" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

Mark Twain

Analysis of the major

characters

Quiz

1. Which of the following symbolizes bad luck to

Huck and Jim?
(A) A shed snakeskin
(B) Jims hairy chest
(C) Rain
(D) The wrecked steamboat
2. What is Jims initial destination when he and Huck
start downriver?
(A) New Orleans
(B) An Arkansas plantation
(C) St. Louis
(D)of
The
Ohio
River
3. What is the name
the
town
where Huck, Jim, and Tom live at
the novels opening?
(A) Cairo
(B) St. Louis
(C) Pikesville
(D) St. Petersburg
4. Why does Jim run away from Miss Watsons?
(A) She treats him poorly.
(B) She is planning to sell him, which would separate him from his family.
(C) He wants to see relatives in New Orleans.
(D) He wants to help Huck escape his father.

5. What charm does Jim wear around his neck that he

says cures sickness?
(A) A silver key
(B) A five-cent piece
(C) A snake tooth
(D) A is
rabbits
foot
6. Which of the following
the primary
influence on
Tom Sawyer?
(A) His Aunt Polly
(B) Sunday school
(C) Adventure novels
(D) Abolitionist speeches
7. Temperance refers to the movement designed to abolish which
of the following?
(A) Drinking alcohol
(B) Slavery
(C) School segregation
(D) Income taxes
8. Where does Huck intend to go at the
novels end?
(A) St. Petersburg
(B) The West
(C) New York City
(D) The Phelps farm

Huck Finn is a boy who comes from the lowest levels of

white society. His father is a drunkard and a ruffian who
sometimes disappears for months. Huck himself is dirty
and frequently homeless. Although the Widow Douglas
attempts to reform Huck, he resists her attempts and
maintains his independent ways.
Huck does more than just apply the rules that he has
been taughthe creates his own rules. Yet Huck is not
some kind of independent moral genius. Huck possesses
the ability to adapt to almost any situation through
trickery. He is playful but practical, inventive but
logical, compassionate but realistic, and these traits
allow him to survive the abuse of Pap, the violence of a
feud, and the dangers of the river.
While Huck accepts that the laws and stipulations that
society has devised are just, he concludes that he cannot
follow them.He condemns himself as a traitor and a villain
for acting against them and aiding Jim. More important,
Huck believes that he will lose his chance at
Providence by helping a slave. When Huck declares, "All
right, then, I'll go to hell," he refuses his place in society and
heaven, and the magnitude of his decision is what solidifies
his role as a heroic figure.

"It was a close place. I took...up [the letter Id

written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand.
I was a-trembling, because Id got to decide,
forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I
studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and
then says to myself: All right then, Ill go to
helland tore it up. It was awful thoughts and
awful words, but they was said. And I let them
stay said; and never thought no more about
reforming."

Jim

is the slave of Miss Watson who

runs away when he finds out that he
is being sold away from his family. He
joins Huck on a raft to seek freedom
by way of the Mississippi.

A slave's mentality
Jim

A noble person at heart

Pap
A father figure

"heart wuz mos' broke

bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no mo' what bcome er me en de raf'."

When Huck and Jim become separated in the fog, Jim tells Huck that his

Jim's most important quality, however, is his "gullible" nature. As the novel progresses, this
nature reveals itself as complete faith and trust in his friends, especially Huck. The one trait
that does not fluctuate throughout the novel is Jim's belief in Huck.

Widow Douglas, the prime mother figure in Adventures in

Huckleberry Finn, is the old, pious guardian of Huck Finn. Huck
describes the basic nature of their relationship -"The Widow
Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would
sivilize to
me.."
She is 100% committed
following the rules of
society, from table manners to church-going to slaveThe widow embodiesowning.
civilization and everything
respectable but Huck's ideal is to escape the traps of
civilization.

Miss Watson is the sister of Huck's main guardian, the

Widow. Joining in the mission to civilize Huck, she uses a
much more severe approach.
Where the Widow tries to portray a benevolent view of
religion to get Huck to accept it, Miss Watson, in last
resort attempt to regain her credibility, uses scare tactics ;
she tries to scare Huck into believing by telling him about
how he was going to Hell, or the "bad place," unless he
changed his ways.
Miss Watson is the most prominent representative of the
hypocritical religious and ethical values Twain criticizes in
the novel.

Pap is the father of Huckleberry Finn. He is a middle-aged

man who although briefly appears in the novel, greatly
affects Huck.
Sure, Huck's father Pap may be an ignorant, abusive,
alcoholic racist who beats his son and extorts whiskey
money from him, but he's not all bad. He's got some really
redeeming qualitieslike
Like..
Okay, I lied. He has no redeeming qualities.
He'll do anything to get more whiskey, including
lying, stealing, and abusing his son.
The worst is that Pap is a willfully ignorant racist. He doesn't want Huck to learn anything,
saying "You've put on considerable many frills since I been away You're educated, too, they
saycan read and write. You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because he
can't?" He can't handle the idea of black people knowing more than he does, either.
Pap represents both the general debasement of white society and the failure of family
structures in the novel.

Bibliografie:

http://www.sparknotes.com
http://www.litcharts.com/
http://www.cambridge.org
http://www.gutenberg.org
pictures- E.W.Kemble, 1884