1. Huckleberry Finn
19-31

2. Chapter 19
Idyllic river scene: Jim & Huck are safe, happy, free, and equal
Jim = father figure
River = freedom
Land = society
Duke & King come and RUIN EVERYTHING
They’re cruel and scummy, like Pap was
They’re frauds—liars and fakes
Motifs:
Fake vs. Real
Thank God America doesn’t have Royalty/Nobility
Ironic? Suggests we’re all equal, yet we have slavery…

3. Chapter 20
Religious people are too nice; they’re very gullible and naiieve 
Recall: Pap tricked the kind, religious judge & his wife
Now the “King” tricks the nice, religious people at their camp meeting
King & Duke don’t respect Jim as a person
They tie him up all day and leave him on the raft
The runaway slave poster they make puts Jim in a worse position than he was
Ultimately, they’re playing with his life and freedom
Motifs
Gullibility
Lies
Cruelty

4. Chapter 21 Twain’s satire often focuses on Southerners
Criticizes these poor Southerners as lazy, stupid, uneducated, and violent
Criticizes Southerners for being too prideful; shouldn’t protect their “honor” so rabidly
Remember the Grangerford/Sheperdson feud from before??
Now, Sherburn shows the same bad trait: going overboard in defending his “honor”
Boggs (drunk, lower-class man; insults Sherburn) vs. Sherburn (wealthy, well-respected man;shoots and kills Boggs)
Boggs makes empty threats, but Sherburn takes action when he says he is going to
Was Sherburn right to kill Boggs? What’s Twain saying?
Motifs
Fake vs. Real
Alcoholism
Violence

5. Chapter 22 Lynch mobs are cowardly and pitiful Circus Motifs:
Through Sherburn, Twain DESTROYS the idea of a lynch mob
Mob violence and lynch mobs can be compared to “jumping” someone or “sucker punching” someone today. It might make one feel brave or powerful, but it’s actually cowardly and pathetic
Twain is taking a clearly anti-racist stance (most lynching affected black men)
Circus
Huck believes fully in the magic of the show, like a child; shows innocence
Huck, unlike the crowd, worries about the “drunk” man; shows he’s good at heart, unlike most humans (everyone else just laughs at the poor man)
Motifs:
Violence
Fake vs. Real

6. Chapter 23
“Duke” & “King” scam everyone out of $465 because, due to their pride, the Southern men would rather let everyone get scammed than warn others and look foolish themselves
Again, Huck asserts all Kings/Nobles are rapscallions and cheats
Jim probably knows the con artists aren’t really nobility, but like Huck, knows it’s best to just go along with whatever they want because he’s not in a position to talk back or try to escape them 
Huck realizes Jim loves his family very much, which helps humanize Jim even more for readers and for Huck; Jim’s character is getting fleshed out
Jim often takes Huck’s watch (fatherly)

7. Chapter 24
The “Sick Arab” blue paint is clearly alluding to blackface and minstrel shows, but ironically, it is Jim, a black man, who is being painted like another race. This scene underlines the racism of the Duke and King; ironically, it also affords Jim more freedom, because he can now walk about freely on the raft
More deception, likes, and fakery – the King & Duke plan to trick the Wilks family; Huck says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race” (159). Obviously, Twain’s emphasizing how cruel and low-down man can be to one another

8. Chapter 25 Gullibility Lying Greed/Money
Again, these religious people are way too nice, sentimental, and gullible
The Doctor sees through the frauds, but no one will listen to him
People would rather believe a pretty lie than an ugly truth
Lying
Their lying and over-the-top acting is sickening/disgusting to Huck
There’s a difference between a lie that hurts others and a lie that helps
Greed/Money
The con men do everything because they are greedy
Jim is in this mess because of Miss Watson’s greed—she wanted the $800
Greed is the reason people have slaves, too

9. Chapter 26 Gullibility & Lies Conscience & Ambiguity
Like Mrs. Judith Loftus from before, Joanna catches Huck in his lies pretty easily, but then Joanna’s sisters make her apologize. They’re too nice; it’s too easy to pull one over on them.
“‘Hain’t we got all the fools on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?’” (172).
Conscience & Ambiguity
Huck starts feeling bad such nice people are getting scammed, so he decides to steal their gold back for them (stealing, like lying, can be good sometimes!)
Ties in to the idea of stealing Jim, too! In this case, “stealing” is good…

10. Chapter 27
Huck shows his good character, again, by stealing the gold back for the girls, even though it’s dangerous for him to help them like this (much as it is dangerous for him to be helping Jim & stealing Jim out of slavery)
“King” sells the slave family apart from one another, upsetting everyone very much (echoes the earlier part about Jim missing his family and his deep love for his family)
Why does Huck blame the slaves for the missing gold?
He doesn’t feel it’s safe for him to openly defy the con men
He knows their prejudices will make the lie believable
He knows it can’t harm the slaves because they’re long gone

11. Chapter 28 Truth vs. Lies Huck’s character
Huck realizes sometimes the truth is actually safer and better than a lie, so he tells Mary Jane what’s going on.
If Huck tells on the con men, Jim will be in danger, so he has to make up an elaborate plan to both get away and ensure everything is put right again for the girls.
This chapter is FULL of lies and deception, but it’s all done for good instead of bad; this compares directly to all the lies and deception the con men have been pulling, but theirs were all cruel and wrong.
Huck’s character
Huck shows great empathy and great cleverness in this chapter.
Huck reads others very well; he’s used to deadbeats like this because of his experiences growing up under Pap’s control. He has had to be good at reading people to survive.

12. Chapter 29
Some critics don’t like the extreme reliance on coincidence in this chapter (for example, the real brothers challenge the fakes by asking what Peter Wilks had tattooed on his chest, coincidentally leading the crowd to the coffin, where the gold happens to be hidden).
The crowd wants blood! The storm reflects this grave danger.
At the end of the chapter, Jim & Huck are so happy they are reunited and free again, and so are the readers! But then, here come the “King” and “Duke” again in a little skiff, ruining everything all over again.

13. Chapter 30
Lying
The “Duke” makes the “King” admit he hid the gold to take it all for himself at a later time; again, Twain shows it’s easier to let scummy people have their own way 
Interestingly, the con men got what was coming to them! They have now lost all their own money along with all the Wilkes’ money!

14. Chapter 31
Just as Huck thinks he and Jim are going to get away, the King goes and sells Jim; this shows the depths of the King’s nastiness.
The Duke’s true nastiness shows, too, when he intimidates and lies to Huck, but Huck reads his intentions easily & avoids trouble by pretending to do as the Duke says & then doubling back to go get Jim (Huck is a clever trickster).
Huck is disgusted the King could “serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars” (203).
However, Huck then starts feeling ashamed for helping Jim; his conscience has been poisoned by the racism he’s been taught. Fortunately, his heart won’t let him sell Jim out because he remembers how good Jim’s been to Huck.
Huck chooses hell over betraying Jim (205)! That takes real courage, to follow his heart over society!