Summary

Blog Post #1 - Bethany (pg. 1-150)

The novel begins with Huckleberry, a young trouble maker living with a widower and her sister, whose main concern is “fixing,” Finn up to be a classy young man. The two women are pious Christians and attempt to teach Finn a strict life of rules he must live by in order to join God in heaven. Finn shows off his rebellious attitude by claiming he does not care if he goes to hell or heaven, and wants to live by his own rules, with his pal Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain, the author, also sets the mindset of the two women and the whole town as it is a pro-slavery community, where everyone owns slaves. Tom and Huck are complementary characters that hold a system similar to the check-and-balance system as the boys represent both the dark and light sides of society. Though, the two do still have similar traits revealed to be their passion for childishness. This lust for adventure leads the boys to a fortune of $12,000 in a cave, that is then passed to the state judge for protection.

One night, ruled by superstitions, Huck rushes to the state judge and sells his money for a small sum, then goes to the young slave, Jim, for an ox hair ball. The two boys connect over their passion and trust in superstitions. Huck pays Jim a false quarter to tell him what the fur ball says about his father, and the object reveals that there is both good and bad fighting in Huck’s father, Pap, and the winner is unknown. Pap beats Huck in a drunken rage and the next morning Huck runs away, and fakes his own murder so he will not be searched for. Jim runs away the same day, and when Huck hears this news, he goes searching for Jim where the two begin their adventure.

Blog Post #2 - Kelly (pg. 150-200)

The King and the Duke begin by reenacting the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and the sword fight from Richard III. The duke decides to perform his recitation of Hamlet, “To be, or not to be,” as well as some excerpts from Macbeth. Days pass and they go to a town in Kansas to show off their knowledge of Shakespeare. Huck describes the town as squalid and in no way extravagant. Their “Shakespeare Revival” seemed to have a pretty good chance of getting attention since the circus left town just a bit earlier. While Huck is out exploring the town he witnessed a drunken man named Boggs get killed by a man named Colonel Sherburn. Their Shakespearean Revival brings no income to group until the duke and king promise to decline admittance to children and women. The audience of that show realize they have been scammed and decide that instead of releasing this information to the rest of the town, they will encourage their neighbors to attend the show. Townsmen discover they have been betrayed by the duke and king and prepare to destroy the stage. In the midst, the duke escapes with Huck, Jim, and the King and leave town.

The day after leaving down, the duke decides that in order to navigate through the rive Jim's face must be painted solid blue with a sign reading, "Sick Arab - but harmless when not out of his head." As the group scouts the towns, they encounter a social young boy discussing the death of Peter Wilks, also mentioning the inheritance he left behind. This sparks the duke and king's interest. They arrive in Wilks' hometown and began to cry when they hear of their "brother's" death, a complete scam. After seeing this, Huck says, "it was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race" (181). The duke and king go to collect the money but are quickly.

Blog Post #3 - Christine (pg. 200-250)

A lot happened in these fifty pages and I like to tell stories so bear with me.Before Wilks' funeral, Huck steals the bag of $6,000 in gold from the duke and dauphin to try amd give it to the daughters. He's trying to be lowkey about it but then hears someone coming down the stairs. In fear of who was coming down the stairs, he tosses the bag of money inside the open coffin of Wilks. Why was that his first instinct? I don't know. So, during the funeral, the coffin was closed without having the bag of money taken out. The dauphin and the duke suspect Huck of stealing their money, which he did but he's not going to tell them that, but Huck puts the blame on the family slaves for the disappearance of the money. Mary Jane was planning to go to England, but is super sad that the slave family would be separated (all thanks to Huck miGHT I ADD). Huck tells her in secret that they won't actually be separated and there's no reason to be sad. He also tells her to leave without saying goodbye to her "uncles," the duke and the dauphin, because she would easily give away the secret if she saw them; Huck also finally decides to leaves Mary Jane the location of the money. Susan and Joanna are informed about why Mary Jane leaves, and they manage to keep quiet.

Later they have an auction for the family's possessions, when a mob interrupts the auction and two men come forward claiming to be the real Harvey and William Wilks. Turns out, the men were telling the truth and explain why they took so long to show up. Realizing the dauphin and duke are caught being frauds, they remain persistent with their claim that they're the real Wilks brothers, which makes everyone question the validity of the arguments from both duos. Since they can't figure out which two are the actual brother, they cried out to kill all the men! ALL FOUR OF THEM! Well, they don't actually kill anyone, but they do find the $6,000 in the coffin when they went to check if Peter Wilks had a tattoo on his chest. Huck knows what's going down with the men at the coffin, so he escapes as quickly as he could. The duke and dauphin find him on the raft and the dauphin tries to strangle him out of anger, but only stops when the duke had to hold him back.

The next morning, the foursome, Huck, Jim, the duke, and the dauphin, leave and travel downstream. The con men try to scam in other towns, but nothing seems to work. Everyone but Jim gets off the raft to go into a town. The dauphin and the duke get into it, so Huck heads back to the raft. Upon returning to the raft, Jim isn't anywhere to be seen. He finds out that Jim was sold by the dauphin to a man named, Silas Phelps for forty dollars. Huck turn to social and religious belief systems to try and cope with Jim being missing, but ends up thinking "all right, I'll go to hell" for wanting to help Jim be free again (239). This is such a pivotal moment for Huck because we finally see him looking at Jim, a black man, as equal to himself. Huck travels and travels, and ends up finding the Phelps' house, where Jim is supposedly being held. He arrives at the house, and is lovingly welcomed by Sally and Silas Phelps because they think Huck is their nephew, Tom Sawyer. WHAT?! I KNOW! So Huck just plays along with it so he can get to Jim. Later, Huck hears a steamboat coming up the river, which he soon realizes Tom is on to visit his aunt and uncle. Huck tells the family he's going to get his luggage, but actually finds Tom to tell him about the whole situation.

Blog Post #4 - Shei (pg. 250-300)

Blog Post #5 - Gaby (pg. 300-350)

Chapter 40 opens with Huck and the boys escaping from Sally and Silas’s house when “fifteen farmers” began shooting at Jim’s shed. Although this flee was successful, Tom received a “bullet in the calf of his leg” while running away. Once Tom, Huck, and Jim arrived to the island with their raft, Jim told Tom he should see a “doctor to save dis” injury. Obeying Jim’s orders, Huck finds “an old, kind-looking” doctor, telling him that that his brother “kicked his gun in his dreams,” leaving a bullet in his leg. Since Huck’s canoe only fits one person, so the doctor goes alone to find Tom while Huck stayed back and “crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep.”

The following morning, Huck woke up and “nearly rammed” his head into Uncle Silas. Huck informs Silas that he and “Sid” were “just hunting for the runaway nigger.” Having no choice but to go home with Silas, Huck finds Sally and her friends wandering around Jim’s shed. The white investigators concluded that skilled black men must have assisted Jim in his escape. When Aunt Sally sees Huck, she is relieved and gives him a big hug. Although Sally is worried that “Sid” is on the loose, Huck promises that he will go searching for Tom, as he feels bad for putting her through so much pain already.

The following day, Tom is found at the farm lying on a mattress with the elderly doctor and Jim with “his hands tied behind him; and a lot of people” watching him. Sally rushes over to Tom, happy to find that he is still alive. Tom informs Sally and Huck that Miss Watson had died two months ago and that Jim was set free in her will. During this conversation, Tom’s caretaker, Aunt Polly (Sally’s sister), walks into the room; Polly reveals to Sally who Huck and Tom truly are. On top of all the other lies disclosed, Sally and Polly discover that Tom has been concealing letters Polly sent to Sally. Meanwhile, the doctor tells the large crowd of people that Jim “ain't a bad nigger,” so Jim is not killed since he helped save Tom’s life.

After discovering that Judge Thatcher still has Huck’s money and that his father is dead, Huck is full of excitement and decides to go on another adventure with Tom into “Indian Territory.” On this adventure, he will not be writing another book because it takes too much time.