The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Chapters 24 through 31

24. The King Turns Parson

• • • • Jim is painted blue and dressed as a “Sick Arab.” The king and Huck give a young man a ride and learn from him about the recently deceased Peter Wilks.

The two frauds go to town as Peter’s brothers.

Huck is brought along.

25. All Full of Tears and Flapdoodle

• • • The frauds receive money from Peter’s will and give it to Peter’s daughters.

Dr. Robinson warns the people that the duke and the king are frauds.

His warning is unheeded as the daughters defend the duke and king.

26. I Steal the King’s Plunder

• • • • Huck gets in a mess lying to the “hare-lip.” He is protected by Mary Jane’s hospitality.

Huck feels guilty about letting the frauds steal the girls’ money, so he steals the money back.

Huck also overhears the frauds’ plan to sell off the property.

27. Dead Peter Has His Gold

• • • • Huck hides the money in Peter’s coffin.

The coffin is buried the next day and Huck is unsure if the money is there.

The frauds notice the missing money and ask Huck if anyone entered their room.

Huck says the slaves did, but they were already sold off.

28. Overreaching Don’t Pay

• • • • Huck decides to tell Mary Jane the truth about the frauds.

Mary Jane is grateful (such a gracious lady <3) Huck gives her a plan and sends her to a friend’s home.

The real Wilks brothers arrive.

29. I Light Out in the Storm

• • • • The townspeople investigate who the real Wilks brothers are.

Huck and the frauds face lynching if the king’s description of Peter’s tattoo does not match his dead body.

The bag of gold in the coffin offers a moment of shock in which Huck escapes.

The frauds escape too.

30. The Gold Saves the Thieves

• • • • The king roughhouses Huck, thinking he had tried to desert the frauds.

The duke and the king both think the other had hid the money bag.

The duke strangles the king until he “confesses” to trying to swindle him.

The frauds make up after drinking.

31. You Can’t Pray a Lie

• • • • • Jim is sold by the king to Silas Phelps as a runaway slave.

Huck tries to desert the frauds, but finds that Jim is with Silas Phelps.

Huck has a moment of internal religious/moral conflict.

Huck plans to rescue his friend Jim, although he thinks helping a runaway slave is immoral.

Huck comes across the duke, who lies and tells him that Jim is elsewhere.

Characters

• Huck: Becomes fed up with the frauds’ heartlessness. He is compassionate towards the Wilks daughters and to Jim. He confronts morality. He is bad at lying and learns to tell the truth to Mary Jane.

• The frauds: They push the limits of their luck with their greed in the Wilks scam. They begin to disagree with each other and also treat Huck roughly. The reader begins to know them for the low-lifes that they are. The frauds enjoy alcohol.

Characters

• Peter Wilks: A recently deceased tanner with three daughters and two living brothers. He has left them a large inheritance.

• Harvey Wilks: Peter’s brother. He is a minister from England.

• William Wilks: Peter’s brother. He is deaf and dumb. The real one has a broken arm.

Characters

• Mary Jane: Peter’s beautiful red-headed daughter. She is hospitable, gracious, and also trusting (or gullible). She is compassionate towards slaves.

• Jim: He is stuck in the wigwam in the sick Arab costume. He still loves Huck.

Other Characters

• • • • • • • • • Tim Collins: He shares Peter’s story with the king.

Joanna and Susan: Peter’s daughters Dr. Robinson: Quickly realizes that the king and duke are frauds.

Mr. Lothrop: Friend with whom Mary Jane stays with briefly.

Levi Bell: A friend of Peter’s who is a lawyer.

Hines: “husky.” He holds Huck’s wrists during the digging of the grave.

Ab Turner: Helped lay out Peter for burying Silas Phelps: Now owns Jim Abram G. Forster: Most likely a fictional character created by the duke. He supposedly has Jim

•

Quotation

“Because Mary Jane’ll be in the mourning from this out; and first you the salve that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put ’em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it?”(Twain 160) • The “Duke” explains to the “King” that they’d better hide the money in a better place, The “Duke” is ignorant as he is believing a stereotype that if something were to get taken a slave was to be the scapegoat and be blamed, as a white man in the south could never fathom that another white man would steal something from him, when in reality a white person has the same potential to steal something as much as black person does.

Quotation

• “I say orgies, not because it’s the common term, because it ain’t obsequies bein’ the common term- but because orgies is the right term. Obsequies ain’t used in England no more now- it’s gone out. We say orgies now in England. Orgies is better, because it means the thing you’re after more exact.[…] So you see funeral orgies is an open er public funeral (Twain 152).

• During this scene the “King” sounds like a major idiot, trying to act intelligent by saying the word for adult parties is the same thing as a funeral rite, however the group of people seem to believe he’s correct, except for the Doctor who calls him out and blatantly says he is fraud. However he is denounced and no one believes him.

Quotation:

• “The girls had never dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold away from the town […] it was scandalous to separate the mother and children that way.” (Twain 164) • The Wilks girls are upset over the separation of the family of slaves they own. They view it as cruel. However, the girls do not seem to view slavery itself as a cruel thing.

Quotation

• “’Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she’d take a job that was nearer her size.” (Twain 171) • Huck thinks that he does not deserve to have Mary Jane pray for him. He thinks it would not do him any good since he is already evil. Huck does not realize that he is a very moral and compassionate person, considering all that he has felt towards Ms. Watson and what he has done for the Wilks, Jim, and even the steamboat criminals. Huck needs to notice his self-worth.

Theme: Society’s morals ≠ your morals

• • • • • • • Huck struggle with this concept.

He feels that society would hate him for helping Jim escape, which is why he initially is reluctant to write Ms. Watson a letter.

He feels that helping Jim is amoral.

However, he realizes the close bond he has formed with Jim, and decides to save Jim.

Huck says “’All right then I’ll go to Hell.’” (Twain 191). Huck has decided to stay on Jim’s side instead of doing what society wants him to do.

After this, Huck seems satisfied with himself.

Twain shows that going against civilization is okay and can feel better than having to live up to other people’s morals.

Theme: Lying does not work.

• • • • • • • Throughout the whole chapter, the king and duke pull off their most intricate scheme yet, but get caught up in lies.

Doctor Robinson calls the king out for his shoddy English accent, but the group does not want to believe the doctor. (Twain 152).

Huck digs himself into a hole while talking to the servant and is only saved when Mary Jane bails him out. (Twain 155-157).

Huck for once tells the truth to Mary Jane, ratting out the king and the duke (Twain 168). He feels good about it.

Huck tells Mary Jane that the “Royal Nonesuch” scam could be held against the frauds when they are caught.

Lying eventually backfires on them when the real brothers of Peter show up and the frauds are almost lynched (Twain 174).

Twain shows that lying has dire consequences.

Theme: Do not always put your faith in other people.

• • • • The Wilks orphans are almost cheated out of their entire livelihood by the frauds, who sell off almost all the girls’ possessions.

Jim and Huck are betrayed by the king when he sells Jim for money for alcohol.

The duke lies to Huck about where Jim is.

Twain has shown that one should proceed with caution before taking another’s word as truth.

•

Preguntas para discutir: Discussion Questions

Is it morally justifiable to lie to a person who “does not deserve” the truth? Is truth something that all people naturally deserve, or is it a privilege?

• Should justice be dealt on the same terms as those administering it or the terms of the criminal? If the one administering justice is unjust his/herself, should that be taken into account? (as in, should a pot blame a kettle for being black, even if it is a crime?)

Works Cited

• • • • • Attracting Wealth. N.d. Power of Giving. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .

Beer. N.d. Graphs 16. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .

Coffin. N.d. Official PSD. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .

In Trouble. N.d. Flagler Live. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .

Papa Smurd. N.d. Wikimedia. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .

Chapter 28

 While packing to go to England, Mary Jane is found to be crying over her slaves being separated and sold off.  Huck comforts her by saying that they will see each other in two weeks. Quickly realizing that he should not have told her this information, he finally decides to tell her the truth.  Mary Jane is outraged as she finds out about the imposters.  Huck tells her to stay over at Mr. Lothrop’s house for a few hours and wait till after he’ s escaped to spread the truth.  He gives her a letter that says where the money is hidden.  They depart tearfully and Mary Jane promises to pray for Huck.

 Later on, Huck manages to convince Susan and Hare-lip that Mary Jane’s gone to look after a family friend who has a terrible case of mumps.



Chapter 29

Two men, one elderly and one young, arrive in town and claim to be the real Harvey and William Wilks.  The doctor suspects that the two new men might be lying but is positive that the duke and king are frauds. He asks the king where the money is and he claims that a slave had stolen it.  The crowd calls for an investigation and both the duke and king and the other two men are asked by the lawyer to write a few lines and sign their names.  The lawyer notices that none of the men's writing matched up with the actual letter from Harvey Wilks.  The older man claiming to be Harvey explains that William wrote his letters but since the younger man had broken his arm, they had no way of proving to the people that they were not frauds.



Chapter 29 Continued…

In another attempt to prove themselves, the older man mentions that a blue arrow is tattooed onto their dead brother’s chest. The king claims that the tattoo is actually his initials PB.  Ab Turner denies even seeing a tattoo when he dressed the corpse for the funeral.  The crowd threatens to lynch all four men but the lawyer and doctor decide to dig Peter Wilks out and check for proof. They find the hidden money placed on his chest and since everyone is distracted, Huck uses this time to escape.  Huck reunites with Jim and they start down the river on their raft.  To Huck’s horror, the king and the duke were coming right behind them on a boat.



Chapter 30

The furious king approaches Huck and interrogates him for running away.  Huck lies and tells him that the man who had a hold of him released him and told him to run. He also tells the king how happy he was to see them coming on the boat.  The duke and king have an argument over which one of them hid the money in the coffin and they accuse each other of lying.  Once the disagreement is settled, Huck feels relieved and tells Jim everything that happened earlier that day.



Chapter 31

The duke and king continue to con various villages but are unsuccessful and broke.    Huck and Jim suspect the king and duke are planning a robbery and decide to leave them whenever they get the chance. .

While out in the village, the king and duke get into another argument and Huck manages to run away Huck can’t find Jim and meets a boy who tells him that Jim was captured by Silas Phelps.

 Huck struggles to decide whether or not he should tell Miss Watson about Jim’s location  Feeling ashamed for helping out a black man he wonders if he’ll go to hell for his actions.



Chapter 31 Continued

He attempts to pray but can’t get the right words out. He feels like a hypocrite for telling God that he’ll turn Jim in but he knows that he wouldn’t actually go through with it.  Huck starts writing a letter to Miss Watson about Jim and feels cleansed from sin when he finishes it.  As he reminisces about his journey with Jim and how close they’re friendship was, Huck tears up the letter and says that he’ll go to hell.  While he was on his way to Phelps's place, he meets the duke. Huck tells him that both Jim and the raft is missing . The Duke mistakenly tells him where Jim really is but then covers up his mistake by making up a lie.

 The duke falsely tells Huck that Jim is with a man 40 miles away and orders him to find Jim and leave him and the king alone.  Finally free of the con men, Huck resumes his journey to Phelps's farm to find Jim.