Huck Finn Mini-Quiz Thingy

1. In chapter 26, Huck must decide whether or not to foil the king and duke's plan and take their money from them, risking his safety. In chapter 31, Huck has to make a decision on whether or not to let Jim be put back into slavery, and actually turn him in back to Miss Watson. Both decisions show Huck's maturing character, how he has grown since the beginning of the book, as both decisions deal with other people rather than himself. The decision about Jim also shows how Huck has grown away from the ways of society. In the end, Huck decides to take the money in order to help Mary Jane and the rest of her family, as well as show the truth to the townspeople, and to not send the letter to Miss Watson, and try to get Jim free again.

The opposing forces in each of Huck's decisions is Huck himself, because they are internal conflicts.

It is ironic that Huck is stealing for a good cause. What is ironic about Huck saying, "All right then, I'll go to hell," is that he didn't care about whether or not he went to hell to begin with. In the beginning of the book, he even said he'd rather go to hell, because it sounded more fun than heaven.

2. Writing the letter made Huck feel sinless because according to society and the principles he grew up with, he had done the right thing. Earlier, Huck said he couldn't pray a lie, meaning he couldn't pray before he wrote the letter because he would kneel and pray, but the words that would come out of his mouth would be lies, because deep down he knew really didn't want to/wouldn't do the things he would pray about. Huck wasn't able to pray that he wanted to be better, because in his mind he wasn't that bad, and really he didn't want to send Jim back into slavery. He felt better about the state of his soul after writing the letter because he had actually proven to himself that he could/would do it. He had the paper right in front of him and all he had to do was send it.

3. After writing the letter, Huck thought about all the times he had with Jim, and all the things Jim had done for him, how Jim had never done him ny wrong, and how he had a duty to Jim to only do right by him, as Jim had said Huck was his only and best friend. Huck tore up the paper because he realized that he and Jim were like family, and that he needed to be there for Jim as Jim was to him. Huck broke away from society in this final act of defiance in order to save someone he loved, and didn't care about the consequences.