Huck Finn – Plot Summary

• Huck lives with the Widow b/c dad is a drunk

• Huck & Tom found $ (they are RICH)

• Huck is supposed to be “sivilized” – doesn’t really like it

• Huck tries to run away, but Tom says he has to go back if he wants to be in the band of robbers

a. Out to “kill” and “ransom” women, steal, etc.

b. Huck offers the Widow to be a member

• Jim tells Huck’s future with a hair ball

• Huck gives $6000 to Judge Thatcher

• Huck starts to think about adopting education and religion

• Pap kidnaps Huck

a. Takes him to a cabin, locks him up while he’s drunk – beats Huck

b. Pap starts hallucinating and tries to kill Huck; Huck keeps a gun pointed at his passed out Pap

c. Huck escapes the cabin, fakes his own death and “lights out” for Jackson Island

• On Jackson Island – hears people looking for his corpse

a. Finds Jim in the woods after 3 days of being alone

b. Jim thinks Huck is a ghost, but then believes Huck is alive

c. Jim RAN AWAY three days ago b/c Miss Watson was going to sell him (Jim thinks he’s rich b/c he owns himself)

d. Huck & Jim talk about superstitions

e. Move camp to base of the island to be safe

f. Abandoned house floats by – DEAD MAN in it; Jim covers his face- Huck doesn’t look at it

i. “Steal” all the stuff in the house

g. Jim gets a rattlesnake bite

h. Huck dresses as a girl to find out the news in town

• (CH 11) Theories about who killed Huck – either Pap or Jim

• Woman’s husband went to Jackson Is. To hunt Jim

• Woman calls Huck out as a girl

• Huck makes a fire at the top of Jackson Is. And then goes to the bottom to get Jim and set off

• (Ch 12) description of their raft

• Wrecked steamboat exploration – 3 robbers inside

• Bad men talk about morals

• H & J’s raft gone – take robbers’ skiff

• H & J plan to put all the men in a fix

• (CH 13) Huck and Jim take the robber’s skiff

• Huck worries about these robbers

a. Thinks he may be a robber and he wouldn’t want people to die

i. Huck does the right thing for the wrong reason

b. Tells ferry man to save the robbers (but the wreck floats by)

i. Ferryman is more worried about $$$ than saving lives

• (CH 14) King Solomon & the French language

a. Jim has his own logic; Huck and Jim are both stubborn; Huck is educated, but not overly-so; Huck & Jim learn how to work with each other

• (CH 15) FOG

a. Jim’s life experience shows when he calls Huck “trash” – don’t lie for the fun of it; don’t make your friends look bad for fun

b. A BLACK SLAVE is standing up to a WHITE boy

c. Jim truly cares for Huck

d. Huck is debating Jim’s humanity /still stubborn (15 minutes)

• (CH 16) Jim plans to get his wife and kids by buying or stealing them

• Huck is “froze” to hear this—he is a child of his day

• Huck tries to turn Jim in, but “weakens”

a. Jim tells Huck he’s the best friend he’s ever had, only white gentleman to keep his word… yes, Huck is Jim’s friend, but Jim knows what’s going on and uses all his means to save him self by making Huck feel GUILTY

• Huck lies about smallpox – these men use $$$ to avoid saving a life

• Huck thinks about right and wrong—doing the right thing (turning Jim in) and the wrong thing (not turning him in) feel the same – he will do whatever is EASIER (which could hurt Jim)

• They miss the town of Cairo

• Raft gets smashed – H & Jim get separated