going to see each other no more” (186)

Chapter 29 Plot: The real Harvey Wilks explains how they were delayed. Suspicion grows on the frauds because they aren’t able to produce the $6, 000. A lawyer asks the duke, the dauphin, and the real Harvey to sign a piece of paper. The frauds are exposed when comparing the signatures but the dauphin claims that the duke is playing a joke on everyone by disguising his handwriting. The reals Harvey claims that he knows of a tattoo on his brothers chest. They dig up the coffin and find the $6, 000. Huck and Jim escape in boat but realise the duke and dauphin are following them. Quote: “Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and bless me, and so on, he was so glad i was back and we was shut off the king and the duke” (205)

Chapter 30 Plot: The king became very angry with Huck, because he accused Huck of trying to escape the town and ditch the rest of them in the process. Huck made up a story about how a very kind man told Huck his son of Huck’s age had died, and that he disliked seeing Huck in such a bad situation. When everyone else was distracted by finding the gold in the coffin, the man told Huck to run or he would be hung. The duke defends Huck, and accuses the king of hiding the money in the coffin, because he was supposedly going to take all the money for himself. The king accuses the duke of the same. The king “admits” to hiding the money in the coffin in order to solve the conflict, and the king and duke are on friendly terms by the end of the night. Huck tells Jim everything. Quote: “ ‘Leggo the boy, you old idiot! Would you a done any different? Did you inquire around for him, when you get loose? I don’t remember it. ’” (155).

Chapter 31 Plot: After traveling a while the King and Duke started working in the villages. They tried doing many jobs but none of them worked out. Jim and Huck were suspicious and thought they were robbing places around the town. The king always tells Huck, Duke and Jim to wait for him and if he didn’t come back then the village was safe to go through but Huck thought that the King just wanted him to wait so he could rob houses. Jim was found by a man in town and was sold to somebody else for $40. Huck then felt like he should start praying to have his sins forgiven for helping Jim. Huck wrote a letter to Miss Watson explaining where Jim was to make Huck feel better about his sins. Then Huck remembered Jim calling him his best friend and tore up the letter. Huck went to go find Jim. Duck was found hanging more bills for The Royal Nonesuch. Huck told the duke that the raft disappeared. Duke told the fake place that Jim was to Huck so he would be busy finding him but Huck realized he was lying. Huck went to find Jim where he actually thought he was and was trying to beat the duke and king so they could ditch them again. Quote: “All right, then I’ll go to hell’- and tore it up” (214)

Chapter 32 Huck goes to a plantation where he is attacked by some hounds but a slave woman calls them off, then the mother of the house comes out greeting him as her long lost relative. Huck plays along for the woman, Sally, she asks why he has been delayed getting here and he says that the boat he came from had a cylinder head blowout. She believes him and continues to ask more questions about how everyone is from back home. However the husband returns and Sally wants to play a trick so she hides him behind the bed and tells her husband she doesn't know where he is, she then suddenly pulls Huck out from the bed. He greets Huck as Tom Sawyer which is a great relief to him. He knows all about his friend Tom's life and answers the questions easily. He then gets nervous that Tom could come in at any second so he goes up to town alone. Quote: “Good gracious! Anybody hurt? ’ ‘No’m. Killed a [black person]. ’ ‘Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. ”(Twain 221).

Chapter 33 Huck is still pretending to be Tom Sawyer and on his way into town runs into Tom himself. Tom still thinking Huck is dead, believes that this is Huck's ghost coming back to haunt him but Huck convinces Tom that he is still alive and tells him about his journey and his plans to steal Jim back. Surprisingly Tom overlooks this and doesn't tattle on Huck, even saying that he would help him, which makes Jim question Tom's morals. Tom then gives him the idea to use Tom's bags and go slowly back as to keep up the illusion that Huck is Tom, even though Huck forgets to go slowly. Later on Tom arrives at his Aunt Sally's and pretends to be a stranger named William Thompson. He then plays a trick on his Aunt by kissing her and afterwards tells her that he is in fact her other nephew Sid Sawyer and all is forgiven. Finally during dinner the boys hear about two con artists putting on a show the town already knows about and sees the duke and the king get covered in tar and feathers, and questions how people could be so cruel. “It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be so cruel to one another" (231)

Chapter 34 Plot: Huck and Tom attempt to come up with a plan to free Jim, who they find out is being held in a shed on the property. Huck comes up with a plan, but mocks his plan for it's simplicity. Tom then comes up with a wild plan that they both agree is better than Huck’s original plan. They then go over and talk to Jim by convincing the superstitious slave that a witch made the noises Jim was making and they escape some trouble. Quote: “He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides”(Twain 233).

Chapter 35 Plot: Tom and Huck made plans to bust Jim out, but instead of doing it the easy and obvious way Tom insist on making it complicated and romantic (stylistic writing before Twain). Tom keeps thinking of ways to make the escape more adventurous by suggesting unnecessary steps, like cutting of Jim's foot, building their own moat, having Jim send letters even though he can't read, etc. Finally Huck and Tom agree on a plan to rescue Jim and Tom tells Huck to steal any items necessary for this. When Huck steals a watermelon from the slaves patch, Tom makes him leave ten cents for them because a watermelon was not "necessary" just because Huck was hungry. In the end they decide to dig Jim out with knives because it is the "proper" way to rescue someone. Quote: "I stole a watermelon out of the slave patch and eat it; and he made me go and give the slaves a dime without telling them what it was for. "(242) Quote: "It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the right way-and it's the regular way. And there ain't no other way. "(244)

Chapter 36 Plot: Huck and Tom start digging a hole with knives, but found it was taking too long. So they decide to use picks and shovels, but they tell everyone that they used the knives. They get to where Jim is and tell him all about their plans. Jim tells them that Uncle Silas came every day or every two days to pray with him and that Aunt Sally visited him to see if he was comfortable and had enough food. Tom tells him to put messages in the pockets of Uncle Silas and he would steal them from Aunt Sally. He also asked him to keep a diary written with blood on the shirt they had borrowed the day before. Jim didn’t understand most of it, but he we knew more than he did, so he accepted everything. Tom put a piece of a candlestick in the middle of the bread for Jim and we went with Nat to see what happened, when Jim bit it he almost broke all his teeth. He never bit anything at all until he had stabbed it with his fork three or four times. Nat, the slave who gives Jim his meals, is afraid of witches. When Nat is suspicious of all the mysterious thing that are happening, the boys tell him that it was the witches and that the have a pie that make witches go away. Quote: “What I want is my slave; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my Sunday-school book; and if a pick’s the handiest thing, that’s the thing I’m a-going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that Sunday-school book out with; and I don’t give a dead rat what the authorities thinks about it nuther”

Chapter 37 Aunt Sally gets angry at Uncle Silas when they are having dinner, because she notices that there is a spoon, 6 candles, and a sheet missing from the house, and she thinks it is him. In that moment Tom and Huck get nervous because they were the ones who stole things, but they stole it because they wanted Jim to have them. When Uncle Silas puts his hand in his pocket, he finds the spoon, which shows Aunt Sally that it was him. Finally, when Tom and Huck are in the woods with Jim, they cook the pie and give him all the things they stole. “Ther was ten, and now ther’s only nine. The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never took the spoon, that’s certain”(252)