We don't have class Monday, November 12 due to the Veterans Day Holiday. On Wednesday, November 14, my son is having a special program at his school in Pensacola that begins at 11:45. Your group needs to gather in the LRC (Library), the computer lab, around one of your lap-tops, at the local coffee shop etc. and answer the discussion questions that follow. A copy of them with your group members' names on them needs to be sent via email by midnight Wednesday night. I am enforcing the honor system and it will be very easy for me to tell if one person from the group answered the questions for the group and posted them for the group. Please don't dissappoint me.
Discussion Questions for your Group
Chapter 16
Key Events:
Important passages (Be sure to include page number)
What importance does the night in the fog serve in the book? Discuss what happens in the fog, what the fog might symbolize, and what Huck realizes as a result of the experience.
Discuss the irony in the statement Jim makes about stealing his children. Why did Huck feel it was morally wrong for Jim to claim his children as his own?
Critics believe Twain stopped writing the novel for a few years after he finished Chapter 16. Why would this have been a difficult place to continue? How does the setting of the novel change at this point?
Chapter 17 – 21:
Key events:
Important passage (with page number):
Describe the Grangerford house. What is satirical about the furnishings, art, and poetry? What does this description say about the Grangerfords?
Twain employs satire throughout the novel to speak out against the hypocrisy and corruption in his society. In what way is the church service attended by the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons an attack on the religion of Twain’s day?
How is life on the raft in these chapters contrasted with life on the shore? What has the raft come to mean to Huck and to Jim?
Who joins Huck and Jim on the raft? Why doesn’t Huck expose them as frauds?
The story of Romeo and Juliet has now turned up twice. Where are the two references to Romeo and Juliet? Why do you think these references are in the novel?
Huck’s journey on the river is filled with adventures, but it is also a symbolic journey. What does his journey symbolize? What does the river symbolize to Huck and Jim? What changes on the river and on the shore as Huck and Jim travel deeper south? Cite specific examples from the text to support your answer.
Chapters 22 – 30:
Key events:
Important passage (with page number):
Questions:
Discuss the development of Jim’s humanity in the eyes of Huck. In what ways has Jim been dehumanized by society? How does Jim’s story about Lizabeth change this?
Twain is satirizing the lynch mob in these chapters. What does the scene with the mob and Sherburn’s speech about human nature reveal about Twain’s own ideas of mobs and society?
How does Huck feel about the duke and dauphin’s decision to con the Wilks? In what way is Huck less tolerant of their schemes? What does this change signify about Huck’s moral development?
The separation of families through the selling of slaves is a recurrent theme in the novel. What is Twain’s attitude about this issue?
Throughout the novel, Huck told stories or lies in a variety of situations. Discuss these times and how Huck’s idea of truth has changed.
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