Chapters Boggs’s Shooting Jack Greenway, Eliot Baker, Devin Carranza, Taylor Baldwin, Ryan Frost

Plot and episode summary Chapter 21: This chapter starts off with the King and the duke reenacting a scene from Romeo and Juliet. They stop their raft at a town hosting a shakespearean revival. When walking through the town they witnessed the residents of the town lounging around, and chewing tobacco. Then a man they call Boggs drunkenly rides into town on his horse. He goes into town once a month trying to start fights with people. When he messes with Colonel Sherburn, the Colonel doesn’t mess around and shoots and kills Boggs. Chapter 22: After Boggs’ death, an angry mob formed and went after Colonel Sherburn. When they got to his house, Colonel armed himself with a double-barrel shotgun and lectured them about how the southern way of lynching was more courageous than the northern coward way by means of a mob. After his speech the mob dispersed. Huck, the duke and the king then go to the circus and perform but their show is not liked by the crowd.

Lesson Learned What is the lesson learned? The lesson being learned in chapters is carefully portrayed through Colonel Sherburn’s speech atop his roof in front of an angry crowd. His main point is basically that everyone in the crowd is cowardly because it takes a bigger man to realize the lynching isn’t solving or accomplishing anything. Saying that no one had the decency to step out or crowd and stop what was happening but everyone hides in the crowd so they aren’t looked at as cowards by the people around them. He also brings the “southern gentleman” aspect and talks about how the people in the north cowards and let others walk all over them rather than people in the south who solve things without hiding behind the “mask’ of a mob. Lastly he states that the only “half man” is Buck Harkness because he was the only one to take some sort of charge and yell “lynch him, lynch him!” and everyone followed because nothing would have been achieved without it and a mob without a leader is even more pitiful than a mob with a leader.

Lesson Learned How is the lesson learned? Sherburn, armed with a double-barrel shotgun atop his roof, delivers his speech in a way seen by the townspeople as “slow and scornful”...emphasizing each of his points with well thought-out insults and shocking the entirety of the lynch mob. So thoughtfully and aggressively delivered is Sherburn’s speech that, at his order for them to turn away at the conclusion, they obey- “tearing off every which way”. Huck, however, remains at the scene, but only for a couple moments following the dispersal of the crowd. Interestingly enough, he does indeed learn his lesson, but still ends up retreating with the others despite Sherburn’s discouraging words against doing so. Huck even states that he could have stayed, “If I’d a wanted to, but I didn’t want to.”

Lesson Learned What is the evidence? “You brought part of a man- Buck Harkness, there- and if you hadn’t had him to start you, you’d taken it out in blowing” (Twain ) “But a mob without any man at the head of it, is beneath pitifulness” (Twain 252) “As long as it’s daytime” (Twain 251) (Referring to how Sherburn will face them all directly, in the middle of the day.) “... with a hundred masked cowards at his back, and lynches the rascal.” (Twain 251) “... a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass.” (Twain 252)

Literary Analysis Tone- negative, revengeful, shows the anger of the lynching mob after Sherburn “They swarmed up to Sherburn’s house, a-whooping and raging, like injuns,” (Twain 148). Theme- society and hypocrisy the society of this town is the opposite of what Huck was use to in the Grangerford estate Boggs and drunks in the town remind Huck of his pap, but less threatening Sherburn calls out the lynching mob hypocrisy "Your newspapers call you a brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other people - whereas you're just as brave, and no braver. (Twain 149).

Literary Analysis Simile- “Mud as black as tar” (145). This simile compares mud to black tar. Onomatopoeia- “...and then he fetched his cane down slow to a level, and says ‘Bang!’ staggered backwards, says ‘Bang!’ again…” (149). Bang is the onomatopoeia, said by an old man recalling Boggs’ murder. ●Alliteration- “The same second I see a young girl coming on the run, and two men with her”(340). Same, second, and see all begin with “S” to show the alliteration. Figurative Language

Study Guide Questions 1. Why is the town at the beginning of Ch. 21 described so carefully? a. To give readers a good mental picture, and to show how poor and rundown the town is. 2. How is Colonel Sherburn described? a. He’s described as the best dressed in town, very demanding, and a proud looking man about 55 years of age. 3. How do the townspeople react to the killing? a. They were surprised at first, but then angry and formed a mob to lynch Sherburn 4. Why does Twain call it a “lynching bee”? a. Twain humorously calls the event a “lynching bee” to imply that it was a social gathering of sorts, a lot like a spelling bee, regardless of the dark reason for it. 5. What is Twain’s Purpose in inserting Sherburn’s address? a. Sherburn’s speak addresses key points on human nature, and hypocrisy.

Citation Twain, Mark, and Emory Elliott. "Ch " Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Oxford: Oxford UP, Print. "Ch Summary." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, 13 Mar Web. 11 Dec