In the next two posts, we’re going to talk about the two novel forms that you can see in Huck Finn. In one way, Huck Finn is a novel that is episodic—that is, it takes place in a series of episodes, and each one is like a story in itself. In another way, the book uses a classic novel form—that is, all the different stories lead up to a final conflict that is resolved in a climax.
First we’ll talk about the episodic structure. There are lots of separate episodes in the book. You could think about them as stories you might tell about Huck or his adventures that would give a person who didn’t know him an idea of who he was or what was happening to him—for instance, “Let me tell you about the time that Huck wanted to find out what was happening on shore, so he dressed up as a girl, and . . .”
For this post, pick an episode that you thought was interesting or funny or told you something about Huck that helped you understand him better. Tell the story as if you were telling it to someone. Include why you chose this story (for instance, “So now I know that Huck was trying to . . .”)
Notice that we are going to be talking about the OTHER form in a later post—the final conflict and resolution. So be watching for that as you read.
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In Huckleberry Finn, I thought the funniest thing that happened so far was when Huck took a dead rattlesnake and placed it in Jim's bed. When Jim got into bed, he not only found the original dead snake, but he also found the dead snake's mate, which bit. I thought Mark Twain found an interesting use of words to explain this event in a way that would make the reader laugh out loud. It made me feel sorry for Jim at the same time, due to the hilarious fact of how Tom and Huck never left the poor person alone. I enjoyed this part because it named every little fun thing that happened with graphic detail. Of course, it also taught a lesson--never put a dead rattlesnake in a bed because its mate will find it. I think that Mark Twain is one of the funniest writers of his time because he knows what to do to make people think he is funny.
In Tom Sawyer he kind of made fun of Tom and the model boy when they were fighting. It was a funny part of the book because they were fighting like me and my sisters do. It reminded me of that a lot. But they met cause Tom was walking and they boy said something and then they started yelling words at each other and then Tom beat the kid up and he said something else and so Tom chased him all the way to his house and I thought that was a funny part of the book. So that is a part were I think Mark Twain kind of made fun of them
Huckleberry Finn and Jim saw a steamboat that crashed up against a rock. Huck was able to convince Jim to go and search the boat for money or other useful materials. When Huck and Jim got on the boat, they heard voices coming from a room down the hall. Huck saw a man on the floor with a gun pointed against his head. Then Huck heard two men talking about how they were going to kill Jim Turner. Jim, a runaway slave, thought that the murderers were talking about him, and he ran back. However, Huck didn’t run away because he thought there might be some way to help Jim Turner. When the murderers started walking his way, he got scared and ran back to where Jim was. When Huck got back to where he and Jim left the raft, they found that it was gone. Without the murderers knowing about it, Huck and Jim were able to take their escape boat and glided down the stream away from the steamboat. Huck felt sorry for the murderers because they were trapped on the steamboat. Huck saw a captain nearby and made up a story about the murderers so that the captain would rescue them. Huck was trying to help the murderers get off the steamboat. Even though Huck knew that these were bad people he didn’t want to let them die. This showed me that Huck is a brave person who always looks to do the right thing, no matter what it is.
Once, while Huck and Jim were going down the Mississippi, Huck went ahead of Jim with the canoe to anchor the raft to a towhead. Once Huck had gone a ways in front of Jim, some fog closed in and they lost sight of each other. Panicking, Huck began to paddle ahead and call to Jim, but he was too far away. After a while, they both began to pass through some islands, and before he knew it, Huck had gotten turned around and Jim was behind him with the raft. Eventually Huck tired out and fell asleep for a short time. Once he woke up, he continued his search until he found the raft—and Jim asleep on it. While Huck was gone, Jim had a time with rapids and had nearly drowned and lost the raft. Huck was so angry at Jim that he decided to confuse him by pretending that Jim had dreamed the entire incident. Jim immediately began to “interpret” his dream, claiming that good and bad people would be greeting them in the near future. Not until Huck questioned him about the leaves that were actually on the boat did Jim realize he had been tricked. However, in the end Huck felt bad about his actions and apologized to Jim, which seemed to bring the two closer together.
In Huckleberry Finn, I thought the funniest part was with Pap and Huck. It’s when Pap steals Huck back and makes him live in this crummy shack of a cabin. So, Pap takes whatever money he can find and spends it on getting himself drunk in which he locks up Huck so he tries not to escape. One night Huck has a bad dream in which his pap has a bad dream where he thinks there is snakes all over him .In which he thinks Huck is the
Devil and he is the worst thing ever and his pap tries to kill him. Huck grabs the gun and points to shoot. Suddenly he wakes up and his pap is asking why he has the gun. Then he just makes up an excuse on how there was someone out side and he couldn’t get him up.
Huck finally realized he can’t stay there anymore. I really felt bad for Huck he had to live there with that monster and get whipped by him.
The funniest part in the book so far was when Huck’s father was so drunk that he started thinking that rattlesnakes were biting him on his body. Pap was losing it! He was so sober that he started chasing Huck with a beer bottle around the area. I enjoyed this part because I thought it was really funny but it was also very scary for Huck to have a father like that.
In “Huckleberry Finn,” the part I found interesting was how Huck escaped from the woods when his father captured him. Huck's father did not come back to the cabin that night, so Huck took the canoe he found and most of the food and went down the river. It got exciting when he saw his father and got real close to him. Huck was planning on going to Jackson's Island. From reading this, I can tell that Huck can really take care of himself. He said he definitely doesn't want to go back to the widow's house.
Once, as Jim and Huck were traveling down the river it began to storm. During this storm Huck and Jim came upon a boat that was stuck on some rocks, Jim and Huck decided they were going to go aboard the boat and try to find something that they could take and use. When the started to board the boat they heard some people talking in the states room, Jim got spooked and left but Huck decided that he was going to see what was happening. Huck realized that he didn’t need to stay around any longer when he found out that two of the men on the boat were going to kill one other man on the boat. Huck hurried out of the boat and found Jim. Jim looked distraught and Huck said they needed to get out of there and asked what happened, Huck asked what was wrong. Jim told Huck the bad news about the raft, that it was gone; Huck told Jim that they would steal the robber’s boat. After they stole the boat Huck knew that he had to go get help for the robbers.
At first I didn’t understand why Huck would try to help the robbers, he knew that they weren’t good people but I soon came to realize the answer. Huck was a good person, he always tried to help people, he felt guilty that the people were going to die because he took their boat and that is why he went for help. Huck didn’t want to have those people being killed on his conscience.
A funny part in Huck finn is when Huck tries to tie the boat to the bank on a foggy night and the little tree he tries to tie it to gets ripped out by the roots. Huck is left behind, but in the morning he wakes up and finds his raft and Jim is asleep on it. So Huck wakes up Jim and pretends like he never left the raft. Jim acts very happy to see Huck. Huck says he never left and it must have been a dream. Jim tells him all about his "dream", then realizes Huck tricked him when he sees leaves and things on the raft. He gets made that Huck tricked him. Huck after a while of thinking appologizes. So I think Huck even though he likes to play jokes and is funny, he also doesn't want to hurt his friends even a slave one.
I think the funniest thing that happened in Huck Finn was when Huck dressed up as a girl. While he's really good at acting and impersonations, he really didn't know what he was doing when he was trying to be a girl and was eventually found out.
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