Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Caroll

 Generate questions and answer them later.

At the start of the book, What was Alice doing with her sister and how was her general state of
mind?

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having
nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no
pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or
conversation?' So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made
her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the
trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close
by her.

How did Alice get into Wonderland?

A young girl named Alice sits bored by a riverbank, where she suddenly spots a White Rabbit
with a pocket watch and waistcoat lamenting that he is late. Surprised Alice follows him down into
the rabbit hole, where she's sent over a long fall but landed safely.

Why was Alice annoyed with the riddle that the Hatter asked?

Alice's giving up on the riddle and when she finds out he doesn't have an answer, it makes
her upset with the mad hatter. She says he shouldn't waste time trying to solve riddles which have no
answers.

How did Alice rescue the three gardeners?

Alice saves the gardeners by hiding them in a flower pot and going off with the Queen to play
croquet. When she arrives at the croquet match, Alice finds out from the White Rabbit that the
Duchess is under sentence of execution for boxing the Queen's ears.
When Alice said ‘drowned in my own tears’, can you analyze what the expression has come to
mean?

Alice's trying to resolve her problems fairly, but an episode in the pool of tears proves how
easily Wonderland distracts her from reason and makes her feel emotional rather than rational. The
sea of tears is like a punishment for Alice's giving in to her own emotions.

 Analyze and evaluate the stories then give opinions that strongly supports their ideas.

Many people have seen Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a prime example of the limit-
breaking book from the old tradition illuminating the new one. It is also perceived to be a tale of
variation in the debate about gender, while at the same time being extremely surprising with its
modernity. Based on what I've seen, the story of Alice falling through a rabbit hole and being caught
up in some stupid world is quite guileless. It's quite a scary story, about a girl growing up outside her
home in what seems to be a world where chaos and nonsense rule. Alice is constantly in a state of
confusion, faced with situations that involve various different and curious animals being completely
alone. Outside of Wonderland, she didn't even get any help from home or the world. In his
description of falling into a rabbit hole, Lewis Carroll describes it as very long and mentions book
shelves on the other side. Maybe it's an escape to literature that he talks about. Carroll's an expert at
puns and irony. The part with the mad tea-party is one of the best examples of this. In the original
Alice book, there was a lot of humour, but in the second it's starting to get kind of dark and
melancholic. If the theme had been about Alice expanding and shrinking, it might have reflected some
of the ups and downs of adolescent hood, where adolescents often felt adult yet at times quite
opposite. In Alice's mind, the hesitation of a teenage girl is reflected in her thinking: she usually gives
herself good advice; even though she rarely takes it. In all its various forms, a number of short
observations appear to point at the young's recklessness, restlessness and anxiety.

 Identify the elements of the story such as settings, characters, plot, and theme.

Settings:
The first setting is in Wonderland, a strange and strangely crazy world you can enter by
falling into the rabbit hole. Animals' behavior is like a normal person. The physical size and time are
relative. In our real world, where Alice starts by sitting next to her sister, and wakes up, the story is
also part of it. Wonderland's a dreamworld in this story. However, Wonderland isn't quite another
world in the thematic sense. It's only through a baby's eye that it really is our world. The second
setting is in The Looking-Glass world, It is similar to the Wonderland. Aliens are also living there, and
weird stuff happens all the time. To enter this world through the mirror at Alice's house, you need to
pass over the chimney. Therefore, everything in Wonderland is reversed; books are in mirror writing
and when you want to go to a certain place, you have to walk in the opposite direction.

Characters:
Alice - She is a seven year old English girl with lots of imagination and is fond of showing off
her knowledge. Alice is polite, well raised and interested in others, although she sometimes makes
the wrong remarks and upsets the creatures in Wonderland.

The Caterpillar - He is sitting on a mushroom while smoking a hookah, when Alice first meets
him. Although he is rather strict and not very friendly, and corrects Alice’s recitation of a poem, he
does help her by advising her to eat from the mushroom if she wants to change her size.

Cheshire Cat - is the cat of the Duchess. When she leaves the Duchess house, and finds it in a
tree. It constantly grins and can disappear and reappear whenever it likes. Sometimes it disappears
and leaves its grin behind.

Jabberwock - apparently lives on an island. In a letter to Mrs. Chataway, the mother of a

child-friend, Carroll explains that the scene of the ‘Snark’ is “an island, frequented by the Jubjub and
Bandersnatch – no doubt the very island where the Jabberwock was slain.”

Mad Hatter - is one of the members of the Mad Tea Party. Later he also appears as a witness
during the trial. He occasionally is very rude and provokes Alice during the tea party. When he is
called upon by the Queen, he is very nervous and frightened.

Queen of Hearts - She is one of the playing card characters Alice meets when she is finally
able to enter the beautiful garden through the door in the hallway. The Queen of Hearts rules over
Wonderland and is a tyrant, violent, authoritative and dominant. She likes to play croquet with live
flamingos and hedgehogs as mallets and balls (but only when she wins, and by her own rules) and
constantly orders the beheading of people when something isn’t to her liking

White Rabbit - is the first Wonderland character Alice encounters. Alice follows him when he
hurries into his hole and thereby enters Wonderland. He appears to be late for his job with the
Duchess.

 Plot
 On a beautiful summer’s day, Alice sits with her sister at the riverbank. Alice is starting to feel
bored, finding no pictures or conversations in her sister’s book when, suddenly, a white rabbit with
red eyes runs by. Excitedly, the little animal pulls a pocket watch out of his waistcoat and murmurs to
himself that he’s going to be late. Full of curiosity, Alice jumps to her feet. She has never seen a rabbit
with a watch, let alone one wearing clothes.

Alice chases after him until he disappears into a rabbit hole. She crams herself into the narrow hole,
only to find herself falling down a deep well. The fall seems to take an eternity. She can only imagine
that she’ll soon arrive at the other end of the earth, where, in her view, people walk with their heads
pointed downward. Finally, she lands in a long hall cluttered with small doors. A golden key lies on a
glass table. It fits one of the doors leading to a passage, at the end of which Alice sees an enchanting
garden. Alas, Alice is too tall to pass through the door.

She sees a little bottle labeled “Drink me.” Suspiciously, after carefully checking that it isn’t labeled as
poison, she tastes its contents and, finding its taste very nice, drinks it to the last drop. She suddenly
shrinks. Now, Alice is too short to reach the key lying on the table. She begins to cry. She spots a cake
labeled “Eat me” under the table. Without further ado, she bites into it and grows so much she can
barely fit inside the hall. Again, she’s too tall to pass through the door into the garden. Alice is bitterly
disappointed and cries so much that a pool of tears forms around her. She doesn’t know who she is
any more.

The Rabbit shows up again, but when Alice addresses him, he scurries away in fear, leaving only a pair
of white gloves behind. Alice wonders what has happened to her. To find out whether she is, in fact,
still Alice, she sings a few nursery rhymes – convinced that she knows them by heart – only to realize
that the words are coming out all wrong.

Alice manages to put on one of the Rabbit’s little gloves. Apparently, she has grown smaller yet again.
Quickly, she wants to seize the moment and run for the entry to the garden – only to find herself in
the middle of the pool of her own tears. She starts to swim. Looking around she realizes that many
animals have fallen into the water and are swimming behind her. As she attempts to make
conversation with the Mouse, she repeatedly insults it by talking about her cat and its hunting, in
particular, mice.

After Alice and the animals climb on shore, they wonder how they can get dry. The Mouse attempts
to dry them with the driest thing he knows: a dull narrative of the Norman Conquest. When this is
unsuccessful, the Dodo suggests a Caucus race in which everyone runs where they please to no clear
purpose. After having run around in all directions for at least half an hour, drying off properly in the
process, they wonder who has won the race, and decide that they’ve all won and everyone should get
a prize. They ask Alice to hand out prizes. Luckily, she finds some old candy in her pocket, and she has
just enough for each animal to get a piece. When she doesn’t have any left for herself, the animals
agree she must still have a prize. The Dodo asks what else she has in her pockets. She checks and finds
a single thimble. He promptly takes it from her and hands it back again, asking her with a short speech
to accept the gift. Alice, despite finding the spectacle absurd, solemnly takes the gift.

A little later the Rabbit returns, demanding that she give back his gloves at once. Having lost the
gloves, Alice decides to search for them. While looking for the gloves, she comes upon a little house
and steps in. Driven by curiosity, she takes a sip from yet another bottle and suddenly grows so big
that her arms stick out of the house and one leg goes up the chimney. The Rabbit decides to send Bill
the Lizard through the chimney to fetch his gloves. Alice hears Bill scrambling above her and, with a
sharp kick, sends the lizard flying the other way like a rocket. This infuriates the Rabbit so much that
he decides to burn down the house. Alice threatens to send her cat Dinah – who is at home with her
parents – after the Rabbit, but to no avail.
The Rabbit throws pebbles at her that turn into cakes, and after eating one of them she begins
shrinking again. Now she can free herself and flee into the woods. She finds herself too small yet
again, and comes upon the Caterpillar, who is sitting on a mushroom, smoking a long hookah.

The Caterpillar asks Alice who she is, and when the girl responds that with all her growing and
shrinking she hardly knows any more, he demands an explanation. Alice feels unable to give one, but
she can’t help but comment that the Caterpillar, of all creatures, has no reason to criticize her. After
all it’ll also change its appearance when it becomes a butterfly. Aggrieved by her clever answer, the
Caterpillar suggests that Alice recite a poem. After she has finished, the crawler tells her coolly that
she didn’t say it right. Still, Alice confides in the creature that she’d like to be a different size, and the
Caterpillar becomes a bit more pleasant, revealing that Alice should eat from one side of its
mushroom to grow and the other to shrink.

Puzzled as to which are the sides of a round mushroom, she breaks off two pieces as far apart as she
can. She shrinks at first, but before she disappears takes a bite from the other piece and grows.
Unfortunately, not her whole body has grown, but only her neck, leading a pigeon to mistake her for a
serpent. Alice then nibbles at different parts of the mushroom, growing a little taller and shorter each
time, until she finally reaches her normal height again. Walking through the woods, she stumbles
upon the house of the Duchess and witnesses a fish-faced footman hand a frog-faced footman an
invitation from the Queen to play croquet.

The Duchess’s cook is busy preparing a pepper soup, but she suddenly starts hurling plates and
saucepans at the head of the Duchess’, who is rocking a baby to sleep. Although the Duchess is rather
ungracious toward Alice, she quickly tosses the child to her, and Alice runs outside for fear of being hit
by an object the cook has thrown. In her arms, the baby increasingly takes on the features of a piglet.
Finally, she puts it down, and the creature trots away grunting.

Alice now talks with the Duchess’ Cheshire Cat, who has the disconcerting habit of disappearing. The
cat is constantly grinning and when Alice complains of how rapidly it keeps vanishing, it disappears
slowly from tail to head leaving just its lingering grin. Shortly thereafter the girl meets the March
Hare, who is having tea under a tree with the Mad Hatter and the half-asleep, half-awake Dormouse.
While many empty places are set at the table, the three are squeezed next to each other at one end.
They give Alice a rather rude welcome, constantly complaining about her manners. In turn, she
reprimands her hosts for not inviting her to sit when there are so many places. A lively and frustrating
discussion ensues on the subject of time, intermixed with riddles that lack solutions.

At long last Alice grows weary of them and moves on. Much to her surprise she discovers a tree with a
door leading into its trunk. Upon entering, she finds herself once again in the hall with the golden key.
This time, she manages to step into the magical garden, where she meets three Gardeners who are
busy painting white roses red. Alice wants to know why they would do this, and they respond that
they accidentally planted a white rose tree, while the Queen had asked for a red one. They tell Alice
that the Queen will have them executed for it. Alice is quite amazed that the gardeners are not
human; they are playing cards.

When the Queen shows up with her entourage, it turns out that they are all playing cards. At the
Queen’s prompting, Alice introduces herself. The severe ruler orders the beheading of anyone who
displeases her. Alice then participates in a strange croquet game: The mallets are flamingos, rolled
up hedgehogs serve as balls and playing card soldiers form the arches. One by one the Queen orders
the execution of all the players for being unable to follow the confusing rules.

Alice gets more and more frightened. She’s relieved when the Cheshire Cat’s head appears, because it
gives her someone reasonable to talk to. Delighted, she introduces the Cat to the King. Yet when the
monarch demands the animal kiss his royal hand, the Cat refuses. The angered King calls over the
Queen, who orders her soldiers to behead the Cat. However, that brings about an animated debate
between the executioner and the Queen as to whether it’s possible to behead the Cheshire Cat at all,
as without a body, they can’t cut the head off of anything.
The King wholeheartedly disagrees: He maintains that wherever there’s a head it can be beheaded.
Now Alice tries to mediate by suggesting that they should ask the Duchess, since she owns the Cat
after all, but it turns out that the Queen has had her thrown into prison. The executioner goes off to
fetch her. Meanwhile the Cat disappears totally.
The Duchess is happy to see Alice again, and they engage in a deep conversation. The Duchess tries to
convince Alice that there’s a moral in everything that happens to you in life. The apparent harmony
between Alice and the Duchess bothers the Queen, and she threatens to have the Duchess beheaded.
After the Duchess flees, the croquet match continues. The Queen suggests that Alice visit the Mock
Turtle and listen to its life story. The Gryphon leads her to the Mock Turtle. He indulges in lengthy
reminiscences about his time at school, which annoys Alice a bit, especially when he claims to have
learned a lot more than her, including “French, music and washing – extra.” The encounter becomes
much jollier when the Gryphon and the Turtle teach Alice how to dance the Lobster Quadrille, which
involves each animal partnering with a lobster and then throwing its partner into the sea.

The Mock Turtle turns out to be a morose creature, constantly pondering the fact that its purpose is
to end up in a Mock Turtle soup. Choked with tears, he sings his last song called “The Turtle Soup.” He
has barely finished when a voice resounds in the distance reminding everyone that a great trial is
about to begin. Alice notices that she is slowly regaining her old size. All the animals have assembled
in the courtroom. The Knave of Hearts, a playing card in the Queen’s service, stands accused of having
stolen the tarts that the Queen baked. The King is the judge, and the White Rabbit announces the
proceedings as officer of the court. After several curious depositions, Alice is called as a witness.
When an absurd piece of evidence is produced – a poem that is alleged proof of the Knave of Hearts’
guilt – Alice loses her temper. She denounces the trial as sheer nonsense, which makes the Queen
threaten to behead Alice once more. Yet as Alice grows taller she becomes more self-confident. She
dismisses them all as just a bunch of playing cards.

At her words, the cards rise up and come flying down on Alice, making her scream in anger and fear –
until she realizes that she’s lying on the river bank and everything was but a dream. She tells her
adventures to her sister, who reminds her that it is time for tea. After Alice rushes off to eat, her sister
ponders Alice’s future life and children, and how the story of her dream might entertain them.

 Themes

The most obvious theme that can be found in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the theme
of growing up. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland depicts the struggle of children for survival in a
confusing adult world. Alice has to overcome the openness characteristic of a child if she wants to
understand our adult world. In fact, the rules are needed for adults to live by. But today the vast
majority of people are adopting such a policy on their own with no question as to why. That makes
Alice's behavior in Wonderland, incomprehensible and unpredictable at times.
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland depicts the struggle of children for survival in a confusing adult
world. Alice has to overcome the openness characteristic of a child if she wants to understand our
adult world. In fact, the rules are needed for adults to live by. But today the vast majority of people
are adopting such a policy on their own with no question as to why. That makes Alice's behavior in
Wonderland, incomprehensible and unpredictable at times.

The Adventure Of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain

 Generate questions and answer them later.

How did Huck matures?

In the novel, a young boy from the South travels down the Mississippi River with a runaway
slave where they encounter many adventures and meet many different people. Along the way, not
only does Huck mature, but he also becomes a kind and loyal person, sometimes going against the
values of society. Huck's adventure down the Mississippi River is a passage into manhood because he
learns to make decisions on his own as well as gain respect for Jim as a person.

Discuss how the river provides freedom for Huck.

For Huck, the river is also an expression of freedom. He uses it to escape from his abusive,
drunken father and also the society he feels stifled by. He's being taken away from Pap and Widow
Douglas by the river. Those were the two most important choices for Huck's home, and neither of
them pleased him.

Huck is born into nature, but is morally influenced by society. How does the book show Huck's
development into trusting his natural morals again?

It reflects the growth process of Huck through adventures. His growth is embodied by his
choice on independence, his change of attitude towards Jim, his moral growth, and the different
social roles he plays. Huck’s growth is influenced by the inner and outer factors. On the one hand,
friendship, nature and society make up the outer environment for Huck’s growth. They have great
effect on the development of his growth. On the other hand, his own instinct and his sound heart
finally decide the direction of his growth.

 Analyze and evaluate the stories then give opinions that strongly supports their ideas.

In a larger sense, this story follows a young boy as he struggles to make sense of the world in
which he lives. He witnesses racism firsthand and knows it is wrong and yet deals with the moral
dilemma of helping Jim, which he feared would be considered stealing. On some level, Huck is very
aware of the social constraints around him - the general lack of universal acceptance. However, he is
also, at times, struck by the fact that he may not be doing the right thing - that he perhaps should turn
Jim in. But the thing that holds him back is not so much a thoughtful consideration of law or morality
but rather his friendship with Jim, which he knows to be true and honest in his heart.
Through this relationship and Twain's characterization of Jim as a kind and caring family man, the
reader gets the sense that it would take the less-judgmental voice of a child to reveal the hypocrisy of
a society in which the ownership of other human beings was common and okay. It's also interesting to
note that Huck himself survived a period of enslavement during which his own father was his keeper.
Despite his inability to articulate why directly, Huck knew it wasn't right.

 Characters

Huckleberry Finn

The main character of the story. He runs away and travels down the Mississippi River on a raft with a
runaway slave, Jim, as his companion.

Adolphus - Huck's name when the King pretends to be the British brother of Peter Wilks.
Levi Bell - The lawyer who tries to ascertain the true heirs to the Wilks's fortune.

Rev. Elexander Blodgett - The false name the King uses when addressing Tim Collins, the young man
bound for Orleans who tells the King everything about the Wilks family.

Boggs - A drunk man who insults Colonel Sherburn and is later killed by him. The action takes place in
the same town where the Duke and the King put on their Shakespearean show.

Tim Collins - A young man who reveals the entire story about the Wilks's fortune to the King.

Widow Douglas - The widow who takes Huck into her home and tries to "civilize" him. It is her home
that he leaves when Pap kidnaps him and takes him to the log cabin.

The Duke - The younger of the two con men and the man who invents the Royal Nonesuch. He is later
tarred and feathered in Pikesville.

 Plot

The novel opens with Huck telling his story. Briefly, he describes what he has experienced
since, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which preceded this novel. After Huck and Tom discovered
twelve thousand dollars in treasure, Judge Thatcher invested the money for them. Huck was adopted
by the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, both of whom took pains to raise him properly. Dissatisfied
with his new life, and wishing for the simplicity he used to know, Huck runs away. Tom
Sawyer searches him out and convinces him to return home by promising to start a band of robbers.
All the local young boys join Tom's band, using a hidden cave for their hideout and meeting place.
However, many soon grow bored with their make-believe battles, and the band falls apart.
Soon thereafter, Huck discovers footprints in the snow and recognizes them as his violent,
abusive Pap's. Huck realizes Pap, who Huck hasn't seen in a very long time, has returned to claim the
money Huck found, and he quickly runs to Judge Thatcher to "sell" his share of the money for a
"consideration" of a dollar. Pap catches Huck after leaving Judge Thatcher, forces him to hand over
the dollar, and threatens to beat Huck if he ever goes to school again.

Upon Pap's return, Judge Thatcher and the Widow try to gain court custody of Huck, but a
new judge in town refuses to separate Huck from his father. Pap steals Huck away from the Widow's
house and takes him to a log cabin. At first Huck enjoys the cabin life, but after receiving frequent
beatings, he decides to escape. When Pap goes into town, Huck seizes the opportunity. He saws his
way out of the log cabin, kills a pig, spreads the blood as if it were his own, takes a canoe, and floats
downstream to Jackson's Island. Once there, he sets up camp and hides out.

A few days after arriving on the island, Huck stumbles upon a still smoldering campfire.
Although slightly frightened, Huck decides to seek out his fellow inhabitant. The next day, he
discovers Miss Watson's slave, Jim, is living on the island. After overhearing the Widow's plan to sell
him to a slave trader, Jim ran away. Jim, along with the rest of the townspeople, thought Huck was
dead and is frightened upon seeing him. Soon, the two share their escape stories and are happy to
have a companion.

While Huck and Jim live on the island, the river rises significantly. At one point, an entire
house floats past them as they stand near the shore. Huck and Jim climb aboard to see what they can
salvage and find a dead man lying in the corner of the house. Jim goes over to inspect the body and
realizes it is Pap, Huck's father. Jim keeps this information a secret. Soon afterwards, Huck returns to
the town disguised as a girl in order to gather some news. While talking with a woman, he learns that
both Jim and Pap are suspects in his murder. The woman then tells Huck that she believes Jim is
hiding out on Jackson's Island. Upon hearing her suspicions, Huck immediately returns to Jim and
together they flee the island to avoid discovery.

Using a large raft, they float downstream during the nights and hide along the shore during
the days. In the middle of a strong thunderstorm, they see a steamboat that has crashed, and Huck
convinces Jim to land on the boat. Together, they climb aboard and discover there are three thieves
on the wreck, two of whom are debating whether to kill the third. Huck overhears this conversation,
and he and Jim try to escape, only to find that their raft has come undone from its makeshift mooring.
They manage to find the robbers' skiff and immediately take off. Within a short time, they see the
wrecked steamship floating downstream, far enough below the water-line to have drowned everyone
on board. Subsequently, they reclaim their original raft, and continue down the river with both the
raft and the canoe. As Jim and Huck continue floating downstream, they become close friends. Their
goal is to reach Cairo, where they can take a steamship up the Ohio River and into the free states.
However, during a dense fog, with Huck in the canoe and Jim in the raft, they are separated. When
they find each other in the morning, it soon becomes clear that in the midst of the fog, they passed
Cairo.

A few nights later, a steamboat runs over the raft, and forces Huck and Jim to jump
overboard. Again, they are separated as they swim for their lives. Huck finds the shore and is
immediately surrounded by dogs. After managing to escape, he is invited to live with a family called
the Grangerfords. At the Grangerford home, Huck is treated well and discovers that Jim is hiding in a
nearby swamp. Everything is peaceful until an old family feud between the Grangerfords and the
Shepherdsons is rekindled. Within one day all the men in the Grangerford family are killed, including
Huck's new best friend, Buck. Amid the chaos, Huck runs back to Jim, and together they start
downriver again.

Further downstream, Huck rescues two humbugs known as the Duke and the King.
Immediately, the two men take control of the raft and start to travel downstream, making money by
cheating people in the various towns along the river. The Duke and the King develop a scam they call
the Royal Nonesuch, which earns them over four hundred dollars. The scam involves getting all the
men in the town to come to a show with promises of great entertainment. In the show, the King
parades around naked for a few minutes. The men are too ashamed to admit to wasting their money,
and tell everyone else that the show was phenomenal, thus making the following night's performance
a success. On the third night, everyone returns plotting revenge, but the Duke and King manage to
escape with all their ill gotten gains.

Further downriver, the two con men learn about a large inheritance meant for three recently
orphaned girls. To steal the money, the men pretend to be the girls' British uncles. The girls are so
happy to see their "uncles" that they do not realize they are being swindled. Meanwhile, the girls
treat Huck so nicely that he vows to protect them from the con men's scheme. Huck sneaks into the
King's room and steals the large bag of gold from the inheritance. He hides the gold in Peter Wilks's
(the girls' father) coffin. Meanwhile, the humbugs spend their time liquidating the Wilks family
property. At one point, Huck finds Mary Jane Wilks, the eldest of the girls, and sees that she is crying.
He confesses the entire story to her. She is infuriated, but agrees to leave the house for a few days so
Huck can escape.Right after Mary Jane leaves, the real Wilks uncles arrive in town. However, because
they lost their baggage on their voyage, they are unable to prove their identities. Thus, the town
lawyer gathers all four men to determine who is lying. The King and the Duke fake their roles so well
that there is no way to determine the truth. Finally, one of the real uncles says his brother Peter had a
tattoo on his chest and challenges the King to identify it. In order to determine the truth, the
townspeople decide to exhume the body. Upon digging up the grave, the townspeople discover the
missing money Huck hid in the coffin. In the ensuing chaos, Huck runs straight back to the raft and he
and Jim push off into the river. The Duke and King also escape and catch up to rejoin the raft.

Farther down the river, the King and Duke sell Jim into slavery, claiming he is a runaway slave
from New Orleans. Huck decides to rescue Jim, and daringly walks up to the house where Jim is being
kept. Luckily, the house is owned by none other than Tom Sawyer's Aunt Sally. Huck immediately
pretends to be Tom. When the real Tom arrives, he pretends to be his younger brother, Sid Sawyer.
Together, he and Huck contrive a plan to help Jim escape from his "prison," an outdoor shed. Tom,
always the troublemaker, also makes Jim's life difficult by putting snakes and spiders into his room.
After a great deal of planning, the boys convince the town that a group of thieves is planning to steal
Jim. That night, they collect Jim and start to run away. The local farmers follow them, shooting as they
run after them. Huck, Jim, and Tom manage to escape, but Tom is shot in the leg. Huck returns to
town to fetch a doctor, whom he sends to Tom and Jim's hiding place. The doctor returns with Tom
on a stretcher and Jim in chains. Jim is treated badly until the doctor describes how Jim helped him
take care of the boy. When Tom awakens, he demands that they let Jim go free.

At this point, Aunt Polly appears, having traveled all the way down the river. She realized
something was very wrong after her sister wrote to her that both Tom and Sid had arrived. Aunt Polly
tells them that Jim is indeed a free man, because the Widow had passed away and freed him in her
will. Huck and Tom give Jim forty dollars for being such a good prisoner and letting them free him,
while in fact he had been free for quite some time.
After this revelation, Jim tells Huck to stop worrying about his Pap and reveals that the dead man in
the floating house was in fact Huck's father. Aunt Sally offers to adopt Huck, but he refuses on the
grounds that he had tried that sort of lifestyle once before, and it didn't suit him. Huck concludes the
novel stating he would never have undertaken the task of writing out his story in a book, had he
known it would take so long to complete.

 Themes

Slavery

Slavery is one of the key thematic elements in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel
takes place in Missouri in the 1830s or 1840s, at a time when Missouri was considered a slave state.
Soon after Huck fakes his own death, he partners with Jim, a runaway slave from the household
where Huck used to live. Although the book purports to be about Huck's “adventures,” the story is
driven by Jim's attempt to achieve freedom and safety for himself, and ultimately for his wife and
children. Huck is, in a sense, just along for the journey; however, it is Huck's perspective on Jim's
struggle that allows the author to address the topic of slavery in a unique and entertaining way.

Dehumanization

Blacks are subject to dehumanizing treatment from nearly every white character in the book.
This is not inconsistent with a tale set in the pre–Civil War South, where blacks were routinely viewed
as property above all else. Indeed, one of Huck's primary inner conflicts deals with his “wicked”
impulses to treat Jim as more than just someone's property. Additionally, Jim's escape is prompted
when Miss Watson considers selling him off to a slave trader despite the fact that Jim has served her
well and she knows that such an action would separate Jim from his family.
Prejudice

Throughout the novel, the white characters operate under the belief that Jim—because he is
black—simply cannot comprehend certain concepts and explanations. Huck in particular comments
on numerous occasions about Jim's inability to understand the way the world works. The recurring
irony in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that the white characters frequently have an
inaccurate or even absurd view of how the world works themselves.