The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Test

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Test

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Test

Part I: Identification. Identify 6 out of 10 of the following items. Your response should be 3-5 sentences. In your answer, you should explain what/who the item/character is, how it affects Huck and his journey and why it is important to the text. This Section is worth 30 points—5 points per identification.

  • Huckleberry Finn
  • Jim Turner
  • The Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons
  • Colonel Sherburn
  • The King and the Duke
  • Jackson Island
  • Pap
  • Cairo
  • The Widow Douglass
  • The Tom Sawyer Gang

Part II: Essay. Choose one of the following essay prompts. You will complete an essay that is at least 5 paragraphs long.

Your essays must:

  • Have a clear introduction with a thesis statement that guides the paper
  • Have body paragraphs that support the thesis and give examples of the novel
  • Have clear, coherent sentences and ideas
  1. How does The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn prove that one does not have to be a Christian in order to have proper moral values? In your essay, explain how Huck develops his own morality without the help of Christianity. Also explain how the Christians in the book do not follow the teachings they try to push on Huck throughout the novel.
  2. How does The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn paint the idea of a good father? In your essay, compare and contrast Jim and Pap as father figures to Huck. Also explain how Jim’s relationship to his own children (and slavery’s effect on that relationship) affect his role as a father.
  3. How does The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn prove that the average man is actually a coward? In Chapter 22 of the novel, Twain writes:

"Do I know you? I know you clear through was born and raised in the South, and I've lived in the North; so I know the average all around. The average man's a coward. In the North he lets anybody walk over him that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full of men in the daytime, and robbed the lot. Your newspapers call you a brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other people—whereas you're just AS brave, and no braver. Why don't your juries hang murderers? Because they're afraid the man's friends will shoot them in the back, in the dark—and it's just what they WOULD do.”

In your essay, using the actions of the characters and real life observations, show how Twain is right in his description of the average man’s cowardice.

  1. How does The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn show how one can learn to think for themselves instead of blindly following the lessons taught be elders? In chapter 31, Huck decides that he will “Go to hell” for freeing Jim from slavery. While he has been taught that slavery is acceptable and that Jim is wrong for wanted to escape and free his family, he eventually changes his mind. In your essay, explain how the novel is actually an anti-slavery using the development of Huck’s relationship with Jim.