Реферат: American Literature books summary

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Short Summariesof the Books

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the English Literature by Stulov

Thursday, April 3 2002

Contents

1.

TOC o «1-1» AN OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE 17TH TOTHE 20TH CENTURIES… PAGEREF _Toc4653183 h 2

2.

Adventuresof Huckleberry Finn… PAGEREF _Toc4653184 h 5

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ALLTHE KING’S MEN… PAGEREF _Toc4653185 h 13

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CATCH-22… PAGEREF _Toc4653186 h 22

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Catcherin the Rye… PAGEREF _Toc4653187 h 31

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FAREWELLTO ARMS… PAGEREF _Toc4653188 h 35

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Grapesof Wrath… PAGEREF _Toc4653189 h 41

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GreatGatsby… PAGEREF _Toc4653190 h 46

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LongDay's Journey Into the Night… PAGEREF _Toc4653191 h 49

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Moby Dick… PAGEREF _Toc4653192 h 53

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Scarlet Letter… PAGEREF _Toc4653193 h 63

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Slaughterhouse Five… PAGEREF _Toc4653194 h 67

13.

Sound and the Fury… PAGEREF _Toc4653195 h 73

14.

Streetcar Named ”Desire”… PAGEREF _Toc4653196 h 87

AN OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE 17TH TO THE 20THCENTURIES

Like other national literatures, American literature was shaped by thehistory of the country that produced it. For almost a century and a half,America was merely a group of colonies scattered along the eastern seaboard ofthe North American continent--colonies from which a few hardy souls tentativelyventured westward. After a successful rebellion against the motherland, Americabecame the United States, a nation. By the end of the 19th century this nationextended southward to the Gulf of Mexico, northward to the 49th parallel, andwestward to the Pacific. By the end of the 19th century, too, it had taken itsplace among the powers of the world--its fortunes so interrelated with those ofother nations that inevitably it became involved in two world wars and,following these conflicts, with the problems of Europe and East Asia.Meanwhile, the rise of science and industry, as well as changes in ways of thinkingand feeling, wrought many modifications in people's lives. All these factors inthe development of the United States molded the literature of the country.

The 17th century

American literature at first was naturally a colonial literature, byauthors who were Englishmen and who thought and wrote as such. John Smith, asoldier of fortune, is credited with initiating American literature. His chiefbooks included A True Relation of... Virginia... (1608) and The generallHistorie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624). Although thesevolumes often glorified their author, they were avowedly written to explain colonizingopportunities to Englishmen. In time, each colony was similarly described:Daniel Denton's Brief Description of New York (1670), William Penn's Brief Accountof the Province of Pennsylvania (1682), and Thomas Ashe's Carolina (1682) wereonly a few of many works praising America as a land of economic promise.Suchwriters acknowledged British allegiance, but others stressed the differences ofopinion that spurred the colonists to leave their homeland. More important,they argued questions of government involving the relationship between churchand state. The attitude that most authors attacked was jauntily set forth byNathaniel Ward of Massachusetts Bay in The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America(1647). Ward amusingly defended the status quo and railed at colonists whosponsored newfangled notions. A variety of counterarguments to such a conservativeview were published. John Winthrop's Journal (written 1630-49) toldsympathetically of the attempt of Massachusetts Bay Colony to form atheocracy--a state with God at its head and with its laws based upon the Bible.Later defenders of the theocratic ideal were Increase Mather and his sonCotton. William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation (through 1646) showedhow his pilgrim Separatists broke completely with Anglicanism. Even moreradical than Bradford was Roger Williams, who, in a series of controversialpamphlets, advocated not only the separation of church and state but also thevesting of power in the people and the tolerance of different religiousbeliefs.The utilitarian writings of the 17th century included biographies,treatises, accounts of voyages, and sermons. There were few achievements indrama or fiction, since there was a widespread prejudice against these forms.Bad but popular poetry appeared in the Bay Psalm Book of 1640 and in MichaelWigglesworth's summary in doggerel verse of Calvinistic belief, The Day of Doom(1662). There was some poetry, at least, of a higher order. Anne Bradstreet ofMassachusetts wrote some lyrics published in The Tenth Muse (1650), which movinglyconveyed her feelings concerning religion and her family. Ranked still higherby modern critics is a poet whose works were not discovered and published until1939: Edward Taylor, an English-born minister and physician who lived in Bostonand Westfield, Massachusetts. Less touched by gloom than the typical Puritan,Taylor wrote lyrics that showed his delight in Christian belief andexperience.All 17th-century American writings were in the manner of Britishwritings of the same period. John Smith wrote in the tradition of geographicliterature, Bradford echoed the cadences of the King James Bible, while theMathers and Roger Williams wrote bejeweled prose typical of the day. AnneBradstreet's poetic style derived from a long line of British poets, includingSpenser and Sidney, while Taylor was in the tradition of such Metaphysicalpoets as George Herbert and John Donne. Both the content and form of theliterature of this first century in America were thus markedly English.

The 18th century

In America in the early years of the 18th century, some writers, such asCotton Mather, carried on the older traditions. His huge history and biographyof Puritan New England, Magnalia Christi Americana, in 1702, and his vigorousManuductio ad Ministerium, or introduction to the ministry, in 1726, weredefenses of ancient Puritan convictions. Jonathan Edwards, initiator of theGreat Awakening, a religious revival that stirred the eastern seacoast for manyyears, eloquently defended his burning belief in Calvinistic doctrine--of theconcept that man, born totally depraved, could attain virtue and salvation onlythrough God's grace--in his powerful sermons and most notably in thephilosophical treatise Freedom of Will (1754). He supported his claims byrelating them to a complex metaphysical system and by reasoning brilliantly inclear and often beautiful prose.But Mather and Edwards were defending a doomedcause. Liberal New England ministers such as John Wise and Jonathan Mayhewmoved toward a less rigid religion. Samuel Sewall heralded other changes in hisamusing Diary, covering the years 1673-1729. Though sincerely religious, heshowed in daily records how commercial life in New England replaced rigidPuritanism with more worldly attitudes. The Journal of Mme Sara Knightcomically detailed a journey that lady took to New York in 1704. She wrotevividly of what she saw and commented upon it from the standpoint of anorthodox believer, but a quality of levity in her witty writings showed thatshe was much less fervent than the Pilgrim founders had been. In the South,William Byrd of Virginia, an aristocratic plantation owner, contrasted sharplywith gloomier predecessors. His record of a surveying trip in 1728, The Historyof the Dividing Line, and his account of a visit to his frontier properties in1733, A Journey to the Land of Eden, were his chief works. Years in England, onthe Continent, and among the gentry of the South had created gaiety and graceof expression, and, although a devout Anglican, Byrd was as playful as theRestoration wits whose works he clearly admired.The wrench of the AmericanRevolution emphasized differences that had been growing between American andBritish political concepts. As the colonists moved to the belief that rebellionwas inevitable, fought the bitter war, and worked to found the new nation'sgovernment, they were influenced by a number of very effective political writers,such as Samuel Adams and John Dickinson, both of whom favoured the colonists,and Loyalist Joseph Galloway. But two figures loomed above these--BenjaminFranklin and Thomas Paine.Franklin, born in 1706, had started to publish hiswritings in his brother's newspaper, the New England Courant, as early as 1722.This newspaper championed the cause of the «Leather Apron» man andthe farmer and appealed by using easily understood language and practicalarguments. The idea that common sense was a good guide was clear in both thepopular Poor Richard's almanac, which Franklin edited between 1732 and 1757 andfilled with prudent and witty aphorisms purportedly written by uneducated butexperienced Richard Saunders, and in the author's Autobiography, writtenbetween 1771 and 1788, a record of his rise from humble circumstances thatoffered worldly wise suggestions for future success.Franklin's self-attainedculture, deep and wide, gave substance and skill to varied articles, pamphlets,and reports that he wrote concerning the dispute with Great Britain, many ofthem extremely effective in stating and shaping the colonists' cause.ThomasPaine went from his native England to Philadelphia and became a magazine editorand then, about 14 months later, the most effective propagandist for thecolonial cause. His pamphlet «Common Sense» (January 1776) did muchto influence the colonists to declare their independence. «The AmericanCrisis» papers (December 1776-December 1783) spurred Americans to fight onthrough the blackest years of the war. Based upon Paine's simple deisticbeliefs, they showed the conflict as a stirring melodrama with the angeliccolonists against the forces of evil. Such white and black picturings werehighly effective propaganda. Another reason for Paine's success was his poeticfervour, which found expression in impassioned words and phrases long to beremembered and quoted.

The 19th century

Early 19th-century literature

After the American Revolution, and increasingly after the War of 1812,American writers were exhorted to produce a literature that was truly native.As if in response, four authors of very respectable stature appeared. WilliamCullen Bryant, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poeinitiated a great half century of literary development.Bryant, a New Englanderby birth, attracted attention in his 23rd year when the first version of hispoem «Thanatopsis» (1817) appeared. This, as well as some laterpoems, was written under the influence of English 18th-century poets. Stilllater, however, under the influence of Wordsworth and other Romantics, he wrotenature lyrics that vividly represented the New England scene. Turning tojournalism, he had a long career as a fighting liberal editor of The EveningPost. He himself was overshadowed, in renown at least, by a native-born NewYorker, Washington Irving.Irving, youngest member of a prosperous merchantfamily, joined with ebullient young men of the town in producing the Salmagundipapers (1807-08), which took off the foibles of Manhattan's citizenry. This wasfollowed by A History of New York (1809), by «Diedrich Knickerbocker,»a burlesque history that mocked pedantic scholarship and sniped at the oldDutch families. Irving's models in these works were obviously NeoclassicalEnglish satirists, from whom he had learned to write in a polished, brightstyle. Later, having met Sir Walter Scott and having become acquainted withimaginative German literature, he introduced a new Romantic note in The SketchBook (1819-20), Bracebridge Hall (1822), and other works. He was the firstAmerican writer to win the ungrudging (if somewhat surprised) respect ofBritish critics.James Fenimore Cooper won even wider fame. Following thepattern of Sir Walter Scott's «Waverley» novels, he did his best workin the «Leatherstocking» tales (1823-41), a five-volume seriescelebrating the career of a great frontiersman named Natty Bumppo. His skill inweaving history into inventive plots and in characterizing his compatriotsbrought him acclaim not only in America and England but on the continent ofEurope as well.Edgar Allan Poe, reared in the South, lived and worked as anauthor and editor in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and New York City. Hiswork was shaped largely by analytical skill that showed clearly in his role asan editor: time after time he gauged the taste of readers so accurately thatcirculation figures of magazines under his direction soared impressively. Itshowed itself in his critical essays, wherein he lucidly explained andlogically applied his criteria. His gothic tales of terror were written inaccordance with his findings when he studied the most popular magazines of theday. His masterpieces of terror--«The Fall of the House of Usher»(1839), «The Masque of the Red Death» (1842), «The Cask ofAmontillado» (1846), and others--were written according to a carefully workedout psychological method. So were his detective stories, such as «TheMurders in the Rue Morgue» (1841), which historians credited as the firstof the genre. As a poet, he achieved fame with «The Raven» (1845).His work, especially his critical writings and carefully crafted poems, hadperhaps a greater influence in France, where they were translated by CharlesBaudelaire, than in his own country.Two Southern novelists were alsooutstanding in the earlier part of the century: John Pendleton Kennedy andWilliam Gilmore Simms. In Swallow Barn (1832), Kennedy wrote delightfully oflife on the plantations. Simms's forte was the writing of historical novelslike those of Scott and Cooper, which treated the history of the frontier andhis native South Carolina. The Yemassee (1835) and Revolutionary romances showhim at his best.

The 20th century

Writing from 1914 to 1945

Important movements in drama, poetry, fiction, and criticism took form inthe years before, during, and after World War I. The eventful period thatfollowed the war left its imprint upon books of all kinds. Literary forms ofthe period were extraordinarily varied, and in drama, poetry, and fictionleading authors tended toward radical technical experiments.Experiments indramaAlthough drama had not been a major art form in the 19th century, no typeof writing was more experimental than a new drama that arose in rebellionagainst the glib commercial stage. In the early years of the 20th century,Americans traveling in Europe encountered a vital, flourishing theatre;returning home, some of them became active in founding the Little Theatremovement throughout the country. Freed from commercial limitations, playwrightsexperimented with dramatic forms and methods of production, and in timeproducers, actors, and dramatists appeared who had been trained in collegeclassrooms and community playhouses. Some Little Theatre groups becamecommercial producers--for example, the Washington Square Players, founded in1915, which became the Theatre Guild (first production in 1919). The resultingdrama was marked by a spirit of innovation and by a new seriousness andmaturity.Eugene O'Neill, the most admired dramatist of the period, was aproduct of this movement. He worked with the Provincetown Players before hisplays were commercially produced. His dramas were remarkable for their range.Beyond the Horizon (first performed 1920), Anna Christie (1921), Desire Underthe Elms (1924), and The Iceman Cometh (1946) were naturalistic works, whileThe Emperor Jones (1920) and The Hairy Ape (1922) made use of theExpressionistic techniques developed in German drama in the period 1914-24. Healso employed a stream-of-consciousness form in Strange Interlude (1928) andproduced a work that combined myth, family drama, and psychological analysis inMourning Becomes Electra (1931).No other dramatist was as generally praised asO'Neill, but many others wrote plays that reflected the growth of a serious andvaried drama, including Maxwell Anderson, whose verse dramas have dated badly,and Robert E. Sherwood, a Broadway professional who wrote both comedy (Reunionin Vienna [1931]) and tragedy (There Shall Be No Night [1940]). Marc Connellywrote touching fantasy in a Negro folk biblical play, The Green Pastures(1930). Like O'Neill, Elmer Rice made use of both Expressionistic techniques(The Adding Machine [1923]) and naturalism (Street Scene [1929]). LillianHellman wrote powerful, well-crafted melodramas in The Children's Hour (1934)and The Little Foxes (1939). Radical theatre experiments included MarcBlitzstein's savagely satiric musical The Cradle Will Rock (1937) and the workof Orson Welles and John Houseman for the government-sponsored Works ProgressAdministration (WPA) Federal Theatre Project. The premier radical theatre ofthe decade was the Group Theatre (1931-41) under Harold Clurman and LeeStrasberg, which became best known for presenting the work of Clifford Odets.In Waiting for Lefty (1935), a stirring plea for labour unionism, Odets rousedthe audience to an intense pitch of fervour, and in Awake and Sing (1935),perhaps the best play of the decade, he created a lyrical work of familyconflict and youthful yearning. Other important plays by Odets for the GroupTheatre were Paradise Lost (1935), Golden Boy (1937), and Rocket to the Moon(1938). Thornton Wilder used stylized settings and poetic dialogue in Our Town(1938) and turned to fantasy in The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). William Saroyanshifted his lighthearted, anarchic vision from fiction to drama with My Heart'sin the Highlands and The Time of Your Life (both 1939).

The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn

Context

Samuel Clemens was born in Missouri in 1835. He grew up in the town ofHannibal, Missouri, which would become the model for St. Petersburg, thefictional town where Huckleberry Finn begins. Missouri was a «slavestate» during this period, and Clemens' family owned a few slaves. InMissouri, most slaves worked as domestic servants, rather than on the largeagricultural plantations that most slaves elsewhere in the United States experienced.This domestic slavery is what Twain generally describes in Huckleberry Finn,even when the action occurs in the deep South. The institution of slaveryfigures prominently in the novel and is important in developing both the themeand the two most important characters, Huck and Jim.

Twain received a brief formal education, before going to work as anapprentice in a print shop. He would later find work on a steamboat on theMississippi River. Twain developed a lasting afiection for the Mississippi andlife on a steamboat, and would immortalize both in Life on the Mississippi(1883), and in certain scenes of Tom Sawyer (1876), and Huckleberry Finn(1885). He took his pseudonym, «Mark Twain,» from the call a steamboatworker would make when the ship reached a (safe) depth of two fathoms. Twainwould go on to work as a journalist in San Francisco and Nevada in the 1860s.He soon discovered his talent as a humorist, and by 1865 his humorous storieswere attracting national attention.

In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon of New York State. The familymoved to Hartford, Connecticut, to a large, ornate house paid for with theroyalties from Twain's successful literary adventures. At Hartford and duringstays with Olivia's family in New York State, Twain wrote The Gilded Age,co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner in 1873 and The Prince and the Pauper(1882), as well as the two books already mentioned. Adventures of HuckleberryFinn was finally published in 1885. Twain had begun the book years earlier, butthe writing was done in spurts of inspiration interrupted by long periodsduring which the manuscript sat in the author's desk. Despite the economiccrisis that plagued the United States then, the book became a huge popular andfinancial success. It would become a classic of American literature and receiveacclaim around the world{today it has been published in at least twenty-sevenlanguages.

Still, at the time of publication, the author was bothered by the manybad reviews it received in the national press. The book was principallyattacked for its alleged indecency. After the 1950s, the chief attacks on thebook would be against its alleged racism or racial bigotry. For variousreasons, the book frequently has been banned from US schools and children'slibraries, though it was never really intended as a children's book.Nonetheless, the book has been widely read ever since its first publicationwell over a century ago, an exception to Twain's definition of a classic as«a book which people praise and don't read.»

Characters

Huckleberry Finn

{ The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck isthe thirteen or fourteen year-old son of the local drunk in the town of St.Petersburg, Missouri, at the start of the novel. He is kidnapped by his father,Pap, from the «sivilizing» in uence of the Widow Douglas and MissWatson, and then fakes his own death to escape. He meets Jim on Jackson'sIsland. The rest of the novel is largely motivated by two conflicts: theexternal con ict to achieve Jim's freedom, and the internal con ict within Huckbetween his own sense of right and wrong and society's. Huck has a series of«adventures,» making many observations on human nature and the Southas he does. He progressively rejects the values of the dominant society andmatures morally as he does. Jim { A slave who escaped from Miss Watson aftershe considered selling him down river. He encounters Huck on Jackson's Island,and the two become friends and spend most of the rest of the novel together.Jim deeply grieves his separation from his wife and two children and dreams ofgetting them back. He is an intensely human character, perhaps the novel's mostcomplex. Through his example, Huck learns to appreciate the humanity of blackpeople, overcoming his society's bigotry and making a break with its moralcode. Twain also uses him to demonstrate racial equality. But Jim himselfremains somewhat enigmatic; he seems both comrade and father figure to Huck,though Huck, the youthful narrator, may not be able to thoroughly evaluate hisfriend, and so the reader has to suppose some of his qualities.

The Duke and Dauphin

{ These two criminals appear for much of the novel.Their real names are never given, but the younger man, about thirty years old,claims to be the Duke of Bridgewater, and is called both «the Duke»and «Bridgewater» in the novel, though for the sake of clarity, he isonly called «the Duke» here. The much older man claims to be the sonof Louis XVI, the executed French king. «Dauphin» was the title givento heirs to the French throne. He is mostly called «the king» in thenovel (since his father is dead, he would be the rightful king), though he iscalled «the Dauphin» in this study guide since the name is moredistinctive. The two show themselves to be truly bad when they separate a slavefamily at the Wilks household, and later sell Jim.

Tom Sawyer

{ Huck's friend, and the protagonist of Tom Sawyer,the novel for which Huckleberry Finn is ostensibly the sequel. He is in manyways Huck's foil, given to exotic plans and romantic adventure literature,while Huck is more down-to-earth. He also turns out to be profoundly selfish.

On the whole, Tom is identified with the «civilzation» fromwhich Huck is alienated. Other characters, in order of appearance Widow Douglasand Miss Watson { Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St.Petersburg. Miss Watson is the older sister, gaunt and severe-looking. She alsoadheres the strongest to the hypocritical religious and ethical values of thedominant society. Widow Douglas, meanwhile, is somewhat gentler in her beliefsand has more patience with the mischievous Huckleberry. She adopted Huck at theend of the last novel, Tom Sawyer, and he is in her care at the start ofHuckleberry Finn. When Miss Watson considers selling Jim down to New Orleans,away from his wife and children and deep into the plantation system, Jimescapes. She eventually repents, making provision in her will for Jim to befreed, and dies two months before the novel ends.

Pap

{ Huckleberry's father and the town drunk and ne'er-do-well. When he appears at the beginning of the novel, he is a human wreck,his skin a disgusting ghost-like white, and his clothes hopelessly tattered.Like Huck, he is a member of the least privileged class of whites, and isilliterate. He is angry that his son is getting an education. He wants to gethold of Huck's money, presumably to spend it on alcohol. He kidnaps Huck andholds him deep in the woods. When Huck fakes his own murder, Pap is nearlylynched when suspicions turn his way. But he escapes, and Jim eventually findshis dead body on an abandoned houseboat.

Judge Thatcher

{ Judge Thatcher is in charge of safeguarding themoney Huck and Tom won at the end of Tom Sawyer. When Huck discovers his fatherhas come to town, he wisely signs his fortune over to the Judge. Judge Thatcherhas a daughter, Becky, whom Huck calls «Bessie.»

Aunt Polly

{ Tom Sawyer's aunt and guardian. She appears at theend of Huckleberry Finn and properly identifies Huck, who has pretended to beTom; and Tom, who has pretended to be his brother, Sid (who never appears inthis novel).

The Grangerfords

{ The master of the Grangerford clan is«Colonel»Grangerford, who has a wife. The children are Bob, theoldest, then Tom, then Charlotte, aged twenty- five, Sophia, twenty, and Buck,the youngest, about thirteen or fourteen. They also had a deceased daughter,Emme- line, who made unintentionally humorous, maudlin pictures and poems forthe dead. Huckleberry thinks the Grangerfords are all physically beautiful.They live on a large estate worked by many slaves. Their house is decked out inhumorously tacky finery that Huckleberry innocently admires. The Grangerfordsare in a feud with the Shepardsons, though no one can remember the cause of thefeud or see any real reason to continue it. When Sophia runs off with aShepardson, the feud reignites, and Buck and another boy are shot. With theGrangerfords and the Shepardsons, Twain illustrates the bouts of irrationalbrutality to which the South was prone.

The Wilks Family

{ The deceased Peter Wilks has three daughters, MaryJane, Susan, and Joanne (whom Huck calls «the Harelip»). Mary Jane,the oldest, takes charge of the sisters' afiairs. She is beautiful and kind-hearted, but easily swindled by the Duke and Dauphin. Susan is the nextyoungest. Joanna possess a cleft palate (a birth defect) and so Huck somewhattastelessly refers to her as «the Hare Lip» (another name for cleftpalate). She initially suspects Huck and the Duke and Dauphin, but eventuallyfalls for the scheme like the others.

The Phelps family

{ The Phelps family includes Aunt Sally, Uncle Silasand their children. They also own several slaves. Sally and Silas are generallykind-hearted, and Silas in particular is a complete innocent. Tom and Huck areable to continue playing pranks on them for quite some time before they suspectanything is wrong. Sally, however, displays a chilling level of bigotry towardblacks, which many of her fellow Southerners likely share. The town

in which they live also cruelly kills the Duke and Dauphin. With thePhelps, Twain contrasts the good side of Southern civilization with its badside.

Summary

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was finally published in 1885. Twain hadbegun the book years earlier, but the writing was done in spurts of inspirationinterrupted by long periods during which the manuscript sat in the author'sdesk. Despite the economic crisis that plagued the United States then, the bookbecame a huge popular and financial success. It would become a classic ofAmerican literature and receive acclaim around the world{today it has beenpublished in at least twenty-seven languages.

Still, at the time of publication, theauthor was bothered by the many bad reviews it received in the national press.The book was principally attacked for its alleged indecency. After the 1950s,the chief attacks on the book would be against its alleged racism or racialbigotry. For various reasons, the book frequently has been banned from USschools and children's libraries, though it was never really intended as achildren's book. Nonetheless, the book has been widely read ever since itsfirst publication well over a century ago, an exception to Twain's definitionof a classic as «a book which people praise and don't read.»

Chapter 1 Summary

The narrator (later identified as Huckleberry Finn) begins Chapter Oneby stating that the reader may know of him from another book, The Adventures ofTom Sawyer by «Mr. Mark Twain,» but it «ain't t no matter»if you have not. According to Huck, Twain mostly told the truth, with some«stretchers» thrown in, though everyone{except Tom's Aunt Polly, thewidow, and maybe Mary{lies once in a while. The other book ended with Tom andHuckleberry finding the gold some robbers had hidden in a cave. They got sixthousand dollars apiece, which Judge Thatcher put in trust, so that they eachgot a dollar a day from interest. The Widow Douglas adopted and tried to«civilise» Huck. But Huck couldn't stand it so he threw on his oldrags and ran away. But he went back when Tom Sawyer told him he could join hisnew band of robbers if he would return to the Widow «and berespectable.»

The Widow lamented over her failure with Huck, tried to stufi him intocramped clothing, and before every meal had to «grumble» over thefood before they could eat it. She tried to teach him about Moses, until Huckfound out he was dead and lost interest. Meanwhile, she would not let himsmoke; typically, she disapproved of it because she had never tried it, butapproved of snufi since she used it herself. Her slim sister who wears glasses,Miss Watson, tried to give him spelling lessons.

Meanwhile, Huck was going stir-crazy, made especially restless by thesisters' constant reminders to improve his behavior. When Miss Watson told himabout the «bad place,» Hell, he burst out that he would like to gothere, as a change of scenery. Secretly, Huck really does not see the point ingoing to «the good place» and resolved then not to bother trying toget there.

When Huck asked, Miss Watson told himthere was no chance Tom Sawyer would end up in Heaven. Huck was glad«because I wanted him and me to be together.» One night, after MissWatson's prayer session with him and the slaves, Huck goes to bed feeling«so lonesome I wished I was dead.» He gets shivers hearing the soundsof nature through his window. Huck accidentally icks a spider into a candle,and is frightened by the bad omen. Just after midnight, Huck hears movementbelow the window, and a «me-yow» sound, that he responds to withanother «me-yow.» Climbing out the window onto the shed, Huck findsTom Sawyer waiting for him.

Chapters 2-3 Summary

Huck and Tom tiptoe through the garden. Huck trips on a root as hepasses the kitchen. Jim, a «big» slave, hears him from inside. Tomand Huck crouch down, trying to stay still. But Huck is struck by anuncontrollable itch, as always happens when he is in a situation, like whenhe's «with the quality,» where it is bad to scratch. Jim says aloudthat he will stay put until he discovers the source of the sound, but afterseveral minutes falls asleep. Tom plays a trick on Jim{putting his hat on atree branch over his head{and takes candles from the kitchen, over Huck'sobjections that they will risk getting caught. Later, Jim will say that somewitches ew him around the state and put the hat above his head as a callingcard. He expands the tale further, becoming a local celebrity among the slaves,who enjoy witch stories. He wears around his neck the five-cent piece Tom left forthe candles, calling it a charm from the devil with the power to cure sickness.Jim nearly becomes so stuck-up from his newfound celebrity that he is unfit tobe a servant.

Meanwhile, Tom and Huck meet up with a few other boys, and take a boatto a large cave. There, Tom declares his new band of robbers, «TomSawyer's Gang.» All must sign in blood an oath vowing, among other things,to kill the family of any member who reveals the gang's secrets. The boys thinkit «a real beautiful oath.» Tom admits he got part of it from books.The boys nearly disqualify Huck, who has no family but a drunken father who cannever be found, until Huck offers Miss Watson. Tom says the gang must captureand ransom people, though nobody knows what «ransom» means.

Tom assumes it means to kill them. But anyway, it must be done since allthe books say so. When one boy cries to go home and threatens to tell thegroup's secrets, Tom bribes him with five cents. They agree to meet againsomeday, just not Sunday, which would be blasphemous. Huckleberry makes it backinto bed just before dawn.

Miss Watson tries to explain prayer to Huckleberry in Chapter Three.Huckleberry gives up on it after not getting what he prays for. Miss Watsoncalls him a fool, and explains prayer bestows spiritual gifts like sel essnessto help others. Huck cannot see any advantage in this, except for the othersone helps. So he resolves to forget it. Widow Douglas describes a wonderfulGod, while Miss Watson's is terrible. Huck concludes there are two Gods. Hewould like to belong to Widow Douglas's, if He would take him – unlikelybecause of Huck's bad qualities.

Meanwhile, a rumor circulates that Huck's Pap, who has not been seen ina year, is dead. A corpse was found in the river, thought to be Pap because ofits «ragged» appearance, though the face is unrecognizable. At firstHuck is relieved. His father had been a drunk who beat him when he was sober,though Huck stayed hidden from him most of the time. Soon, however, Huck doubtshis father's death, and expects to see him again.

After a month in Tom's gang, Huck quitalong with the rest of the boys. There was no point to it, without any robberyor killing, their activities being all pretend. Once, Tom pretended a caravanof Arabs and Spaniards were going to encamp nearby with hundreds of camels andelephants. It turned out to be a Sunday school picnic. Tom explained it reallywas a caravan of Arabs and Spaniards — only they were enchanted, like in DonQuixote. Huckleberry judged Tom's stories of genies to be lies, after rubbingold lamps and rings with no result.

Chapters 4-6 Summary

In Chapter Four, Huckleberry is gradually adjusting to his new life, andeven making small progress in school. One winter morning, Huck notices boottracks in the snow near the house. Within one heel print is the shape of twonails crossed to ward off the devil. Huck runs to Judge Thatcher, looking overhis shoulder as he does. He sells his fortune to the surprised Judge for adollar. That night Huck goes to Jim, who has a magical giant hairball from anox's stomach. Huck tells Jim he found Pap's tracks in the snow and wants toknow what his father wants. Jim says the hairball needs money to talk, and soHuck gives a counterfeit quarter. Jim puts his ear to the hairball, and relatesthat Huck's father has two angels, one black and one white, one bad, one good.It is uncertain which will win out. But Huck is safe for now. He will have muchhappiness and much sorrow in his life, will marry a poor and then a rich woman,and should stay clear of the water, since that is where he will die. Thatnight, Huck finds Pap waiting in his bedroom!

Pap's long, greasy, black hair hangs over his face. The nearlyfifty-year-old man's skin is a ghastly, disgusting white. Noticing Huck's«starchy» clothes, Pap wonders aloud if he thinks himself better thanhis father, promising to take him «down a peg.» Pap promises to teachWidow Douglas not to «meddle» and make a boy «put on airs overhis own father.» Pap is outraged that Huck has become the first person inhis family to learn to read. He threatens Huck not to go near the school again.He asks Huck if he is really rich, as he has heard, and calls him a liar whenhe says he has no more money.

He takes the dollar Huck got from Judge Thatcher. He leaves to getwhiskey, and the next day, drunk, demands Huck's money from Judge Thatcher. TheJudge and Widow Douglas try to get custody of Huck, but give up after the newjudge in town refuses to separate a father from his son. Pap lands in jailafter a drunken spree. The new judge takes Pap into his home and tries toreform him. Pap tearfully repents his ways but soon gets drunk again. The newjudge decides Pap cannot be reformed except with a shotgun.

Pap sues Judge Thatcher for Huck's fortune. He also continues tothreaten Huck about attending school, which Huck does partly to spite hisfather. Pap goes on one drunken binge after another. One day he kidnaps Huckand takes him deep into the woods, to a secluded cabin on the Illinois shore.He locks Huck inside all day while he goes out. Huck enjoys being away fromcivilization again, though he does not like his father's beatings and hisdrinking. Eventually, Huck finds an old saw hidden away. He slowly makes a holein the wall while his father is away, resolved to escape from both Pap and theWidow Douglas. But Pap returns as Huck is about to finish. He complains aboutthe «govment,» saying Judge Thatcher has delayed the trial to preventPap from getting Huck's wealth. He has heard his chances are good, though hewill probably lose the fight for custody of Huck. He further rails against abiracial black visitor to the town. The visitor is well dressed, university-educated, and not at all deferential. Pap is disgusted that the visitor canvote in his home state, and that legally he cannot be sold into slavery untilhe has been in the state six months. Later, Pap wakes from a drunken sleep andchases after Huck with a knife, calling him the «Angel of Death,»stopping when he collapses in sleep. Huck holds the ri e against his sleepingfather and waits.

Chapters 7-10 Summary

Huck falls asleep, to be awakened by Pap, who is unaware of the night'sevents. Pap sends Huck out to check for fish. Huck finds a canoe drifting inthe river and hides it in the woods. When Pap leaves for the day, Huck finishessawing his way out of the cabin. He puts food, cookware, everything of value inthe cabin, into the canoe. He covers up the hole in the wall and then shoots awild pig. He hacks down the cabin door, hacks the pig to bleed onto the cabin'sdirt oor, and makes other preparations so that it seems robbers came and killedhim. Huck goes to the canoe and waits for the moon to rise, resolving to canoeto Jackson's Island, but falls asleep. When he wakes he sees Pap row by. Once hehas passed, Huck quietly sets out down river. He pulls into Jackson's Island,careful not to be seen.

The next morning in Chapter Eight, a boat passes by with Pap, Judge andBecky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, his Aunt Polly, some of Huck's young friends, and«plenty more» on board, all discussing the murder. They shoot cannonover the water and oat loaves of bread with mercury inside, in hopes oflocating Huck's corpse. Huck, careful not to be seen, catches a loaf and eatsit.

Exploring the island, Huck is delighted to find Jim, who at first thinksHuck is a ghost. Now Huck won't be lonely anymore. Huck is shocked when Jimexplains he ran away. Jim overheard Miss Watson discussing selling him foreight hundred dollars, to a slave trader who would take him to New Orleans. Heleft before she had a chance to decide. Jim displays a great knowledge ofsuperstition. He tells Huck how he once «speculated» ten dollars in(live)stock, but lost most of it when the steer died. He then lost five dollarsin a failed slave start-up bank. He gave his last ten cents to a slave, whogave it away after a preacher told him that charity repays itselfone-hundred-fold. It didn't. But Jim still has his hairy arms and chest, aportent of future wealth. He also now owns all eight-hundred- dollars' worth ofhimself.

In Chapter Nine, Jim and Huck take the canoe and provisions into thelarge cavern in the middle of the island, to have a hiding place in case ofvisitors, and to protect their things. Jim predicted it would rain, and soon itdownpours, with the two safely inside the cavern. The river oods severely.

A washed-out houseboat oats downthe river past the island. Jim and Huck find a man's body inside, shot in theback. Jim prevents Huck from looking at the face; it's too «ghastly.»They make off with some odds and ends. Huck has Jim hide in the bottom of thecanoe so he won't be seen. They make it back safely to the cave.

In Chapter Ten, Huck wonders about the dead man, though Jim warns it'sbad luck. Sure enough, bad luck comes: as a joke, Huck puts a dead rattlesnakenear Jim's sleeping place, and its mate comes and bites Jim. Jim's leg swells,but after four days it goes down. A while later, Huck decides to go ashore andto find out what's new. Jim agrees, but has Huck disguise himself as a girl,with one of the dresses they took from the houseboat.

Huck practices his girl impersonation, then sets out for the Illinoisshore. In a formerly abandoned shack, he finds a woman who looks forty, andalso appears a newcomer. Huck is relieved she is a newcomer, since she will notbe able to recognize him.

Chapters 11-13 Summary

The woman eyes Huckleberry somewhat suspiciously as she lets him in.Huck introduces himself as «Sarah Williams,» from Hookerville. Thewoman «clatters on,» eventually getting to Huck's murder. She revealsthat Pap was suspected and nearly lynched, but people came to suspect Jim,since he ran away the same day Huck was killed. There is a three-hundred-dollar price on Jim's head. But soon, suspicions turned again to Pap, afterhe blew money the judge gave him to find Jim on drink. But he left town beforehe could be lynched, and now there is two hundred dollars on his head. Thewoman has noticed smoke over on Jackson's Island, and, suspecting that Jimmight be hiding there, told her husband to look. He will go there tonight withanother man and a gun. The woman looks at Huck suspiciously and asks his name.

He replies, «Mary Williams.» When the woman asks about thechange, he covers himself, saying his full name is «Sarah MaryWilliams.» She has him try to kill a rat by pitching a lump of lead at it,and he nearly hits. Finally, she asks him to reveal his (male) identity, sayingshe understands that he is a runaway apprentice and will not turn him in. Hesays his name is George Peters, and he was indeed apprenticed to a mean farmer.She lets him go after quizzing him on farm subjects, to make sure he's tellingthe truth. She tells him to send for her, Mrs. Judith Loftus, if he hastrouble. Back at the island, Huck tells Jim they must shove off, and theyhurriedly pack their things and slowly ride out on a raft they had found.

Huck and Jim build a wigwam on the raft in Chapter Twelve. They spend anumber of days drifting down river, passing the great lights of St. Louis onthe fifth night. They «lived pretty high,» buying,«borrowing», or hunting food as they need it. One night they comeupon a wreaked steamship. Over Jim's objections, Huck goes onto the wreck, toloot it and have an «adventure,» the way Tom Sawyer would. On the wreck,Huck overhears two robbers threatening to kill a third so that he won't«talk.»

One of the two manages to convince the other to let their victim bedrowned with the wreck. They leave. Huck finds Jim and says they have to cutthe robbers' boat loose so they can't escape. Jim says that their own raft hasbroken loose and oated away. Huck and Jim head for the robbers' boat in ChapterThirteen. The robbers put some booty in the boat, but leave to get some moremoney off the man on the steamboat. Jim and Huck jump right into the boat andhead off as quietly as possible. A few hundred yards safely away, Huck feelsbad for the robbers left stranded on the wreck since, who knows, he may end upa robber himself someday. They find their raft just before they stop for Huckto go ashore for help. Ashore, Huck finds a ferry watchman, and tells him hisfamily is stranded on the steamboat wreck. The watchman tell him the wreck isof the Walter Scott. Huck invents an elaborate story as to how his family goton the wreck, including the niece of a local big shot among them, so that theman is more than happy to take his ferry to help. Huck feels good about hisgood deed, and thinks Widow Douglas would have been proud of him. Jim and Huckturn into an island, and sink the robbers' boat before going to bed.

Chapters 14-16 Summary

Jim and Huck find a number of valuables among the robbers' booty inChapter Fourteen, mostly trinkets and cigars. Jim says he doesn't enjoy Huck's«adventures,» since they risk his getting caught. Huck recognizesthat Jim is intelligent, at least for what Huck thinks of a black person. Huckastonishes Jim with his stories of kings. Jim had only heard of King Solomon,whom he considers a fool for wanting to chop a baby in half. Huck cannotconvince Jim otherwise. Huck also tells Jim about the «dolphin,» sonof the executed King Louis XVI of France, rumored to be wandering America. Jimis incredulous when Huck explains that the French do not speak English, butanother language. Huck tries to argue the point with Jim, but gives up indefeat.

Huck and Jim are nearing the Ohio River, their goal, in Chapter Fifteen.But one densely foggy night, Huck, in the canoe, gets separated from Jim andthe raft. He tries to paddle back to it, but the fog is so thick he loses allsense of direction. After a lonely time adrift, Huck is reunited with Jim, whois asleep on the raft. Jim is thrilled to see Huck alive. But Huck tries totrick Jim, pretending he dreamed their entire separation. Jim tells Huck thestory of his dream, making the fog and the troubles he faced on the raft intoan allegory of their journey to the free states. But soon Jim notices all thedebris, dirt and tree branches, that collected on the raft while it was adrift.

He gets mad at Huck for making a fool of him after he had worried abouthim so much. «It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to goand humble myself to a nigger,» but Huck apologizes, and does not regretit. He feels bad about hurting Jim. Jim and Huck hope they don't miss Cairo,the town at the mouth of the Ohio River, which runs into the free states.Meanwhile, Huck's conscience troubles him deeply about helping Jim escape fromhis «rightful owner,» Miss Watson, especially after her considerationfor Huck. Jim can't stop talking about going to the free states, especiallyabout his plan to earn money to buy his wife and children's freedom, or havesome abolitionists kidnap them if their masters refuse. When they think theysee Cairo, Jim goes out on the canoe to check, secretly resolved to give Jimup. But his heart softens when he hears Jim call out that he is his onlyfriend, the only one to keep a promise to him. Huck comes upon some men in aboat who want to search his raft for escaped slaves. Huck pretends to be grateful,saying no one else would help them. He leads them to believe his family, onboard the raft, has smallpox. The men back away, telling Huck to go furtherdownstream and lie about his family's condition to get help. They leave fortydollars in gold out of pity. Huck feels bad for having done wrong by not givingJim up.

But he realizes that he would have felt just as bad if he had given Jimup. Since good and bad seem to have the same results, Huck resolves todisregard morality in the future and do what's «handiest.» Floatingalong, they pass several towns that are not Cairo, and worry that they passedit in the fog. They stop for the night, and resolve to take the canoe upriver,but in the morning it is gone{ more bad luck from the rattlesnake. Later, a steamboatdrives right into the raft, breaking it apart. Jim and Huck dive off in time,but are separated. Huck makes it ashore, but is caught by a pack of dogs.

Chapters 17-19 Summary

A man finds Huck in Chapter Seventeen and calls off the dogs. Huck introduceshimself as George Jackson. The man brings «George» home, where he iseyed cautiously as a possible member of the Sheperdson family. But they

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