Huckleberry Finn Journal Prompts

You must pick five of the eight journal prompts to write about. Please follow the deadlines (on the reading schedule) in order to ensure you turn your journal in on time. Journals should be typed, double-spaced, and (roughly) one page in length. They are worth 15 points each. A letter grade will be deducted for late journals. Anything over one day late will NOT be accepted.

Journal Entry #1: Do you find it difficult to read Huck Finn? What dialects are most difficult to understand so far? Why do you think Twain chose to have Huck narrate instead of using a third person narrator?

Journal Prompt #2: In chapter 5, Huck tells us that the new judge “reckoned a body could reform the ole man with a shot-gun, maybe, but he didn’t know no other way” (17). What does this mean? Do you think Pap was putting on a show for the judge and his wife? Or do you think he genuinely wanted to change? What does this mean for Huck? Explain your answer.

Journal Prompt #3: In these chapters, it becomes increasingly clear that Huck needs Jim and Jim needs Huck. Who do you think is more dependent on the other? In the future, who do see being more in need of the other?

Journal Prompt #4: How does Jim react to the joke Huck plays on him (p. 65- the raft scene)? What does this tell you about their relationship?

Journal Prompt #5: After the Shepherdson and Grangerford feud, Huck begins to cry. What does this reaction tell you about Huck? Trace the moral development of Huck as we have practiced in class.

Journal Prompt #6: The separation of families through the selling of slaves is a recurrent theme in the novel. What is Twain’s attitude about this controversial issue? Cite at least two examples from the novel that deal with the separation of families and point out the way in which Twain satirizes the issue.

Journal Prompt #7: Huck makes his ultimate moral decision in Chapter 31 of the novel. Discuss the significance of this scene to the novel and to American literature.

Journal Prompt #8: Since publication, Huck Finn has been controversial and even banned from schools and libraries. Do you think this novel should be banned? Why or why not?