consumption

1. How would you describe the humor in the sentence below? See if you can spot other

examples of this type humor as you read.

"Every time he got money he got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised

Cain around town; and every time he raised Cain he got jailed. He was just

suited—this kind of thing was right in his line."

2. Pap, angry at Judge Thatcher and Widow Douglas, takes Huck away to an island and

holds him there. What aspect of this life does Huck start liking again?

3. One of the funniest speeches in the book, when read aloud, is pap’s speech on

government.  What makes this speech so funny?

4. Despite the humor, on what dark note does this chapter end?

5. Critics point out that after writing the first three chapters, Twain did not continue this

novel for some time. When he returned to it, he altered the tone somewhat. What

difference do you see between Chapters 1, 2, and 3, and what follows?

1. When Huck finds the canoe on the river, what plan forms in his head?

2. Why does Huck go to the trouble of pretending to have been killed?

3. Huck wishes that Tom Sawyer were there to give the plan "fancy touches." Why is it a

better plan without Tom’s "fancy touches"?

4. What reason might Twain have for including the lines: Everything was dead quiet, and

in"?

1. Toward the end of the last chapter and in this one, there are a number of descriptions

of the river and the river bank, especially at night. Find one and identify the mood

created by these descriptions.

2. What does Huck stumble upon on Jackson Island that upsets him? Why?

3. What is Jim’s first reaction when he sees Huck?

4. If Huck keeps quiet about Jim being a runaway, what does he say people will call him?

5. Why will Huck so easily accept the fact that Abolitionists are bad people? What does

his decision to keep silent about Jim show about Huck’s character?

1. In this chapter what is a particularly good description of nature?

2. Where do Huck and Jim find the dead man?

3. Why does Jim tell Huck not look at the dead man’s face?

2. What bad luck happens to them? Why is it Huck’s fault?

3. What is humorous about the digression Huck gives on "looking at the new moon over

your left shoulder."

4. As the chapter ends, where does Huck go and why?

1. What does the woman in town tell Huck about what has happened to pap?

2. Who does the woman say is suspected of murdering Huck?

3. What unsettling bit of information does Huck hear from her about the island?

she confirm this suspicion?

1. What can you infer about Jim’s natural intelligence from his help with the raft?

2. Critics point to the incident on the stranded steamboat as being traumatic for Huck

and something that will scar him for life. What happens on the boat?