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Huck Finn
Chapters 14-18
Study Guide
Chapter 14:
1. Huck and Jim view the trip down the river very differently. Explain how each
character sees it.
a. HuckAs an adventure
b. JimHe’s risking his freedom. He doesn’t want to goof off.
2. Why doesn’t Jim want anymore adventures?
Because every time they have an adventure, he risks getting caught
and delays his freedom.
3. As Huck explains to Jim about kings, dukes, and earls, Jim doesn’t understand
it and Huck ridicules him. This brings to mind a conversation earlier in the
novel. Explain who had the conversation and why the roles have changed.
a. 2 peopleTom Sawyer and Huck
b. RolesHuck treats Jim and talks to him like Tom used to treat Huck.
4. What doesn’t Jim get about the story of King Solomon?
He doesn’t understand why King Solomon would cut the child in half, since
you can’t use half of a child for anything, doesn’t make any sense. It’s not
logical.
5. Huck concludes that “you can’t learn a nigger to argue…” What is being said
about people and prejudice?
They think that slaves don’t have the mental capabilities to analyze
or see the underlining meaning for things. When all actuality, Huck
sees that Jim has a very reasonable argument and doesn’t want to
admit it.
Chapter 15:
1. Where are Jim and Huck headed?
Cairo
2. Why? (What do they plan to do there?)
To get to the Ohio River, they plan on selling the raft and getting on a
steamboat, and going up the Ohio River to the free states.
3. When Jim and Huck are separated, why is it so difficult for them to find each
other again?
Because of the fog
4. How does Huck feel when he’s in the canoe by himself?
Dismal and lonesome
5. What mistake does Huck make for the second time?
Tries to trick Jim, thinks it will be funny.
6. Of what does he convince Jim?
That Jim dreamed all of it, that they were never separated.
7. How does Jim interpret his “dream”?
a. The 1st towhead stands for:
A man that would try to do them some good
b. The current:
Another man that would get them away from the good man
c. The whoops:
Warnings to interpret/decipher what would take them to good luck or bad
luck
d. Lots of towheads:
Troubles they were going to get into with some quarrelsome people
8. How does Jim feel when he finds out the truth?
He’s extremely hurt
9. Why does he feel this way?
Feels like Huck was trying to make him look like a fool on purpose
10. How does he make Huck feel?
Very bad
11. Why is Huck’s response so significant?
Because Huck doesn’t grasp the concept of love until now. Pap wasn’t sad
when he “died”/ didn’t love him. The Widow Douglas cared for him, but didn’t love
him. Huck now knows that Jim truly loves him.
12. What is significant about Huck wanting to kiss Jim’s feet?
Was willing to lower himself and humble himself to a slave, not even the
lowest of the lowest servants did that; not to mention a white boy to a slave.
Chapter 16:
1. As the fog disappears, what is Jim and Huck’s concern?
They’ve missed Cairo
2. What does Huck decide to do in order to gain geographical information?
Go ashore and tell them Pap was behind with a trading-scow, and wanted
to know how far it was to Cairo
3. As they get closer and closer to Cairo, what does Jim start to do?
Talks about what he’ll do when he’s free.
4. As Jim is talking out loud, Huck is talking to himself. What is his conflict?
That he’s helping Jim run away and it is wrong of him. He is conflicted
about whether or not he should turn Jim in.
5. What kind of conflict is it?
Internal/ Man vs. Self
6. Explain what Huck calls his “conscience.”
Society’s upbringing and thought process
7. What 2 things does Jim tell Huck specifically?
a. He was going to buy back his wife
b. He was going to buy back his kids and if their master wouldn’t sell them,
he’d steal them.
8. How does this show the biting reality of slavery and Twain’s view of it?
That even though they’re your flesh and blood, you have no right to them,
because they’ve been bought. It’s wrong.
9. What decision does Huck make to quiet his conscience?
To turn Jim in.
10. What does Jim do and say that makes Huck feel “sick” as he paddles to shore?
He puts his coat down for Huck to sit on and tells him that Huck’s his best
friend and he owed everything to Huck.
11. How does Huck keep the men in the skiff from checking out the raft?
Reverse psychology, asks them to help his sick father who has smallpox
12. Why do the slave traders feel guilty?
Because they won’t help a child and a dying man
13. What do they do because of their guilt?
Float two 20 gold pieces to him
14. What is ironic about Huck saying, “I won’t let no runaway niggers get by me if I
can help it”?
He’s not letting any slaves get “past” him, he’s just going with the runaway.
15. How does Huck view his decision not to turn Jim in?
As the wrong thing to do.
16. Explain what Huck means when he says, “I see it warn’t no use for me to try to
learn to do right; a body that don’t get started right when he’s little ain’t got no
show…”.
Since he wasn’t raised to ever do the right thing, there was no sense in him
trying to do it now.
17. What do they know when they see the water is clear “inshore” and muddy
outside?
That they’ve past Cairo
18. According to Jim, what is giving them all their bad luck?
The rattlesnake skin
19. How does Jim and Huck get separated again?
A steamboat wrecks right into their raft. They both jump over board so they
won’t get crushed.
Chapter 17:
1. What name does Huck give the Grangerfords?
George Jackson
2. By the way Huck’s first treated, what can we assume is going on between the
Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons?
There’s a conflict between them
3. What story does Huck give the Grangerfords? (About his family and how he got
all wet.)
He’s from a farm in Arkansas. His sister MaryAnn ran off and got married.
Brother Bill went after her, he was never heard from again. Tom and Mort
died. Dad died from worry. “George” took what was left, decked passage,
and fell over board.
4. How does Huck solve the problem of forgetting his name?
Tricks Buck into spelling it.
5. What does Huck think of the Grangerford family and their home?
He thinks their home is really nice and he really likes the family
6. Who are most of the paintings in the Grangerford house by?
Their dead daughter Emmeline
7. What is the general theme of the paintings?
Morbid, all about death and dying
8. Huck often makes interesting observations. What is humorous about his
comment, “But I reckoned that with her disposition she was having a better time
in the graveyard.”
She focused so much on death and people dying that he figured she was in
the place she always wanted to be, she was happier there.
9. What does this comment also show about Huck?
Shows keen insight of people’s thought processes and characteristics
10. What other talent did Emmeline Grangerford possess?
She wrote poetry about dead people
11. How did they keep her room?
Nice and trim, just the way she liked to have it when she was alive
Chapter 18:
1. What type of family are the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons?
Aristocratic
2. What kind of man is Col. Grangerford? (Physical appearance and personality)
a. PhysicalVery tall, slim/Darkish-paly complexion/clean shaven/thin lips &
nostrils/high nose, forehead, & eyebrows/Black eyes/Long hands/Long
gray hair/Always wore a clean white shirt & suit/carried a mahogany cane
b. PersonalityNever loud/kind, but when he was mad you knew it, just by the way he
looked at you/Almost always sunshine
3. How does the family treat the Colonel and his wife?
With respect/they roast and bow to them every morning at breakfast
4. Describe Bob and Tom.
Bob (oldest)/ Tom next/in their 30s/tall handsome men/broad
shoulders/brown faces/long black hair & eyes/dressed in white linen from
head to toe/wore Panama hats
5. Describe Miss Charlotte.
25/tall/proud/grand/much like her father/beautiful
6. Describe Miss Sophia.
20/gentle/ sweet like a dove
7. How does Huck now view the Grangerfords?
Like his family
8. Show textual evidence. Write a quote from the novel to back up your answer.
“Which was about 2 miles above our house; so sometimes when I went up
there with a lot of our folks I used to see a lot of the Shepherdsons there…”
9. What does Huck mean when he says that Harney Shepherdson “covered” Buck
with his gun twice?
He had his gun aimed at Buck and could have shot him twice, but he didn’t
10. How does Huck explain his inaction?
Huck says he went back to get his hat
11. Although the Colonel is proud of his son when he hears about the shooting, he
guides him in the edict of war by telling him what he should have done. What was
it?
Don’t sneak around in the bushes, step into the road and shot him. All
about dignity and honor
12. How does Miss Sophia react to the story?
She turned pale when she Harney was shot at, but the color came back
when she found out his wasn’t hurt.
13. What is the Grangerford/Shepherdson feud about?
No one really knows. Something about a lawsuit and the guy who lost shot
the guy who won.
14. According to Buck, when will the feud end?
When everyone’s killed off
15. Twain uses satire as Buck tries to explain the feud to Huck. What is Twain
opinion?
Feuds are juvenile and senseless. It sounds worse coming from the mouth
of a child. Senseless brutality and needless manslaughter over a feud no one
remembers how it started, but now it’s over honor & pride. It counters all common
sense.
16. Which side started the shooting?
No one knows
17. Although they have been at “war” for years, what are the Grangerfords and the
Shepherdsons opinion of each other? (According to Buck)
They respect each other
18. Why is the scene at church and the sermon satiric?
The Shepherdsons are there, everyone brings their guns, the sermon is
about brotherly love and everybody said it was a good sermon and it said a lot about
faith and good works and free grace. However, they don’t live by their words, they
only hear what they want to hear.
19. What did Miss Sophia leave at church?
Her Testament/ her Bible
20. What does she ask Huck to do for her?
To slip out quietly and get it for her and not tell anyone
21. What does Huck find in the Testament? (And what does it say?)
A little piece of paper with “Half past two” written on it
22. What can we assume is going on by Miss Sophia’s reaction to what was
written?
Something is going on between Harney Shepherdson and Miss Sophia.
They are planning on meeting or something like that at half past two
23. Who follows Huck down the river?
Jack
24. How does he get Huck to follow him?
He tells him that he knows of a place that has a whole bunch of water
moccasins to hunt.
25. Where does he take Huck?
To see Jim
26. What happened to Jim that night their raft was hit by the steamboat?
He was a little hurt, so he couldn’t swim very fast. He heard Huck calling
for him, but he didn’t answer because he didn’t want anyone to pick him up and take
him back into slavery. And he didn’t shout at him when Huck was by the house
because he was afraid of the dogs. Then the Grangerford’s slaves found him and
showed him a hiding place and they brought him food every night and told him how
Huck was doing.
27. What has Jim been doing since that night?
He’s been repairing their raft and buying supplies.
28. What does Huck discover the next morning?
Buck’s not in their room and no ones downstairs and no ones outside
29. What news does Jack give Huck?
Miss Sophia ran off across the river with Harney Shepherdson to get
married.
30. Why is Huck upset that Buck didn’t wake him?
Because he thought he was apart of their family and their fight is his fight.
31. What has become of the Colonel, Bob, and Tom?
They are dead
32. Why?
They didn’t wait for the rest of their relatives for backup and they were
ambushed.
33. Why does Buck think this is all his fault?
He didn’t manage to kill Harney that day he shot him.
34. What gives Huck recurring nightmares that he can not talk about?
When he sees Buck get gunned down and killed
35. Why does Huck think this is all his fault?
He thought that if he had told Col. Grangerford about the piece of paper he found
and the curious way she reacted, they would have locked her up and none of this
would have happened.
36. What does Huck do with Buck?
He drug him to shore and covered up his face.
37. How does he feel as he does this?
He cries.
38. Why?
Because he was always good to him, he thought of Buck as a brother, he
loved him, and now his “family” every one that he loved was dead.
39. What happens to Huck and Jim at the end of chapter 18?
They get on the raft and float down the Mississippi River
40. How does Huck feel once he’s back on the raft?
Free, easy, and comfortable