Huck Finn Quotes

5 Written Questions

1. "Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain't a minute to lose. They're after us!"
2. Then I slid out quiet and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it...but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's whisky.
3. Dat truck dah is TRASH; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em ashamed.". . .Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without saying anything but that. But that was enough. It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed HIS foot to get him to take it back. . .It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself. . .but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way.
4. Chapter 24, page 132 "He was uncommon bright, the Duke was, and he soon struck it. He dressed Jim up in King Lear's outfit-it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theatre-paint and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead dull solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days. Blamed if he warn't the horriblest looking outrage I ever see."
5. "Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars."

5 Matching Questions

1. Ch. 6 - Pap's ranting about free blacks. Parallels ignorance and racist attitude prevalent at the time. Irony - Pap is too drunk to get to the polling station to vote. Irony - Pap is uneducated and ignorant and yet HAS the power to vote. This sits in contrast to the free and well-educated black man who just barely has received an opportunity to vote. Pap, furthermore, refuses to vote if a black man can vote - good!
   
   Pap represents/symbolizes extreme whiteness, worst of white society. Pap is ignorant, racist, hateful, drunk, illiterate, and violent.
2. Ch. 14 - Jim: 'white' society's inability to value human life - too much, means nothing. Place of privilege. Jim's love for his family and valuing of his family is evident - esp. when J cried nightly for his family.
3. Ch. 3 - Huck says this. Widow Douglas teaches H about caring for others - as we'll see H do for J in the future. (Model of sincere Christianity, not Miss Watson's kind - who owns Jim)
4. Ch. 13 - Huck and Jim's solidarity. Working together as clockwork in silence.
5. Ch. 8 - Society's standards at the time. H's lack of self-respect b/c of what society has ingrained into him. Huck going against society (Transcendentalism).

1. a People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum --
2. b The door slammed to because it was on the careened side; and in a half second I was in the boat, and Jim come tumbling after me. I out with my knife and cut the rope, and away we went! We didn't touch an oar, and we didn't speak nor whisper, nor hardly even breathe. We went gliding swift along, dead silent, past the tip of the paddlebox, and past the stern; then in a second or two more we was a hundred yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up, every last sign of her, and we was safe, and knowed it.
3. c Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free ***** there from Ohio -- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane -- the awful- est old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that **** vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me -- I'll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that **** -- why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this **** put up at auction and sold? -- that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now -- that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free **** till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free *****, and --
4. d Blame de point! I reck'n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de REAL pint is down furder -- it's down deeper. It lays in de way Sollermun was raised. You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man gwyne to be waseful o' chillen? No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it. HE know how to value 'em. But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt. HE as soon chop a chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'. A chile er two, mo' er less, warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!"
5. e 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, but she told me what she meant -- I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself.

5 Multiple Choice Questions

1. Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn. You don't seem to know anything, somehow -- perfect saphead." I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I would see if there was anything in it. I got an old tin lamp and an iron ing, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't no use, none of the genies come. So then I judged that all that stuff was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies. I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different. It had all the marks of a Sunday-school.
   1. Ch. 6 - Pap's ranting about free blacks. Parallels ignorance and racist attitude prevalent at the time. Irony - Pap is too drunk to get to the polling station to vote. Irony - Pap is uneducated and ignorant and yet HAS the power to vote. This sits in contrast to the free and well-educated black man who just barely has received an opportunity to vote. Pap, furthermore, refuses to vote if a black man can vote - good!
      
      Pap represents/symbolizes extreme whiteness, worst of white society. Pap is ignorant, racist, hateful, drunk, illiterate, and violent.
   2. Ch. 11 - Stereotyped images of women's incapability
   3. Ch. 8 - Society's standards at the time. H's lack of self-respect b/c of what society has ingrained into him. Huck going against society (Transcendentalism).
   4. Ch. 3 - Tom's imagination comes from books, not real, and as later evident, Tom is not realistic. Huck is aware that Tom lies. Huck is practical and real and his growing maturity is evident. Tom's false ideas can be compared to Miss Watson's. (Recall she is the one who "owns" Jim.)
      
      Tom - childish - imaginary adventures (which contrasts with Huck's REAL adventures) / Huck - looks up to Tom, but he is the one going through real adventures and growing up (this story is Huck's coming-of-age story).
2. Ch 19 (p 106) "It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes, at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds. But I never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble. If they wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so I didn't tell him. 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."
   1. Ch. 3 - Huck says this. Widow Douglas teaches H about caring for others - as we'll see H do for J in the future. (Model of sincere Christianity, not Miss Watson's kind - who owns Jim)
   2. Out of ugliness like Pap comes a gentle-spirited person like Huck. He doesn't let Jim know these men are frauds in order to protect Jim. Knowing makes it harder to fake. Later on, it is evident that Jim also thinks something is not right with the duke and dauphin, but Jim also keeps quiet in order to protect Huck. Both smart. Both hiding knowledge to protect the other.
   3. Ch. 15 - H feels terrible about playing 2nd prank on Jim. Learning about J's humanity; fighting what society has drilled in him.
   4. Ch. 8 - Jim values himself. Parallels the value of freedom. Jim feels rich.
3. Ch 22 (p123) Colonel Sherburn: "The idea of you lynching anybody! It's amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a man! Because you're brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a man? Why a man's safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind -- as long as it's day-time and you're not behind him...a man goes in the night, with a hundred masked cowards at his back, and lynches the rascal. Your mistake is, that you didn't bring a man with you; that's one mistake, and the other is that you didn't come in the dark, and fetch your masks. You brought part of a man -- Buck Harkness, there -- and if you hadn't had him to start you, you'd a taken it out in the blowing."
   1. Ch. 11 - Stereotyped images of women's incapability
   2. Ch. 3 - Tom's imagination comes from books, not real, and as later evident, Tom is not realistic. Huck is aware that Tom lies. Huck is practical and real and his growing maturity is evident. Tom's false ideas can be compared to Miss Watson's. (Recall she is the one who "owns" Jim.)
      
      Tom - childish - imaginary adventures (which contrasts with Huck's REAL adventures) / Huck - looks up to Tom, but he is the one going through real adventures and growing up (this story is Huck's coming-of-age story).
   3. Huck has grown to love Jim. Jim is home to Huck, and they have become a family. Huck, the son. Jim, the father. Raft = freedom, neutrality, equality. Raft is family for Huck and Jim, a place where they can be themselves and enjoy one another's company without the standards of society imposed on them. On the raft and river, there is freedom in nature. Nature is generous and forgiving, free and equal - elements of Transcendentalism.
   4. Sherburn criticizes mob mentality; makes fun of KKK who hide behind masks to get things done. He says men are cowards and cannot function independently. This is also morally confusing for Huck. Although Huck understands what Sherburn is saying, he is confused about the death/killing of Boggs. How is this justified? It is morally confusing for Huck.
4. 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, but she told me what she meant -- I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself. Sometimes the widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and knock it all down again. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help for him any more. I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong to the widow's if he wanted me, though I couldn't make out how he was a-going to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was so ignorant, and so kind of low-down and ornery.
   1. Ch. 13 - Huck and Jim's solidarity. Working together as clockwork in silence.
   2. Ch. 3 - Huck says this. Widow Douglas teaches H about caring for others - as we'll see H do for J in the future. (Model of sincere Christianity, not Miss Watson's kind - who owns Jim)
   3. Ch. 3 - (1) Widow Douglas' view of Providence & religion inspires Huck (2) Huck believes himself to be unworthy - "ornery" and "low down" by society's standards
   4. Ch. 14 - Jim: 'white' society's inability to value human life - too much, means nothing. Place of privilege. Jim's love for his family and valuing of his family is evident - esp. when J cried nightly for his family.
5. ch. 18 (98-99) After getting away from the Grangerford and Sherpardson feud, Huck looks for the raft that Jim has fixed. "It was Jim's voice - nothing ever sounded so good before. I run along the bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was so glad to see me...I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below...in the middle of the Mississippi. Then we hung our signal lantern, and judged that we was free and safe once more...I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. 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."
   1. Ch. 8 - Jim values himself. Parallels the value of freedom. Jim feels rich.
   2. Huck has grown to love Jim. Jim is home to Huck, and they have become a family. Huck, the son. Jim, the father. Raft = freedom, neutrality, equality. Raft is family for Huck and Jim, a place where they can be themselves and enjoy one another's company without the standards of society imposed on them. On the raft and river, there is freedom in nature. Nature is generous and forgiving, free and equal - elements of Transcendentalism.
   3. Ch. 11 - Huck is in it with Jim even though the men are after Jim as a runaway slave. Huck says, "They're after US."
   4. Huck has a moral dilemma about going with what society tells him (it's a sin to not turn in Jim) and what his intuition tells him (it's not right to turn in Jim). Huck develops here and shows personal growth, making independent decisions apart from society. Huck will go with whatever is "handiest," showing that he will go with his "gut" or intuition from now on (Transcendentalism). Huck is learning to appreciate the humanity in Jim - realizing that society's interpretation of Jim feels somehow wrong.

5 True/False Questions

1. Twain is making fun of religion (satire). This is especially humorous b/c the two feuding families are attending church with guns between their knees and leaning against the wall and listening to a sermon about "brotherly love." Ironic. For Huck, this situation is morally confusing and what society tries to ingrain in Huck seems more incongruent. → Ch. 18 (p 93) "Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepardsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching -- all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith, and good works, and free grace, and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet."

   True        False

2. Huck has a moral dilemma about going with what society tells him (it's a sin to not turn in Jim) and what his intuition tells him (it's not right to turn in Jim). Huck develops here and shows personal growth, making independent decisions apart from society. Huck will go with whatever is "handiest," showing that he will go with his "gut" or intuition from now on (Transcendentalism). Huck is learning to appreciate the humanity in Jim - realizing that society's interpretation of Jim feels somehow wrong. → ch. 16, after Huck lies to the men about not having a runaway slave on his raft: "They went off, and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, . . . Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on, -- s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad -- I'd feel just the same way I do now....So I reckoned I wouldn't bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time" (78)

   True        False

3. Ch. 14 - Men are equal. Jim. → Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way. And when you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on, like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side, like a boy. And, mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap she throws her knees apart; she don't clap them together, the way you did when you catched the lump of lead.

   True        False

4. Ch. 11 - Stereotyped images of women's incapability → Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way. And when you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on, like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side, like a boy. And, mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap she throws her knees apart; she don't clap them together, the way you did when you catched the lump of lead.

   True        False

5. Ch. 4 - Hairball scene, chapter 4: Example of Jim's fatherly nature. Comforts Huck about Pap. Predicts/foreshadows trouble on the river. Two angels over Pap is more about H's future moral dilemma w/Jim - turning him in. → "Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars."

   True        False