Chapter Seventeen (20:00)

1. What does the sleepy Buck mean when he complains, "I don't get no show"?
2. Note the following: What do the Grangerfords have on their mantel? What is special about their clock, their fruit basket, their tablecloth? Huck thinks their home is grand; what do you conclude about their interior decorating?
3. How good were Emmeline's drawings and poetry?
4. Why did everyone say it was the "doctor first, Emmeline second, and the undertaker third"?
5. What killed her?

Chapter Eighteen (27:00)

1. How does Colonel Grangerford contrast to Pap Finn?
2. What did Huck mean when he says that Harney "covered" Buck with his gun twice? How does Huck explain Harney's inaction? What is the Grangerford/Shepherdson feud about anyway? Note the family's reaction to the incident with Harney.
3. What contradiction does Twain expose in Huck's description of the Sunday sermon?
4. What was written on the paper in Sophia's testament that Huck claimed he could not read? What should the reader now infer?
5. Why is Jack so insistent that Huck should see the water moccasins?
6. Identify three key clues that someone was going to elope?
7. What gives Huck recurring nightmares that he cannot talk about?

Chapter Nineteen (12:00)

1. Note the contrast between the close of chapter eighteen and the early parts of chapter nineteen. What was Twain's purpose in arranging this contrast?
2. What does Jim say makes falling stars fall?
3. Describe Huck's immediate feeling when he sees the men being hunted. What got the younger man in trouble? The baldhead?
4. Explain how each man makes his living (give examples).
5. How does the younger man insure an easier existence on the raft? How does the baldhead contrive to outrank him? When was this foreshadowed?
6. What does Huck reveal in the last paragraph of chapter nineteen?

1. As always, note the effectiveness of Huck's lies.  List the incidents where Huck had to lie to explain himself?
2. 'Why is it the Duke doesn't want anyone in the town below to know that they're passing by?
3. What makes Jim laugh the night of the storm? How does this add to the novel?
4. Describe the camp meeting. Why do so many people attend? How did the King rip off the "good people of Parkville"?
5. What did the Duke do in the print shop that would allow them to travel in the daytime?

Chapter Twenty-one (22:00)

1. What is especially idiotic about the Duke's version of Hamlet's sublime soliloquy?  (Compare it to the original by clicking here.)
2. Describe the Arkansas town and the loafers beneath the storefront awnings. What examples does Huck give of their cruelty?
3. Who asks Huck, "Are you prepared to die?" and what is his condition? Why does everyone (almost) laugh at him?
4. Is Sherburn justified in his response to Boggs? Why or why not?
5. What is about to happen at the end of this chapter?

Chapter Twenty-two (13:00)

1. Why does the "lynching bee" fail?
2. What are some of the criticisms that Sherburn levels at the "average" man of the South and North?
3. What role do poor, "cast-out women" play in southern courage? What group and practice does Sherburn (Twain) condemn when he describes the "southern style" of killing?
4. How did the circus fool Huck several times over? What is Twain reminding us about Huck, and why is it necessary or functional in the novel for him to do so?
5. How does the Duke insure a full house the next time "fallen grandeur" and he tread upon the "boards"?

Chapter Twenty-three (14:00)

1. How do the Duke and King "sell" or con the town men three times?
2. What character traits of the audience are revealed in the "nonesuch" scam?
3. What does Huck find out about Jim that, "don't seem natural"?
4. What story does Jim tell about his daughter Elizabeth?

Chapter Twenty-four (14:00)

1. How did the Duke arrange it so that Jim didn't have to be tied up when he was alone on the raft?
2. Where do the King and Duke get all their information for their next scam?
3. How does Huck feel about this and why? How can you tell?

Chapter Twenty-five  (17:00)

1. Note Huck's disgusted comparison of the King's "soul-butter" and "goody-goody Amen[s]" with the "honest and bully" singing of the "doxologer" (Doxology). What is being revealed about Huck, about Twain's view of the common man, and of religion?
2. What do the King and Duke discover about the $6000? How do they remedy the "deffisit" situation?
3. What is the "boss dodge" (best deception or tactic) that the Duke suggests to avoid the townspeople's suspicion?
4. How does the King brazen out his mangling of "funeral obsequies" into "funeral orgies?
5. Who calls the King a fraud, and what side do the girls take?

Chapter Twenty-six  (16:00)

1. What does Huck say is a woman's way of getting compliments at the dinner table?
2. How does the Harelip repeatedly drive Huck "up a stump"? How does he get himself out of these sticky situations?
3. What happens three times when Mary Jane and Susan make Joanna apologize for being unkind to Huck? Why is it important?
4. What do the two rapscallions disagree about while Huck hides behind Mary Jane's frocks? How does the King appease the Duke's conscience over leaving the three orphans penniless?

Chapter Twenty-seven  (14:00)

1. What complicates Huck's good intentioned effort to "hive" the money?
2. How does the stealthy undertaker satisfy everyone (except the dog) over the "powerful racket" down cellar?
3. What does the King do that upsets everyone? What does this add to Twain's portrait of racism?
4. How does Huck deflect the King and Duke's suspicions? What is he glad about besides getting off the hook? Would you say that Huck has changed? Why or why not?

Chapter Twenty-eight  (11:00)

1. What makes Huck tell Mary-Jane the truth? What does he liken telling the truth to?
2. What two reasons does Huck have for requiring Mary-Jane to leave the house until his plans can be completed?
3. Who could have thrown more "style" into Huck's arrangements?
4. What is the "opposition line" that arrives on that afternoon's steamboat?

Chapter Twenty-nine  (20:00)

1. What are the new arrival's convenient circumstances?
2. Ironically, what does Levi Bell say Huck could use some practice at?
3. Considering that Twain showed us the same thing in Huck's kitchen scene with the Hairlip, what can we conclude about why Huck's successful perjuries are successful?
4. What plot twists confuse the handwriting tests?
5. What is frustrating about the tattoo test?
6. How does Huck escape the "husky" and the revelations of the graveyard?
7. What scares Huck so much that he nearly falls into the water? Then what ruins the breakfast?

Chapter Thirty

1. How did the Duke and King manage to get away from the mob? What does the Duke mean about sleeping in their cravats (French for necktie)?
2. Whom do the Duke and King begin to suspect about the money being in the coffin? How is their conflict (and Huck's) resolved?

Chapter Thirty-one (21:00)

1. What surprises Huck when he returns to the raft?
2. What did the King do for "forty dirty dollars"?
3. Huck plans to write a letter but then has second thoughts. Why? What does Huck attempt only to discover that he cannot do it? Describe his conflict.
4. Huck writes the letter, feels wonderful for a moment, and then tears it up. Why? When did he last have this conflict, and what was the outcome?
5. What does Huck resolve to do, and what are the consequences?
6. What does the Duke fear? How does Huck con the Duke?

Chapter Thirty-two (13:00)

1. When Huck arrives at the Phelps' farm he tells us that "it was all still and Sunday-like." What emotions does he describe in the next few paragraphs? When have we seen them before, and what do you think causes them?
2. As the chapter sub-title tells us, Twain's plot is now based on a "mistaken identity." In what way is this a book about a young man's search for identity?
3. What makes Huck feel like he has been reborn? How does this development add or detract to the last question?

Chapter Thirty-three (15:00)

1. What does Tom say when he meets Huck's ghost? When did Twain use this plot situation before?
2. Note what Uncle Silas says about his horse. How is he characterized and what is his role?
3. Describe the prank Tom plays on Aunt Sally.
4. Notice what happens when the Royal Nonesuch is exposed to the public at large. What is Huck's reaction? What is Twain saying to his reader about human nature, about Huck's nature?

Chapter Thirty-four (13:00)

1. What is missing from Huck's plan that causes Tom to reject it?
2. What thing was "too many" (very confusing) for Huck?
3. Is the chuckleheaded slave (Nat) just a comic fool, or does he really suffer? Are Tom's actions unkind?
4. Why does Tom give the slave a dime? (Hint: it wasn't to buy thread.)

Chapter Thirty-five (15:00)

1. What are some of the absurd complications that Tom insists upon for his evasion?
2. Do you think Tom would seriously saw Jim's leg off if there was necessity enough for it?
3. Think back to chapter seven, knowing what you know now, do you think Tom would have helped Huck's escape from Pap? Why or why not?
4. According to Tom, what's the difference between regular stealing and stealing as a representative of a prisoner? What is to be made of Tom's concern for morality?
5. How long does Tom "reckon" they should take in getting Jim out?
6. We are now involved in another major escape sequence plot.  What is it they must escape from?

Chapter Thirty-six (12:00)

1. What does Tom do "unregular," that he lets on to be "regular?"
2. What is ironic about where Uncle Silas goes to pray every day or two? Hint: What is he praying for?
3. What are Tom's long range plans for Jim?
4. What happens that causes Nat's witches to return?

Chapter Thirty-seven (14:30)

1. Keep track of all the household disruptions that Huck and Tom are responsible for. It sounds like a lot of fun, but is it kind?
2. How does Tom finally work things out so he can steal anything and Aunt Sally won't care?

Chapter Thirty-eight (15:00)

1. Why doesn't Jim have a coat of arms?
2. What is Tom's emotional reaction to his recitation of the "mournful inscriptions."
3. How are they going to kill two birds with one stone? What are the "two birds?"
4. What is incredibly stupid and ironic about how they got the grindstone back to the shack
5. What animal does Jim refuse to tame?
6. Explain why Jim and Huck both put up with Tom's foolishness? Are the answers the same for each?

Chapter Thirty-nine (12:00)

1. What happened with the rats and snakes?
2. Why is Jim's bed so crowded? What makes it hard for him to sleep?
3. What gave them all a stomach ache?
4. What did the "nonamous letters" warn about?
5. Who signs the "nonamous letter?"

Chapter Forty (12:00)

1. What made Huck go down to the cellar, and what secret is he keeping under his hat?
2. Ironically, how effective have Tom's letters been? What does this say about the local people?
3. What keeps the plan from working out smoothly?
4. After the "evasion" proves successful, of what is Tom especially proud?
5. When Huck says Jim is "white on the inside" he doesn't say it right. What does he mean and what does the way he says it reveal about Huck?

Chapter Forty-one

1. Why wasn't "Sid" at the post office?
2. Describe the reactions of Aunt Sally and her neighbors to the peculiar characteristics of Jim's cabin.
3. What keeps Huck from sneaking out again? What idea is being repeated here; what civilized lesson has Huck learned?

Chapter Forty-two

1. Huck takes a walk when a letter arrives. Where/who was the letter from?
2. What good turn does the doctor do for Jim?
3. How does Aunty find out the truth about who has been stealing her belongings and helping the slave to escape?
4. What is the climactic news about Jim? What might have motivated Miss Watson's actions?
5. Whose arrival sends Huckleberry under the bed? What does Huck mean when he says she told who he was and "what" he was?
6. Explain the mystery of Tom's part in the slave-stealing?

Chapter Forty-three

1. What was Tom's real plan the whole time? What did he plan to do once he set Jim free? Do you think this is fair?
2. What did Tom give Jim? Thinking back, is this characteristic of Tom? Give examples.
3. Earlier, what predicted Jim's rise in the world?
4. What is the final revelation of the book? How do you feel about Huck's response, or shall we say, lack of response? Does it seem characteristic? What theme does this revelation support?
5. Why does Huck have to "light out for the territory?" Why is this ironic?