Huck Finn Test Flashcards
(44 cards)
Satirizing: Grangerfords / Sheperdsons
Southern upper class
- clearly low class
- tacky furniture
- obsessed with death
- no idea why they are feuding
- listens to sermon on brotherly love and brings guns to church
Satirizing: Boggs / Sheburn shooting
Violence and mob mentality
- laughed at dogs attacking pigs / set stray dogs on fire
- Sheburn shot Boggs
- town wanted to lynch Sheburn; shamed them and called them cowards as a group (146)
Satirizes: King and Duke
Greed and gullibility of townspeople
- camp-meeting (reformed pirate)
- Royal nonesuch
- Wilkes sisters (started to feel bad after sister w/ cleft lip helps him)
- Sold Jim from under Huck’s nose
Satirizes: Tom
Child brought up as “normal”
- foil for Huck
- Freedom for imaginative play
- Doesn’t care how his actions affected others (Sunday school robbing, Huck, Jim)
Why did Tom help free Jim?
- He knew Jim was already free (didn’t do it bc he felt that is was the “right” thing to do)
- Freedom from boredom - opportunity for another adventure
(Inner goodness) Huck and Christianity
- obsessed with cause and effect - superstition is more real to him
- christianity doesnt make sense to him
- Widow Douglass = harsh God, Mrs. Watson = God of grace
(Inner goodness) Borrowing vs. stealing
- Borrowing: Pap; okay as long as you meant to pay it back
- Stealing: Widow Douglass; never okay
- THEY COMPROMISE: Take a few things off the borrowing list (but choose the things they dont like / that are out of season anyway)
- Both confused: Jim and Huck were brought up the same way: No definite moral standard - Just because Jim is older doesn’t mean that he has a clear conscience
(Inner goodness) Murderers on boat-wreck
- Puts himself in the murderers’ shoes - feels widow would be proud
(Inner goodness) helping Jim vs. telling
- feels guilty for helping Jim run away (society says it is wrong)
- but he doesn’t tell (feels he was born bad - would feel just as bad if he told, and just as bad if he didnt)
(Inner goodness) King and Duke pretend to be Wilkes brothers
- ashamed that they would do something like that especially since the girls were so kind to them
When was the climax of Hucks morality?
- Ch. 31 - forced to do something about Jim when he is taken
- Decides to go to Hell instead
(Inner goodness) Climax of Hucks morality - forced to do something about Jim once he is taken
- still sees society as right - sees his feelings as wrong (shows how deeply society had penetrated his innocence and thoughts)
- Chooses hell over betraying Jim
How has Huck come full circle by the end?
- still despises civilization
- feels better for helping Jim
Evolution of H+J relationship
- Mrs. Watson’s slave - merely someone to play a joke on
- Played joke (dead rattle snake) hides the evidence - shows he doesnt see him as an equal
- “They’re after us” - Willing so (subconsciencly) help Jim
- Plays another joke on Jim - wasn’t lost in fog - appologizes (even though he doesnt think he needs to) but doesnt regret it
- Sees Jim’s humanity when he sees Jim misses his family and guilt over mistreating his daughter
- Sees all Jim has done for him - willing to go to Hell for him
- Finally sees Jim as human - “white inside”
- Glad someone of “society” has the same opinion of Jim
Episodic novel (def)
A story constructed as a narrative by succession of loosely connected incidents rather than by an integrated plot
How is Huck Finn an episodic novel?
- New episode each time they are on land
- Binded by the “spine”: river
What does a picaresque novel include? (4)
- Picaroon - a person of low social status as a hero(ine)
- First person narrative
- Episodic structure
- Realistic low-life descriptions
* Picarron typically wanders around and lives off his/her wits
How can Huck Finn be considered a picqaresque novel?
- Picaroon: low social status
- No family / authority figure- child of an alcoholic
- mother never mentioned
- Morally confused - no spiritual compass - Mrs. Watson vs Widow Douglass (God of Grace vs. God of reprimand) - ends up more confused
- Cause / effect from Jim
- Episodic structure
- On land- runs into problems only on land
- Boggs and Shebern
- Wilkes brothers - K+D
- Witnesses the cruelty of society while on land
- On water
- Has time to himself - time to form his own opinions
- Grows in time spent alone / time w/ Jim
- Seen at end - Tom acts as foil
- Realistic low-life descriptions
- Grangerfields home - doesn’t recognize “fancy” furniture is gaudy
- Doesnt want to be civilized - smoking is good for you - runs away from Widow to prevent further change
Vernacular (def)
Occurring in the every day language of a place and regarded as native or natural to it (informal, less prestigious)
Vernacularist (def)
Someone who advocates the use of a regional or working-class language / dialect (including speaking or writing it) rather than using a classical form
Regionalism (def)
- a movement where writers tried to capture the “local color” of a region - its people, landscape, dialects etc.
Colloquialism (def)
The use of informal expressions appropriate to everyday speech rather than the formality of writing
- differs in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar
S: Mississippi River
Freedom from…
- Oppressive opinions belonging to society members - Inferiority - violence
S: Mrs. Watson and Widow Douglass
Judgmental / hypocritical society
