The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

What motivates Huck to leave St. Petersburg, and how do those motivations change as he travels?

How does Huck complicate Jim’s flight to freedom? What practical and emotional reasons does Jim have to stay with Huck and Tom despite these complications?

Describe how critical push-back from Jim forces Huck to reconsider his ethical behavior. Given the ending, do you think those ethical changes are permanent or meaningful?

In the “civilized” world, identities are fixed in devotion to principal, often fatally. What becomes of identity in the “uncivilized” world?

What is Huck’s role in the battle between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords? How does his role as an observer in that conflict transform both the conflict and Huck himself?

How are Huck and the king and the duke alike? What are their crucial differences, and how are those differences forced to the front of the narrative?

In the epigram to his narrative, Twain writes, “persons attempting to find a moral in [this narrative] will be banished.” Why include this warning at the front of a story that complicates and interrogates the institution of slavery?

Describe in your own words the consequences of “praying a lie” for Huck, particularly in regard to the question of Jim’s freedom. How does this lie manifest in the real world?