How It All Goes Down
Huck Finn introduces himself as the narrator at the outset of the story. He starts off at the Widow’s in Missouri, where he’s "getting’ sivilized" by her and her sister Miss Watson, who try to teach him manners and religion and also send him to school. But Huck spends time with his imaginative friend Tom Sawyer playing pranks on people like Jim, Miss Watson’s slave. Curiously, the boys generally ignore the fact that each of them still has $6,000 that they found in a cave (in Mark Twain’s previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).
When Huck gets a bad feeling (in the superstitious sense), he signs all his money over to Judge Thatcher. Shortly after, his drunk and abusive father shows up back in town. Until now, everyone thought Huck’s dad was dead, but that is sadly not the case. Anyway, he demands money from Huck, who’s all, "Oh, man, too bad you didn’t get here yesterday." Enraged and abusive, Dad threatens Huck for a bit and finally kidnaps him so they can both live in filthy poverty by the river.
When Huck gets a bad feeling (in the superstitious sense), he signs all his money over to Judge Thatcher. Shortly after, his drunk and abusive father shows up back in town. Until now, everyone thought Huck’s dad was dead, but that is sadly not the case. Anyway, he demands money from Huck, who’s all, "Oh, man, too bad you didn’t get here yesterday." Enraged and abusive, Dad threatens Huck for a bit and finally kidnaps him so they can both live in filthy poverty by the river.
Huck shortly gets fed up, fakes his own death, and leaves to go hide out on the nearby Jackson’s Island. There, he runs into Jim, Miss Watson’s slave, who has gone on there to avoid being sold South (and therefore separated from his family). Jim is now a suspect in Huck’s murder, which isn’t so great. They decide to run away together to the mouth of the Ohio river, where Jim can escape to the free states and earn some money with which to come back and buy his family. Before they leave Jackson’s Island, they find a dead man – but Jim won’t let Huck look at the guy’s face on account of it being "too gashly."
Meanwhile, Huck does some reconnaissance work in a nearby town by pretending (poorly) to be a girl. Realizing they will soon be caught, the two take off as quickly as they can, heading south on the river for Cairo, the town where the Mississippi meets the Ohio River. (Visualize it withthis map; the Ohio River is the one that curves up north, and the boys start off in Missouri next to the Mississippi.)
The first real "adventure" occurs when the duo comes across a wrecked steamship in the middle of a thunderstorm. Climbing aboard, Huck finds three robbers, two in the process of killing the third. He wants to send for help, but their raft has broken free and now he and Jim are stuck on a sinking boat with two would-be murderers and a soon-to-die thief. They manage to escape and send for help, but the three thieving men die on the steamship anyway.
Afraid they will miss Cairo (in other words, go too far south on the Mississippi River), Huck decides to go ashore and inquire as to where they are. On the way in, he realizes that by helping Jim to escape, he’s really stealing Miss Watson’s property. He has a lengthy moral crisis as to whether he should follow the rules or help his friend. Ultimately, he can’t bring himself to turn Jim in. When he gets back to the raft, they realize they’ve passed Cairo in the midst of some fog. Then they are nearly run over by a huge steamboat that breaks up their raft. Both are thrown into the water.
Huck makes it to shore and is taken in by the Grangerfords, a wealthy and aristocratic family feuding with another nearby and also aristocratic family, the Shepherdsons. He spends some time with Buck, the conveniently named son of the family, who is around the same age as Huck. To make a long story short, one of the Grangerford daughters runs away with one of the Shepherdsons, adding fuel to an already hot fire and leading to a shoot-out in the woods in which lots of people die, including Buck. Huck watches this go down, laments the ridiculous stupidity of mankind, finds Jim again, and they both leave on the raft.
Since they missed the Ohio River exit, the new plan is to sell the raft for money to take a steamboat up north. Unfortunately, before they can do so, they are joined by two men running away from the law, or possibly just an angry mob, although let’s face it, there’s not much difference in this place. Anyway, Huck has a soft spot for criminals, so he takes the two men onto the raft and helps them escape.
Bad idea. The men turn out to be con artists, who introduce themselves as the duke (the younger and not-so-evil man) and the king (the older and more-evil man). Right away they start plotting their first con together (it turns out that they didn’t know each other before and just happened to be on the lam at the same time). The first thing they do is absolutely butcher some Shakespeare scenes together, the plan being to perform the scenes for cash. Before any performances can go down, they go ashore and the king cons a ton of money (almost ninety bucks) from a bunch of gullible religious folks. This is not a nice man you’ve got here.
Next they stop in a town in Arkansas where we witness an odd scene: a drunk man named Boggs makes drunken threats against a stern and stoic fellow named Sherburn. Sherburn gives him a warning and then kills him for being insolent, annoying, and of course, drunk as a skunk in broad daylight. When a mob tries to lynch Sherburn, he tells them they’re all too cowardly to lynch a real man. Amazingly, the members of the mob all pout and leave without touching a hair on his head.
With that little drama over with, the duke and king are free to perform their Shakespeare. Unfortunately, they’re in a Podunk town in Arkansas, so brilliant 16th century theater sort of goes unappreciated. They decide to do some lowbrow comedy instead, which isn’t so much a real comedy as two seconds of naked prancing about. Somehow, the conmen manage to pull off their scam two more nights before escaping town with all the money from tickets – leaving behind one incredibly angry mob.
Next the two cons pretend to be the brothers of a recently deceased guy to take his inheritance. This involves scamming three lovely nieces, the oldest of which Huck admires. Feeling guilty about his part in the scandal, Huck steals the bag of inheritance cash ($6,000) and hides it…in the coffin. After the burial, he confesses everything to the niece he admires (Mary Jane) and they hatch a plot. Just then, the real brothers show up and everything goes to pot. During a scuffle in the graveyard, Huck escapes the brothers but doesn’t manage to leave behind the duke and king. Soon, all four men are on their way again.
The duke and the king realize they have no more cash (they lost their Shakespearean performance scam money along with the inheritance booty), so while Huck is distracted, the king sells Jim. The king then drinks away all the money he made from the sale in whiskey. Huck ditches the men to go retrieve Jim from a nearby farm owned by a man named Silas Phelps. Silas’s wife Sally mistakes Huck for her nephew who was supposed to be coming for a visit – none other than Tom Sawyer. Huck plays the part and then intercepts the real Tom on his way to the farm. Tom is glad to see that his friend isn’t dead and pretends to be Sid Sawyer, Tom’s younger brother.
The two boys locate Jim, who is being held captive in a nearby hut. They decide to set him free, but Tom, being a young boy, is into his imagination and games and decides to make a lengthy process out of the thing. They construct all sorts of elaborate escape methods, like digging him out instead of using the front door and baking unnecessary ladders into pies and all that junk. To make matters worse, Tom sends anonymous warning letters to the house before the evening of the planned escape. A group of farmers has been rallied to guard the hut on the big night, and Tom ends up getting shot in the calf while the boys try to run away with Jim.
They make it to the raft, but peacing out right then and there isn’t really an option - you know, with the bullet wound and all. Jim hides in the bushes, and Huck goes in the canoe to find a doctor who can help. Because the canoe can only take one person, Huck stays on land while the doctor goes out. He then accidentally falls asleep. Returning to the farm the next day, he’s around long enough for Sally to chew him out for leaving the house during the fray. The next day, Tom comes home laid out on a mattress recovering from his wound, along with the doctor who’s leading Jim in chains.
The men are all ready to execute Jim, but the doctor reveals that the man came out of hiding to save Tom Sawyer’s life when the doctor needed another pair of hands. For this, they decide to simply enslave rather than kill him. Tom wakes up from being shot and tells the whole story about helping Jim escape, much to the adults’ shock and anger. He then reveals that, actually, Miss Watson died two months ago and set Jim free in her will, so the whole thing is a moot and selfish game.
Then Sally’s sister Polly shows up and reveals the boys’ real identity. Jim is set free and tells Huck that, by the way, that dead guy they found about two hundred pages ago was Huck’s Pap, so they don’t have to worry about him coming back anymore. Also, Huck’s $6,000 is still around when he wants it. Huck decides he should set out west, where he can have more adventures.
Meanwhile, Huck does some reconnaissance work in a nearby town by pretending (poorly) to be a girl. Realizing they will soon be caught, the two take off as quickly as they can, heading south on the river for Cairo, the town where the Mississippi meets the Ohio River. (Visualize it withthis map; the Ohio River is the one that curves up north, and the boys start off in Missouri next to the Mississippi.)
The first real "adventure" occurs when the duo comes across a wrecked steamship in the middle of a thunderstorm. Climbing aboard, Huck finds three robbers, two in the process of killing the third. He wants to send for help, but their raft has broken free and now he and Jim are stuck on a sinking boat with two would-be murderers and a soon-to-die thief. They manage to escape and send for help, but the three thieving men die on the steamship anyway.
Afraid they will miss Cairo (in other words, go too far south on the Mississippi River), Huck decides to go ashore and inquire as to where they are. On the way in, he realizes that by helping Jim to escape, he’s really stealing Miss Watson’s property. He has a lengthy moral crisis as to whether he should follow the rules or help his friend. Ultimately, he can’t bring himself to turn Jim in. When he gets back to the raft, they realize they’ve passed Cairo in the midst of some fog. Then they are nearly run over by a huge steamboat that breaks up their raft. Both are thrown into the water.
Huck makes it to shore and is taken in by the Grangerfords, a wealthy and aristocratic family feuding with another nearby and also aristocratic family, the Shepherdsons. He spends some time with Buck, the conveniently named son of the family, who is around the same age as Huck. To make a long story short, one of the Grangerford daughters runs away with one of the Shepherdsons, adding fuel to an already hot fire and leading to a shoot-out in the woods in which lots of people die, including Buck. Huck watches this go down, laments the ridiculous stupidity of mankind, finds Jim again, and they both leave on the raft.
Since they missed the Ohio River exit, the new plan is to sell the raft for money to take a steamboat up north. Unfortunately, before they can do so, they are joined by two men running away from the law, or possibly just an angry mob, although let’s face it, there’s not much difference in this place. Anyway, Huck has a soft spot for criminals, so he takes the two men onto the raft and helps them escape.
Bad idea. The men turn out to be con artists, who introduce themselves as the duke (the younger and not-so-evil man) and the king (the older and more-evil man). Right away they start plotting their first con together (it turns out that they didn’t know each other before and just happened to be on the lam at the same time). The first thing they do is absolutely butcher some Shakespeare scenes together, the plan being to perform the scenes for cash. Before any performances can go down, they go ashore and the king cons a ton of money (almost ninety bucks) from a bunch of gullible religious folks. This is not a nice man you’ve got here.
Next they stop in a town in Arkansas where we witness an odd scene: a drunk man named Boggs makes drunken threats against a stern and stoic fellow named Sherburn. Sherburn gives him a warning and then kills him for being insolent, annoying, and of course, drunk as a skunk in broad daylight. When a mob tries to lynch Sherburn, he tells them they’re all too cowardly to lynch a real man. Amazingly, the members of the mob all pout and leave without touching a hair on his head.
With that little drama over with, the duke and king are free to perform their Shakespeare. Unfortunately, they’re in a Podunk town in Arkansas, so brilliant 16th century theater sort of goes unappreciated. They decide to do some lowbrow comedy instead, which isn’t so much a real comedy as two seconds of naked prancing about. Somehow, the conmen manage to pull off their scam two more nights before escaping town with all the money from tickets – leaving behind one incredibly angry mob.
Next the two cons pretend to be the brothers of a recently deceased guy to take his inheritance. This involves scamming three lovely nieces, the oldest of which Huck admires. Feeling guilty about his part in the scandal, Huck steals the bag of inheritance cash ($6,000) and hides it…in the coffin. After the burial, he confesses everything to the niece he admires (Mary Jane) and they hatch a plot. Just then, the real brothers show up and everything goes to pot. During a scuffle in the graveyard, Huck escapes the brothers but doesn’t manage to leave behind the duke and king. Soon, all four men are on their way again.
The duke and the king realize they have no more cash (they lost their Shakespearean performance scam money along with the inheritance booty), so while Huck is distracted, the king sells Jim. The king then drinks away all the money he made from the sale in whiskey. Huck ditches the men to go retrieve Jim from a nearby farm owned by a man named Silas Phelps. Silas’s wife Sally mistakes Huck for her nephew who was supposed to be coming for a visit – none other than Tom Sawyer. Huck plays the part and then intercepts the real Tom on his way to the farm. Tom is glad to see that his friend isn’t dead and pretends to be Sid Sawyer, Tom’s younger brother.
The two boys locate Jim, who is being held captive in a nearby hut. They decide to set him free, but Tom, being a young boy, is into his imagination and games and decides to make a lengthy process out of the thing. They construct all sorts of elaborate escape methods, like digging him out instead of using the front door and baking unnecessary ladders into pies and all that junk. To make matters worse, Tom sends anonymous warning letters to the house before the evening of the planned escape. A group of farmers has been rallied to guard the hut on the big night, and Tom ends up getting shot in the calf while the boys try to run away with Jim.
They make it to the raft, but peacing out right then and there isn’t really an option - you know, with the bullet wound and all. Jim hides in the bushes, and Huck goes in the canoe to find a doctor who can help. Because the canoe can only take one person, Huck stays on land while the doctor goes out. He then accidentally falls asleep. Returning to the farm the next day, he’s around long enough for Sally to chew him out for leaving the house during the fray. The next day, Tom comes home laid out on a mattress recovering from his wound, along with the doctor who’s leading Jim in chains.
The men are all ready to execute Jim, but the doctor reveals that the man came out of hiding to save Tom Sawyer’s life when the doctor needed another pair of hands. For this, they decide to simply enslave rather than kill him. Tom wakes up from being shot and tells the whole story about helping Jim escape, much to the adults’ shock and anger. He then reveals that, actually, Miss Watson died two months ago and set Jim free in her will, so the whole thing is a moot and selfish game.
Then Sally’s sister Polly shows up and reveals the boys’ real identity. Jim is set free and tells Huck that, by the way, that dead guy they found about two hundred pages ago was Huck’s Pap, so they don’t have to worry about him coming back anymore. Also, Huck’s $6,000 is still around when he wants it. Huck decides he should set out west, where he can have more adventures.
