I “l took the axe and smashed in the door. I beat it and hacked it considerable, a-doing it. I fetched the pig in and took him back nearly to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down on the ground to bleed,” This is the part Of the book where Houck is implementing his plan to fool both Husk’s father, Pap and the Widow Douglas because he wants to be away from both of them: he wants to be away from Pap because he is abusive towards Houck and he wants to be away from the Widow because she wants to civilize him. Houck fakes his own death as to make sure that no one will follow him.
Then I jumped in the canoe and dug out for our place a mile and a half below, as hard as I could go. Landed, and slopped through the timber and up the ridge and into the cavern. There Jim laid, sound asleep on the ground. I roused him out and says: ‘Sit up and hump yourself, Jim! There anti a minute to lose. They’re after us! “‘ Houck is behaving very eccentrically right now because he had just gotten back from the mainland where he discovered that some of the townspeople were coming to the island because they believed that a runaway slave had been living there which was indeed the truth because Jim and Houck had been naming out there.
Because Jim and Houck had to escape from the island, they were forced to retreat down the Mississippi River. ” ‘Well, should reckon! It started thirty year ago, or Somers along there. There was trouble ’bout something and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went aging one of the men, and so he up and shot the man that won the suit,” I Houck learns about the feud going on between the Sheepherders and the Aggressions (who took him in). Houck is told about the history and bad blood between the 2 families, causing Houck to realize that he has ended up caught between 2 angry, warring families.
It is because of the war, that Houck is forced to leave the Aggressions, most of whom end up dead. I “It didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these liars warrant no kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds. ” I Houck has just met the “King” and the “Duke” after saving them from angry villagers. He has just realized that these two men are cons and had just swindled a village. He decides that letting the 2 men go along with him does no harm.
This eventually proves wrong as the cons rope Houck into helping them with their schemes and eventually sell Jim. It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal-water now, so went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she flung herself on to the king’s breast at the front door,” Houck shows that he has gotten tired of the tricking and swindling of the two cons, the King and the Duke.
He decides to confide to one of the daughters that the king is pretending to be the uncle of , that the two men are putting on a scam and IS helping her to put the two cons n jail and get the inheritance money back. I Characterization: ” Miss Watson would say, ‘Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry’; and, ‘Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry – set up straight; and pretty soon she would say, ‘Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry; why don’t you try to behave? ‘ Then she told me all about the bad place, and said I wished I was there. The quotes show that Houck doesn’t give much of a care for learning and religion. He has a natural dislike of Miss Watson pestering and nagging for him to do the simple things that are guiding him towards a more refined lifestyle. He doesn’t seem to take religion seriously as shown by his casual remark about not caring about going to hell. “Tom Sawyer call the hogs ‘ingots’, and he called the turnips and stuff ‘jugglery, and we would go to the cave and pop wow over what we had done and how many people we had killed and marked. Tom Sawyer’s talk about hogs as ingots and turnips as jewelry shows his vast imagination which seems to be many times greater that his fellow compatriots’ imaginations especially Husk’s, who can’t seem to grasp the concept of using his imagination and can only see the things for what they actually are. I “l knew the first house would keep mum and let the rest of the town get roped in; and knew they’d lay for us the third night, and consider it was their turn now. ” “Them rapscallions took in four hundred and sixty- five dollars in that three nights. ” These quotes show the nature of the two cons, the king and the duke.
They use their knowledge of people to trick them and take all of their cash. They are conniving people who come up with many tricks for the only reason of getting more money. I “It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to ecocide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knotted it. I studied a minute sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’- and tore it up. ” The quote shows that Houck has a strong sense of devotion towards those that he calls his friends, no matter what their race is.
He decides to save Jim because Jim is his friends and Houck doesn’t want to see Jim in slavery any more. I ‘What! Why, Jim is He stopped, and went to studying. I This quote (though not immediately) shows a somewhat cruel and manipulative side Of Tom Sawyer. This quote forebodes to the end of the kook when it is found out that Jim is actually free. The reader realizes that Tom purposely withheld this information from Houck in order to be able to go on a grand adventure to satisfy his own needs. I “But reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and civilize me, and can’t stand it.
I been there before. ” I The final quote of the book shows that even though the journey down the river has changed Houck dramatically, he still has at least one constant. He still cannot stand to be civilized like he was when he was under the care of the Widow Douglas. Setting: Miss Watson big Niger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door;” I This quote shows that the time that this novel is set in is in pre Civil War time as there are still slaves and after the Civil War was when slavery was abolished because the 1 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution were created granting slaves citizenship and the right to vote.
I ” It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars,” I Houck and Jim are constantly on the river. Most of their adventures happen Very close to the river or are started from events that happen close to r on the river. Houck and Jim use the river to get to where they want to go. I “When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Brownsville and say they’ve got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch,” Brownsville serves as the first place where Houck is able to witness the conniving antics of the king and the duke.
Brownsville is where the king and the duke play the Royal Nonesuch, where they trick the town into giving them money to see a play that consists of only a few minutes of a painted man crawling around. I “Phelps was one of these little one-horse cotton limitations; and they all look alike. ” Houck spends a little bit of time in the book at the Phelps. It is there that Jim is being held as a slave until the Phelps’ can figure out who he belongs to. Jim was sold there by the King and the Duke. It is also there that he reunites with Tom Sawyer. ‘The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways;” I At the beginning of the book, the Widow Douglas takes Houck in and tries to civilize him with the help of Miss Watson. Houck is very against the notion of becoming civilized and constantly rebels by running away to live in a sugar hogshead. I “The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and upwards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this and lets him go round in clothes that anti fifteen for a hog. Houck spends some time in a cabin owned by his father, Pap by the river. Houck is trapped there for months with no way out and has to deal with his father’s abuse and alcoholism. Houck eventually escapes and makes it seem as if he was killed. I Themes: “Now you think it’s bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the make-skin that found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? You said it was the worst luck in the world to touch a snake-skin with my hands. ” I Superstition is a commonly referenced theme in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
When things are hard to explain, the characters in the book resort to using superstition to justify what they see. Such as when Jim sees Houck for the first time after his supposed “death” he believes Houck is a ghost. ‘Well, one night I creeps to De do’, potty late, en De do’ warrant quite sheet, en hear ole missus tell the wider she Gwynne to sell me down to Orleans,” I Slavery is an important theme in the book. The whole plot of the book occurs because Jim has to run away because he is afraid of being sold to New Orleans. The book portrays slavery as something that is bad with the treatment of Jim. Them rapscallions took in four hundred and sixty- five dollars in that three nights. ” I Money is a theme in the book that drives the actions of many of the characters. Pap comes back to town so that he can get the money that came from the treasure that Houck and Tom found. The king and the duke both use their schemes to swindle people Out Of their money. Jim is hunted down for the reward money. I “It was a close place. Took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knotted it.
I studied a minute sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’- and tore it up. ” I An important theme for Houck in the book is society vs.. Ones self. Houck has to decide whether to follow society’s rules about turning in runaway slaves or his friendship with Jim. He has many moments where he is torn between the two but ultimately decides that he values his friendship with Jim more that the sews of society. I “The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and upwards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this and lets him go round in clothes that anti fifteen for a hog. I The book portrays the government as unfair in certain areas of the book. When Husk’s father, Pap comes back to the town to claim the six thousand dollars that Houck found because he is Husk’s father, the fact that the government is denying him this right is portrayed by Twain as unfair. ” ‘The first lighted see, we’ll land a hundred yards below it or above it, in a place where it’s a good hiding-place or you and the skiff, and then I’ll go and fix up some kind of a yarn, and get somebody to go for that gang and get them out of their scrape, so they can be hung when their time comes’. I A theme that is portrayed in the book is honor. Houck does the honorable thing by making sure that the murderers on the crashed boat are captured. He does the same thing when he tells Mary Jane that here “uncles” are frauds. The last time he does this in the book is when he helps to free Jim. I Imagery: Symbolism: ” Miss Watson would say, ‘Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry; and, Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry -” set up straight’; and pretty soon she would say, ‘Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry;” I Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas are two very noticeable symbols in the book.
They both serve as symbols of the civilized life that they are trying to force onto Houck. Miss Watson is constantly correcting the little things in his behavior such as his posture and is trying to teach him religion and the Widow Douglas takes him in at the beginning of the book to civilize him. ” It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars,” I The river Serves as a very important symbol in the book. It is the symbol Of freedom.
When Houck and Jim are on the river they are free from the constraints of society that would normally bind them. When they are in trouble, they typically escape on their raft down the river. I “l got down there all out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung out: ‘Set her loose, Jim, we’re all right, now! ‘” I The raft serves as a safe haven for Houck and Jim. On the raft, they are mostly safe from the evils and prejudices of society that normally effect them. The raft is built by their own hands and is constantly favored as a means of transportation even over the much faster canoes. They cussed Jim considerable, though, and give him a cuff or two, side the head, once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to know me,” Jim serves as a symbol for the entirety of all the slaves. The reactions that the whites have to him, reflects the attitude of whites to all blacks. Jim is constantly deemed an untrustworthy person because of the color of his skin. Jim also shows that there are some very good qualities in the slaves. “maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night. ” I Cairo is a symbol of redeem for Jim. If Jim were able to reach Cairo, then he would be able to board a steamboat and head for the north, where he would be able to become a free man. By missing Cairo during the fog incident, Jim barely missed his chance at freedom. I “They had pictures hung on the walls- mainly Washington and Lafayette, and battles, and Highland Marry, and one called ‘Signing the Declaration’. ” I The Aggressions symbolize the epitome of a luxurious family household at the time of Houck Finn.
Their house contains many fabulous paintings and elaborate decorations and the family can even afford to give their children artistic supplies such as crayons. I Figurative Language: “For who would Farrell bear, till Birdman Wood do come to Adenosine. ” I This quote in the Duke’s fake Hamlet soliloquy, contains an allusion to the Shakespearian play, Macbeth. In Macbeth, the titular character, Macbeth is told by a trio of witches, that he cannot be killed until the forest near his kingdom, Birdman Wood moves. “Wake Duncan with thy knocking! Would thou couldn’t;” I This quote is another reference to the Shakespearian play, Macbeth.
The allusion is alluding to the first king of the play, King Duncan who s murdered by Macbeth in the plot concocted by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to allow Macbeth to take the throne. I ” reckoned I was to blame, somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant that Miss Sophia was to meet Harden somewhere at half past two and run off;” The situation in this quote as is the whole chapter, is an allusion to the Shakespearian play, Romeo and Juliet. Sophia and Harden running off is like Romeo and Juliet going and getting married. The Sheepherders and Aggressions are also in a bitter feud just like the feud be;en the Capsules and Montague.
